Bears News: Ben Johnson breaks down defensive progress in minicamp

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 6 hours ago

CHICAGO - Throughout Chicago’s minicamp, their defense has typically gotten the better of the offense. This is not necessarily surprising given the new pieces on offense.

However, on the second day of minicamp, quarterback Caleb Williams led the offense on a 94-yard touchdown drive with a little over a minute left and no timeouts.

“The defense has gotten the better of the offense more often than not in all those two-minute whether it’s end-of-half or end-of-game. So, it was good to see the offense stack a few plays together. That’s a very tough situation. I think it was 90 plus yards and under a minute with no timeouts and so, it was cool to see them stack some plays,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “When the lights are bright, (Caleb is) going to show up and it felt like the game slowed down a little for him and he was able to just go out and find an open guy and get a completion. So, that was good to see. There might have been some sacks mixed in there, so it was a little bit more slanted to the offense, but in terms of the drill and the situations that came up, I thought it was really good learning for everybody.”

Defensively, it was good to see safety Jaquan Brisker back in action. After sustaining a concussion against the Carolina Panthers in week five of last season, he spent the remainder of the year in concussion protocol. That does not seem to be hampering his progress in minicamp thus far.

Playing against him for multiple years when Ben Johnson was with the Detroit Lions, he knows what kind of difference Brisker makes when he is on the field.

“He was a guy that you had to earmark and just make sure you knew where he was when you game plan against him because he was very active, particularly in the run game. He liked to come down and fill in the box and played like a linebacker that happened to be a defensive back and not afraid to hit you,” Johnson said. “So, we always told the receivers that they had to make sure they accounted for him and so, can’t see that right now without the pads. But, you can certainly see an active player that he’s excited. He’s passionate about the game and he loves playing football. He likes to talk a little bit too, which I appreciate.”

Another player that always has to be accounted for is cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. While many people may remember him for his horrible actions on the hail mary against the Washington Commanders, he has shown how talented a player he can be at other times throughout his young career.

Johnson stated Stevenson fits the mold of what he is looking for in a cornerback this season.

“What we love about him is he’s got some length and he’s not afraid, which I think those are two things that you really need to play corner, particularly the style of corner that we’re looking for. Guys that’ll come up, they’ll challenge, they’ll get hands-on. Press man-to-man is something that we’re going to do a healthy amount of and we feel like he fits that mold really well and so, once again, he’s learning the scheme,” Johnson said. “There’s some different things that (defensive coordinator Dennis Allen) and (defensive backs coach) Al Harris and the rest of the crew are asking of him. But, he’s been very receptive so far and he’s a young, hungry player just like a lot of these players.”

There was a lot of talk last season about defensive lineman Gervon Dexter making the sophomore leap last season. After the first five games where he had four sacks, 10 quarterback hits and three tackles for loss, Dexter seemed to be on track to have a strong sophomore season. However, his numbers declined after Chicago’s win against Carolina. In the remaining 10 games he played in last season, he only had one sack and one tackle for loss.

Nonetheless, he was someone who stood out to Johnson last season, having to play against Dexter.

Thus, Johnson has a lot of confidence in Dexter and the rest of the defensive line unit going into this season.

“He was a guy that really came on last year. You could feel it. With Billings being out last year, could feel him grow into just a little bit more of, ‘Hey, I need to step up here’ and you could see it. You could see it on the tape. There was growth. There’s more production, particularly in the pass rush game and I think what we’ve seen here from the d-line room as a whole, we’ve seen a lot of guys that are pushing. They’re growing,” Johnson said. “I like to spend a lot of time down there during individual because it’s not just great work, technique work they’re getting. But, they’re coaching each other up along the way as well. So, we got a great cohesive unit and then when we get the pads on, it’s going to be a really healthy competition as well.”

The first opportunity fans will really get to see what Ben Johnson’s offense and Deenis Allen’s defense look like will be in Chicago’s first preseason game on Sunday Aug. 10, against the Miami Dolphins (Noon / FOX).

They will open the regular season in primetime against the Minnesota Vikings on Mon. Sept. 8 (7:15 p.m. / ABC).