Bears CB Jaylon Johnson defends play — and playing time

Two days after defensive coordinator Alan Williams said he couldn’t say for sure whether he could trust any of his cornerbacks, Jaylon Johnson defended his play — and his playing time.

Williams said Sunday that he couldn’t make such a declaration because none of his cornerbacks, by design, had played a full game in the Bears’ new defense yet. He hinted that Johnson was the obvious choice as the one he trusted the most.

Johnson played 16 snaps in the preseason opener and, in a sign that the Bears have few concerns about him, six Thursday against the Seahawks.

Johnson sounded confused at first when told of Williams’ comments.

“There ain’t nothing I can do about the number of snaps I get,” Johnson said. “I feel like there haven’t been times where I had an opportunity and I didn’t show up. So I mean, maybe I’m not even having enough snaps to even prove that? I dunno.”

He playfully said he’d look into it.

“I gotta figure out what he doesn’t trust me with and figure out a way to gain that trust,” he said, drawing laughter. “I don’t know too much about that. That’s news to me.”

Montgomery a maybe

David Montgomery wants to play in the preseason finale against the Browns, and Eberflus wouldn’t rule it out.

“We’ll see where he is,” he said. “If he’s working and he feels good, then we’ll reassess later in the week. But we feel good about where he is right now.”

Montgomery has yet to play a preseason game because of an undisclosed injury, though Eberflus said the Bears were knew they needed to “be smart” about him getting hit unnecessarily at the start of a long season.

Sunday, Montgomery said he finds value in exhibition games.

“Just getting hit and just actually getting tackled, seeing different looks, kind of getting the pace of the game. It’s completely different from practice,” he said. “So just being able to get live looks and get hit is really the main thing for me.”

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