Jaylon Johnson Grade

How do you separate JJ's improved performance in INTs a tribute to his skill and effort vs changes in defensive personnel overall as well as scheme changes?  IMO it is both a fair as well as legitimate question.

When you look at some of the defensive stats (like sacks, ints, etc) on a game by game basis, something seems totally obvious (at least it's obvious to me).  This is the differences in games played prior to trading for Montez Sweat and games played after he started playing for us.  So, it is kind of the story of two "mini seasons", if you will.

In the first 8 games of the season (pre-Sweat), our entire defense had 6 ints and 10 sacks.  In the next 5 games (post-Sweat), the defense had 9 ints and 11 sacks!! IMO, this is an example of the much discussed Montez Sweat "multiplier effect".  We are getting much better defensive backfield play (ints, reduced opponent QBR, etc) as well as DL play (sacks) with the 2nd "mini season" being a little over half the number of games as the 1st "mini season" with the 2nd (smaller) part producing significantly better stats.

My source for the stats shown above is the Pro Football Reference site (2023 game logs for the Bears).  I don't have access to any free site that give me game logs with advanced stats, including QB hits, QB hurries, QB knockdowns.  But I assume that all of the more advanced defensive stats have been affected in much the same way.

As much as I want to believe this tweet by MJ Hurley that there is a tentative agreement between JJ and the Bears, the consensus on social media seems to be it is bogus.

So, I guess we need to wait it out a bit.  

He's always been this talented. Just that since we got a defensive lineman. His value improves greatly since QB's don't have as much time in the pocket as before. Poles screwed this one up badly. Should of already paid him.