Former Vandals receiver Curtis Johnson means business with Chicago Bears

The tip comes directly from a knowledgeable source. Be there promptly, Saints coach Sean Payton advises, the instant the first open session of organized team activities begins. In the quest to learn more about new Bears receivers coach Curtis Johnson, that’s the only way to start.

“I’m serious,” Payton reiterates. “At the very beginning of that very first OTA, when the very first horn blows, you need to be there and see it. It’ll tell you all you need to know.”

Payton could talk forever about Johnson, who played college football at Idaho. The 54-year-old perfectionist has a drill-sergeant teaching style that players sometimes hate until they grow to love the results.

Payton could easily detail the six seasons he and Johnson spent together in New Orleans from 2006-11, a stretch during which the Saints notched a league-best 291 passing yards per game.

But it’s better, Payton believes, to witness Johnson’s methods firsthand. So here on the Halas Hall practice fields, on a Wednesday morning in late May, Johnson is already in a crouch with his intense stare burning the grass. He’s locked in on his receivers’ footwork and body positioning as they work through a drill catching back-shoulder throws.

Johnson commends undrafted rookie Darrin Peterson for a precise rep, then reprimands Marc Mariani for not getting his head around quickly enough.

Moments later, as receivers trace a backward “N” pattern around cones, Johnson bristles at the lack of urgency in Kevin White’s break, sending the 23-year-old back to do it right.

“This dude has a lot of emotion,” White says. “His whole thing is he’s not going to let his guys be average.”

Make no mistake, this urgency is significant for the 2016 Bears. Johnson’s arrival, after a four-season stint as Tulane’s head coach, puts him in a rare position of power. If the Bears truly are going to become a playoff contender again, two of their most pivotal players will evolve under Johnson’s watch.

White, sidelined for all of 2015 after leg surgery, still is working toward his NFL debut. Alshon Jeffery, meanwhile, is likely to play this fall under the franchise tag, entering what could be a watershed season.

The Bears understand the stakes. And so internally at Halas Hall, they have been celebrating Johnson’s arrival since February, convinced his hiring was as important as any of the free agent signings they made.

Johnson’s detailed nature, the Bears believe, should create an instant connection with the always eager-to-learn White. And, well, if it’s toughness general manager Ryan Pace and coach John Fox truly want to emphasize with Jeffery, Johnson’s presence should provide the perfect litmus test.

Says Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk: “I can’t wait to see what Alshon Jeffery is turned into working under C.J. I truly can’t wait.”

Johnson recruited Faulk, now an analyst at NFL Network, to San Diego State in the early 1990s. So his perspective carries credibility.

“If Alshon is a competitor and he’s into working hard,” Faulk says, “he’ll be OK. But if the knocks on him are true, then this is going to be the worst thing ever for him.”

‘Good kind of crazy’

When the Bears’ three-day mini-camp begins, Jeffery is expected to begin his on-field work with Johnson, returning to Halas Hall after missing the entirety of the Bears’ offseason program to this point.

Jeffery should know what’s in store.

“It’s going to be different for him,” Johnson acknowledges. “It’s going to be a little uncomfortable for him at first I would imagine.”

By that, Johnson means, every rep of every drill will be scrutinized. Sloppiness will not be tolerated. Challenges will be issued. An unwavering standard will be set.

In a cutthroat league, Johnson insists, every half-hearted rep is a wasted opportunity.

“These guys give me the crazy fish-eyed look,” Johnson says. “And I give them the crazy ‘Do it again!’ look.”

Johnson acknowledges his brand of in-your-face pressure may be new to the Bears’ receivers.

“But,” he insists, “I think it’s going to be fun.”

For those with more intimate knowledge of the experience, however, fun is probably not the operative word.

“That intensity is coming at you every single day,” says former Saint Marques Colston, whose rise from seventh-round pick out of Hofstra into a six-time 1,000-yard receiver coincided with his work with Johnson. “And if you don’t match his intensity, he’s going to be in your face.”

Colston’s initiation proved particularly harsh. He arrived at rookie minicamp in May 2006 after driving 17-plus hours from Pennsylvania. And if the accompanying stiffness from that trek didn’t floor Colston, the Louisiana swelter did.

Early in the first practice, his back locked up.

Recalls Payton: “I don’t remember Colston on the ground as much as I remember C.J. yelling at him on the ground.”

With Johnson relentlessly questioning Colston’s heart and drive, the rookie had what he calls “my introduction to pro football.” So this was how it was going to be?

“You produce or you go home,” Colston says. “No one cares why you can’t produce. So you produce or you find another job. C.J. helped me see that right away.”

