There is no bigger disappointment for the Chicago Bears this season than cornerback Jaylon Johnson. The team came into 2026 fully expecting him to resume his place as one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks. Instead, what they’ve seen is a player who looks like a shell of his former self. Through 5 games, Johnson has allowed 15 catches on 18 targets for 248 yards. Both are on pace to be the worst of his career by miles. Quarterbacks have a 118.7 passer rating in coverage. Sunday’s loss in Green Bay was one of the ugliest he’s had in a long time.
Despite still only being 27 years old, Johnson has been routinely beaten by opposing wide receivers. His ability to stick to guys has disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the Bears are paying the price for that steep and sudden decline. People are left wondering what in the world happened. Players his age shouldn’t fall off so fast. Bears fans have a theory. It has nothing to do with a change in his training methods or defensive scheme. This is a simple case of Johnson no longer watching porn.
Yes, really.
Jaylon Johnson was better as a sex addict.
That is what everybody is saying. Of course, it sounds crazy, but the timelines are at least interesting. Johnson admitted in the spring of 2024 that he had undergone therapy for sex addiction. He worried that such a lifestyle would be harmful to both himself and his relationship with his children. The treatments worked. He became far more comfortable with who he was as a person. That made it easier for him to sleep at night. No doubt it would also help him become a better football player.
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Not based on the numbers. In his first four seasons, Jaylon Johnson allowed 57.5% of passes completed in his direction for a 90.7 passer rating. In the past two and a half years since he received his treatment, those numbers have ballooned to 70.8% and a 99.3 rating, respectively. He went from one of the five best cornerbacks in the league to probably not even the best on his team. Johnson isn’t even a steady presence. He has become an outright liability.
There is a more believable theory.
It is that the injuries Johnson suffered last season were far more debilitating than he or anyone else let on. He suffered what was called a tearing of the adductor muscle off the pelvic bone. It is the worst possible type of groin injury. It takes months to heal, and even then, there are significant long-term risks. The big issue with such an injury is that it causes a tendon to lose some elasticity. The muscle can no longer snap back with the same instantaneous force. That lack of “spring” translates to a microscopic delay when a cornerback tries to match a sudden change of direction or put on a burst of speed.
Remember, Johnson only had 4.5 speed when he got to the NFL. Losing even half a step for any reason threatened to make him far less effective. That injury was catastrophic for a cornerback like him, who doesn’t have the speed to spare. The same thing happened to Adam “Pacman” Jones in 2017. He only managed to play 7 more games in his career after that. Morris Claiborne went through it in 2016. He played three more seasons but retired before turning 30.
Everything that has gone wrong for Johnson started with that injury last summer.
