Chicago Bears star cornerback Jaylon Johnson is getting healthier from groin and calf injuries that kept him out of the season opener, and said he expects to play on Sunday against the Lions and Detroit.
The Bears' top cornerback said the plan was not for him to play in the opener against the Vikings, despite going through pregame warmups on Monday.
After missing all of training camp with a groin injury, Johnson said the extra week of reps and conditioning has him feeling "pretty good" about playing this week.
"Really just getting up to speed on the playbook, being able to do walkthroughs, things like that. It's really beneficial for me. So all those reps are important," he said.
Johnson said, if he had to play on Thursday, he felt he'd be ready to go.
Fellow cornerback Kyler Gordon and Grady Jarrett didn't practice, but linebacker TJ Edwards, who missed all of practice last week and sat out the loss against the Vikings, was a limited participant the past two days, signaling at least some improvement in his hamstring injury.
Wide receiver DJ Moore also seems to be good to go, despite the vicious shot he took late in Monday's game. He said it felt like he got hit by a car. Despite that, Moore came right back into the game like he seemingly always does.
"Durability; I mean, you got to just shake it off. Sometimes it's just mental, and you can just go out there and grimace through it. Other times, it could serious, but I never let the other team know that," he said.
Moore said he feels like he and quarterback Caleb Williams are on the same page, despite a key missed connection for a potential touchdown late in the 4th quarter on Monday. Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said it's a play the whole offense can learn from.
One of the things that head coach Ben Johnson said he wants to do in Week 2 in Detroit is call more running plays than he did against the Vikings.
Williams was the team's leading rusher on Monday night, so getting running backs D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai more involved will be key.
"Swift is more than willing to drop his pads and go get the yardage necessary. It's something that it can happen throughout the game, and we expect it to happen throughout the game," Doyle said. "Can't say enough about him, as a person, just being around him every day, and I think he's a guy that you can count on in adverse scenarios where we need somebody to step up and go do it."
Swift knows the importance of establishing the run early, and what it can do for the flow of the offense.
"We need it. That's the type of energy we need, especially offensively, when it's kind of stagnant. We need to get some of those types of runs going and that type of energy early on in the game," he said. "We need to do a better job of playing complementary football. The defense was kind of bringing that energy throughout the game, and we've just got to do a better job offensively of just feeding off of that."
Matt Zahn
Matt Zahn joined CBS2 Chicago in October 2016 as a sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor, and what a time to come to Chicago. Matt arrived just as the Cubs won the World Series.