From then on, Colston developed a heightened understanding of how to become better conditioned and mentally tougher and how to use every drill to improve.

Colston knows the traits listed at the top of the Curtis Johnson scouting report and laughs.

Intense? Detail-oriented? Tough-minded? Understatement, understatement, understatement.

“He’s going to get every ounce of talent out of you that you have,” Colston says. “And then some.”

By the time Johnson left the Saints after the 2011 season, Colston had 449 career catches, 6,243 yards and 48 touchdowns. Yet throughout that rise, Johnson provided the same intense supervision.

“He never let me feel like I had accomplished what I had accomplished,” Colston says. “And when somebody is in your face challenging you on a daily basis, you’re either going to step up to the plate or you’re going to wither.”

Lance Moore can’t argue. He, too, developed in New Orleans throughout Johnson’s stay. Like Colston, Moore evolved from an NFL nobody – an undrafted rookie out of Toledo – into one of Drew Brees’ favorite targets.

In retrospect, Moore remains grateful for the way Johnson pushed his buttons. In the middle of the grind though, it wasn’t always pleasant.

“He’s going to make you feel horrible at times,” Moore says. “And it’s going to make you want to haul off and slap him. … I would say he’s crazy. But the good kind of crazy. And that type of crazy gets the best out of his guys.”

Tough love

In a glass corridor adjacent to the Bears practice fields, Johnson chuckles when told how his former players describe him.

“I don’t know how tough I really was,” he counters. “Maybe I was, though. My kids think I’m tough. My wife thinks I’m tough. The players think I’m tough. So I guess I’m a pretty tough guy.”

It’s the only way Johnson knows how to operate. He took his cues, he says, from playing for Dennis Erickson and Keith Gilbertson at Idaho, then working under Al Luginbill at San Diego State and with Erickson and Butch Davis at Miami.

Through his self-driven nature, Johnson wants everything done right. Ultimately he hopes players adopt his lofty expectations so they’re comfortable correcting and coaching each other. And if that occasionally makes life uncomfortable, Johnson offers no apologies.

“This is not a comfortable profession,” he says. “I don’t wake up at 4:30 in the morning and stay up until 11 o’clock at night to be comfortable. We do this to win. And winning is not a comfortable process. … Everybody likes to lay on the couch and watch TV. I can do that with the best of them. But if you put guys in those more difficult situations on the field and it’s a little hotter than you want it to be and practice is a little tougher and things aren’t going your way, I think that instills a tough-mindedness.”

Aside from Jeffery, the rest of the Bears receivers already have become familiar with the process.

Says White: “You can beat a guy on a route, make a big catch, and if your feet were not quick enough, if you’re standing up on your route, if it’s not exactly the way C.J. wants it, he’s on top of it.”

The road ahead

If Johnson’s uber-intense deportment offers a motivational tactic to test how far Jeffery is willing to push himself, the charismatic coach wants it known he’s not aiming to create a combative relationship.

In February, immediately before heading to the combine, Johnson flew to California to introduce himself to Jeffery. The two met at a hotel near the airport and visited for hours.

Johnson’s charisma and honesty seemed to put Jeffery at ease. The receivers coach had heard about Jeffery’s quiet nature but was surprised to feel his competitive energy percolating.

Jeffery, Johnson said, talked with enthusiasm about the opportunities, for the Bears to become great again and for him to help lead the charge.

And that’s the other consistent theme that emanates from those who have spent significant time around Johnson. As stern as he can be, he has a knack for energizing players with his caring personality and an open-door policy that’s utilized often.

Says Payton: “As loud as he is and as hard as he is on them, over the year the guys gravitate to his office.”

Often it’s just to hang out, to decompress or talk about life. But …

Says Moore: “If he has something on his mind, he won’t hesitate to tell you. He’ll pull up some film from last week’s practice and dig in. ‘What were you thinking on this play? What were you doing with this route?’”

At this, too, Johnson laughs. That’s just who he is.

All the Bears receivers will receive that treatment. Johnson, Payton says, is “an equal opportunity get-after-your-butt guy.” But Jeffery’s development may prove most significant to the Bears’ season.

Whether Jeffery responds favorably to Johnson’s demands remains to be seen. That relationship will see its first significant developments this week.

Says Faulk: “I’m telling you right now, C.J. is chewing on a piece of gum and every time he talks to Alshon he’s telling him point blank, ‘They think you’re not tough enough. They think you can’t play 16 games. They think that when you get tired, you say your hamstring hurts or something else hurts.’ He’s not telling Alshon how great he is. He’s letting him know what the perception is and why he was brought in.”

To that end, Johnson wants to make one thing clear.

“I just hope,” he says, “I can help Alshon become the player he wants to be.”