Bears CB Jaylon Johnson returns to practice Friday

Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson will return to practice Friday, opening up a 21-day window in which the Bears must elevate him from injured reserve to the active roster or lose him for the rest of the year.

He won’t play Sunday against the Vikings and likely needs a few weeks to ramp up after having surgery to repair the groin muscle he tore Week 2 against the Lions. The Bears play the Steelers next week, the Eagles on Nov. 28 and then the Packers on Dec. 7.

The Bears will be careful with Johnson, who missed all of training camp with an injury to a different part of his groin. Coach Ben Johnson said Friday that Johnson was eager to return.

“This year has not gone the way he really envisioned it,” the coach said. “You come in and it happens during the summer, the initial [injury] and you miss training camp, and then you’re hopeful you’re back to where you were before. And you get hurt in the first game back.

“I think he really wants to be out there, and so he’s worked his tail off to get to this point. And it’s on us as coaches to put him in a good spot here, going forward, to get him ready to compete here in the rest of the year.”

Johnson’s return would boost a cornerbacks room ravaged by injury this year. Kyler Gordon remains on IR with a hamstring injury, though the Bears believe he’ll return this season, and Terell Smith was lost for the year with a preseason knee injury.

Coach Ben Johnson said he’s looking forward to getting Johnson, Gordon and linebacker T.J. Edwards — who has a hamstring issue and a broken hand — back.

“Those are three guys going into the season you had a lot of high hopes for and what they could do,” he said. “I certainly had a tremendous amount of respect for all three of those guys competing against them the last few years. I’ll be excited when we get all three back on the field together.”

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