Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson was leaving Halas Hall on Monday afternoon when he caught wind of the staggering information. Linebacker and crew captain Roquan Smith had been traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Johnson froze.
His immediate response?
“WTF,” he mentioned.
For the second consecutive week the Bears had dealt away a revered crew chief, playmaker and well-liked teammate. Smith’s exit, 5 days after defensive finish Robert Quinn was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, felt like an uppercut to the jaw after a Week 7 punch to the intestine.
“You can be good one day and the next day it can be harder on you,” Johnson mentioned. “There’s really no clear-cut way to process the loss.”
By Wednesday morning, the emotional dip for Bears gamers was simple. Safety Eddie Jackson, who was promoted to take Quinn’s captain function final weekend, got here to the crew’s walk-through and was stunned by the silence.
Wow, Jackson mentioned to himself.
“You could hear a pin drop,” he added.
Smith’s absence was apparent. So, too, was the heaviness lots of the Bears had been feeling. Eventually, Jackson determined to talk up, gathering the protection for a fast pep discuss.
“I went there like, ‘Come on, man. Let’s go!’” Jackson mentioned. “‘I know this is sad. I know you’re feeling it right now. But now it’s time to rally around each other. Now it’s time to be grown men.’”
The Bears nonetheless have greater than half of a season to complete and a recreation to play this week, welcoming the 5-3 Miami Dolphins to Soldier Field on Sunday. That’ll be the primary of 9 remaining contests for a crew whose GPS has all of a sudden been jostled.
Recalculating. Recalculating.
That’s what among the discouragement and confusion at Halas Hall has been about this week.
“The thoughts go through your head like, ‘What are we playing for?’ ” Jackson mentioned. “Is their vision (in the front office) still the same as the players? We’re trying to make it to a Super Bowl, get to the playoffs, things like that. Like I said, I’m not upstairs. I get it. I understand it. But it just hits different.”
It has additionally hit in a different way due to how well-liked Quinn and Smith had been, veteran leaders who had very other ways of connecting with teammates. Both gamers introduced a definite vitality to the group and enhanced camaraderie for a crew that has been absolutely invested in making an attempt to construct itself right into a champion.
The sudden disappearance of the 2 standouts felt miserable.
“Especially for the young guys, they’re looking at us like, ‘Yo, is this normal? Did this really happen?’ ” Jackson mentioned. “But this is the type of stuff that goes on. You just have to rally around each other and the older guys have to step up.”
Now coach Matt Eberflus — and to a lesser extent Ryan Poles — should swap into troubleshooting mode. As a lot as they’ve been energized by buying draft capital in trade for Smith and Quinn after which including receiver Chase Claypool to the offense by way of one other commerce with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Eberflus and Poles perceive efforts have to be made to retain buy-in from their gamers and preserve the belief degree robust inside these relationships.
To that finish, Eberflus convened a session together with his 13-player management council Monday and defined the Bears’ big-picture push to solidify the roster in addition to the enterprise causes that led to Smith’s exit.
“It’s just transparency,” Eberflus mentioned. “I think that’s important. You just communicate. Look each other in the eye, tell the truth and communicate. That’s what we do with all the guys. I think they appreciate that. It’s right there on the table. Set it up there and talk about it.”
Poles additionally reached out to a handful of gamers to relay his thought processes on making the offers and acknowledging the struggling it causes.
“It’s not fantasy football when we’re just plugging out names and moving them around,” he mentioned. “It’s deeper than that.”
Still, all of the direct communication and reassurance on the earth received’t assist the Bears on recreation days over the subsequent two months as a lot as Smith and Quinn would have. After giving up 442 yards and 49 factors to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, the Bears now should discover solutions to decelerate a harmful Dolphins offense that has topped 450 yards 3 times this season and has scored 20 touchdowns.
That isn’t misplaced on Johnson, who has the accountability of serving to decelerate standout receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle this weekend. Both gamers rank within the high 5 within the league in receiving yards with 961 and 727, respectively.
That’s why when Johnson was requested Wednesday afternoon how he’s working to maneuver previous his “WTF” emotions, he simply smiled. “I’ve got the No. 1 and No. 4 wide receiver (to worry about),” he mentioned. “I love Roquan. But I’ve got some dogs coming to town. My mind went from that (trade) situation to now, ‘What I can do to do my job better? What plays can I make?’ ”
The worry is the Bears as a bunch received’t have the ability to make almost sufficient performs over the subsequent two months to remain aggressive towards a string of high quality opponents. Of the Bears’ ultimate 9 video games, six are towards groups presently contained in the playoff image.
The prospect of a double-digit-loss season was all the time actual however now appears inevitable. And if expertise deficits result in one other prolonged dropping streak, at what level would possibly the focus and emotional funding of gamers lapse, reversing among the culture-building progress the Bears made through the summer time and thru the primary two months?
Poles was requested Tuesday if he could be extra forgiving if, within the absence of Quinn and Smith, the Bears protection regresses as anticipated. He harassed how he hopes gamers see the adjustments as an opportunity to step up relatively than an excuse for the group to take a step again.
The common supervisor is banking on his leaders — gamers equivalent to Jackson, Johnson and defensive finish Justin Jones plus Justin Fields, David Montgomery, Cole Kmet and Darnell Mooney on offense — to point out their teammates and the NFL world what’s of their DNA.
Poles sees aggressive tenacity inside this crew that he is aware of may be gas to push them by.
“Do these shake-ups shake that up and make it stressful at times?” he mentioned “Absolutely. I get that. But what I love about this staff is they’re competitive. This locker room is competitive. … I don’t think anyone who has watched our games, any single one of them — even the ones we don’t win or struggle in — doesn’t see the effort, the competition, the fire. Everything we stand for is out on the field.”
It’s as much as Bears gamers and coaches to once more put that out on the sphere Sunday after which once more in eight extra video games past that. The problem will likely be important. And the Bears’ response will likely be pivotal to retaining course.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com