Bears WR Collin Johnson became a fan favorite during and after the Hall of Fame game

While the NFL preseason is a mostly boring ritual for fans and locked-in starters, it is a critical time for many players. Rookies and veterans fighting for a job must make the absolute most of the precious few snaps they get and hope they do enough to earn a spot on the 53-man roster.

No one from the Chicago Bears put a better foot forward in the 2024 Hall of Fame game against the Houston Texans than wide receiver Collin Johnson. He finished with 56 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just three catches and would have had even more if one of his acrobatic catches wasn’t ruled incomplete following a challenge.

By the time the game was called off in the third quarter due to thunderstorms sweeping the area, Bears fans everywhere were projecting Johnson to be WR5 or WR6 once the roster is finalized.

There’s no surprise there. It’s fun to root for players when they put on a show, but it’s even more fun to root for them when they share their underdog story. As his postgame press conference concluded, Johnson asked reporters to give him a chance to say one more thing. Below are his remarks.

Here’s the clip from the @ChicagoBears. You can definitely hear him getting choked up. pic.twitter.com/NWwbkc4qh0

— Brendan Sugrue (@BrendanSugrue) August 2, 2024

If anyone wasn’t rooting for the kid before, they are now. Johnson has been battling injuries even as far back as his high school days at Valley Christian and hadn’t recorded a touchdown in four years, making Thursday night’s two-touchdown performance a special one. I can’t guarantee he’ll make the Chicago Bears final roster, but I’m glad that he’ll at least always have his incredible 2024 Hall of Fame game to remember.