Jaquan Brisker has been cleared to play football again, and for a little while now. And it’s clear from his (frequent) social media posts that he’s, well, excited about it.

General manager Ryan Poles only needs to check his messages to see that’s the case.

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“He’s fired up,” Poles said last week at the NFL owners meetings. “We text all the time about draft stuff. He wants to win and he wants to be successful.”

The fourth-year veteran is surely pitching fellow Penn State product Tyler Warren, a top-tier tight end expected to be a top 10 NFL draft pick.

That’s another sign of how excited he is to return and be part of Ben Johnson’s first season as Bears head coach.

Brisker dealt with a long layoff after suffering a concussion in a Week 5 victory over Carolina and never played again in 2024. He was in the concussion protocol for a long, long time following his third concussion in as many NFL seasons. He says he left it a while ago now.

Brisker’s clearly ready to return to football and reported with his teammates on Monday to start the offseason program. He doesn’t plan to change his style of play despite his injury history.

“I expect him to be himself,” Poles said. “He’s going to play his style of football. I talked about it before. Even that concussion that he had, it’s unfortunate because I saw a guy doing it the way that you’re supposed to protect his head. So, I think that was kind of an outlier.”

Brisker said he won’t play scared when he returns to football action.

“It really doesn’t concern me at all, especially talking with my doctors,” Brisker said in an interview with the Casino Beats website. “Asking different questions, seeing how healthy my brain is. Everything went well. I got every answer that I needed.”

Brisker said he will make some slight adjustments to try and stay healthy.

“What am I going to do different?” Brisker said. “I’m gonna change up my game just a little bit. I mean, I’m still gonna hit people. They’re still gonna get it, but I’m not gonna go too crazy. Yeah, I’ll say it like that. I’m gonna adjust my game, but if you really look at my game, that was like the only hit I ever had that gave me a concussion. So I’m gonna play cleaner, but people are still gonna get hit.”

The Bears are expected to start Brisker and veteran Kevin Byard III at safety, with Elijah Hicks and Jonathan Owens as the primary reserves. There was a clear drop-off when Brisker left, considering he’s such a game changer. As someone who schemed against him twice per year as Detroit Lions offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson believes he can be even better if he fixes some flaws.

“I’ll say this having competed against him for the last few years,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that you’ve got to know where he is. You’ve got to account for him. He likes to play down in the box. He likes to get involved. The one thing that I always thought that we could take advantage of was you could get him to have some bad eyes at times. So that’s the one thing we’ll talk about, is to make sure he stays sound and he’s playing disciplined football. But he’s got a great skill set. I think he’s a heck of a football player.”

Brisker agrees. He thinks he can rate among the NFL’s best if he can stay healthy. That remains a big if. That’s one reason why safety could be considered a need heading into the NFL draft.

Byard is 31 years old and is in the final year of his contract, though the two-time All-Pro is still playing at a high level. Brisker’s also in a contract year, though a solid season could put him in line for a lucrative contract extension. Hicks and Owens are also entering contract years, providing long-term uncertainty at the position.

That’s why Poles conceded the possibility that they’ll add a young safety on a rookie contract.

“That safety position stuff, especially when you play a physical brand of football, which he does, so you’re always going to want depth,” Poles said. “(That’s true of) really at any position, but it’s definitely something that we do have to consider.”

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