As Lackawanna College head coach Mark Duda drove home for the night after practice during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, he would inevitably get a call from his starting safety.
“We didn’t bring the energy we should’ve brought today,” Jaquan Brisker sometimes told his coach, or he’d point out a specific drill in which the team underperformed.
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To Duda, a former NFL defensive lineman who’s entering his 30th year as head coach, this was rare. He has coached future NFL players, but this example of leadership and accountability was different.
“He just wanted to find out how to make it better than it was, which is really cool if you think about it, especially from a 19-year-old kid,” Duda said.
Duda noticed that Brisker didn’t just ask questions for the sake of asking them. He wanted the answers. Brisker’s high school coach, Don Holl, had the same observation.
“There are guys who you can tell them 1,000 times to do something and they’ll do it right once, and there are other guys you can tell them once and they’ll do it right the next thousand times,” he said. “He was in that second category. He bought in.”
At the end of minicamp, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus snapped his fingers to reflect how quickly Brisker’s picking up the defense.
“We’re just so thrilled with his talent, with his mental makeup and just the person he is and where he is in his development so far,” Eberflus said.
Rookie safety Jaquan Brisker (9) has made a strong first impression on the Bears. (Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)Yes, Brisker enters the NFL with the requisite size, speed and ball production to be an impactful safety, but as GM Ryan Poles and Eberflus seek to build something that lasts, Brisker has something else that can’t be quantified but is something the new staff seeks.
Safeties coach Andre Curtis said that in the scouting process, Brisker showed what they described simply as “Bears traits.”
When Terry Smith was the head coach at Gateway High School outside Pittsburgh, he had to remove Brisker from the drills.
Brisker wasn’t on the team. He was the ball boy, watching his older brothers, Tale’ and Shawn, but he wanted to join.
“He’s in there trying to hit guys — guys had pads on, and he didn’t have pads on, so we’ve got to throw him out the drills,” Smith said. “But he just loved it. He was always around. We set up bag drills and he’s doing the bag drills with us. He was just a sponge.”
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Brisker was especially close with Tale’. It was his dream to play at Gateway with his brother. But in February 2015, Tale’ was shot and killed in Prairie View, Texas.
“It completely tore Jaquan apart,” Smith said. “He struggled through that process and understanding what happened and how it happened. It was a trying time for him.”
Brisker was a sophomore, and the tragedy weighed on him every day.
“I can’t really imagine the difficulty of it for him, a kid that loves his big brother so much,” Smith said. “He looked up to him. At one point, his dream was to play with Tale’ at Gateway. He wanted to be able to really just impress his family and impress his brother. It was difficult for him. Everyone’s trying to console him and just trying to be there for him. It’s a trying time. Who really knows how to handle death? Especially for a youngster, it can be very difficult.”
It wasn’t easy to find stability on the football field, either. Brisker was gifted, but Gateway’s program went through multiple coaches after Smith left for the college ranks. Brisker was a senior when Holl arrived as his third coach in four seasons.
Holl began watching tape, and right away he noticed Brisker. He saw someone who was “super talented” to help on offense, defense and special teams.
“It wasn’t hard to see that he had the ability football-wise to do anything and everything at any level,” Holl said, “including the one where he’s going.”
Defensive coordinator Morrty Ivy, who spent four seasons as a linebacker in the NFL, saw it, too.
“It was like, whoa, you could put this kid anywhere,” Ivy said.
But they needed Brisker and other seniors to buy in. Holl expected that class to be the most resistant to yet another change.
“(Brisker) was the opposite,” Holl said. “He was receptive to the fact that we really tend to be good. We had a core of players who can be very good. ‘What can you do to take us to where we want to go?’ He led that effort from within.”
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As a senior, Brisker had 42 catches for 781 yards and 11 touchdowns. He returned five punts for touchdowns. And he made big plays for the defense.
Early in the season, Gateway played Penn-Trafford. Brisker made two “ridiculous” defensive plays, Holl recalled, and then sealed the win with a punt-return touchdown.
“That was the first key moment where he absolutely said, ‘We’re winning and it’s going to be because of what I’m gonna do. I’m not going to let us lose this one,’” Holl said.
CONGRATS @JaquanBrisker on your selection by the @ChicagoBears in the 2022 NFL Draft!!! I could not be prouder!!! pic.twitter.com/1UWH1HpD36
— Don Holl (@CoachDonHoll1) April 30, 2022
When Gateway played Armstrong, Ivy told Brisker about a certain check based on a formation for the offense. If Brisker saw it, he was to come off and make a play.
“They ran their formation, he came off, saw the out route, picked it with two feet in bounds,” Ivy said. “It was one crazy play from a young man having just learned a new system.”
The football accolades came — Brisker was team MVP and first-team all-section — but high school was difficult. His family got uprooted. He had to sit out games during his time at Gateway, including a playoff game his senior year, due to missed classes. First period was a challenge to get to on time if Brisker had to walk to school.
“It was very difficult,” Smith said. “It’s hard to say how people would respond, especially for a young guy, and he shut down some. There was a transition where he loved football and the game of football, but school was difficult for him.
“The greatest attribute Jaquan has is his fortitude and his ability to press forward.”
At rookie minicamp, Brisker spoke with The Athletic and reflected on that senior year, especially looking at where he stood that day — in Halas Hall about to practice for the Chicago Bears.
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“From my senior year of high school to here, it was a lot of hard work behind closed doors, a lot of maturity, a lot of accountability to make sure I’m on point with everything and make sure I’m doing everything right,” Brisker said. “And then making sure I’m making my family happy.
“My last name is on my back, so make sure I’m doing everything right off the field.”
Brisker’s academic situation meant his choices were to grayshirt at Toledo or take the JUCO route at Lackawanna, a program that produced NFL offensive linemen Bryant McKinnie, Mark Glowinski and former Bears first-round pick Kevin White.
He chose Lackawanna, where he could get his grades up and play for a good program with the hopes of moving on to an FBS school.
Duda said Brisker was “the kind of kid you have to chase out of the weight room.” Then came the late-night phone calls to recap practice and figure out how Lackawanna could be better.
“I just wanted to win,” Brisker said about the phone calls. “I was just noticing a couple things, and Coach Duda was helping me become a leader. … If something was really on my mind, I’d contact him, because you can’t waste any days.”
In the final game of Brisker’s first year at Lackawanna, they played rival Georgia Military College at Marshall’s stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. Lackawanna led 41-34, and GMC had a third-and-10 at Lackawanna’s 20-yard line with 2:11 left.
Brisker’s assignment was to cover GMC’s best slot, a “super-fast” receiver who ran a corner route. Brisker undercut the route, high-pointed the ball and picked it off in the end zone.
“They throw the ball and Brisker goes up, I don’t know, as many feet as you can imagine,” Duda said. “He catches it, falls on his back in the end zone to win the game. Kind of hard to forget that one. He had plays like that constantly.”
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Brisker was the top JUCO safety in the country. He had four interceptions in the 2017 season. The next year, he had 17 tackles for loss. He had plenty of opportunities to play in the FBS, but one stood out — Penn State, where he could reunite with Smith and play a two-hour drive from Gateway High School.
Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker breaks up a pass intended for Iowa wide receiver Tyrone Tracy Jr. (Joseph Cress / USA Today)Smith said Brisker wanted to lead by example when he arrived in Happy Valley. He embraced the weight room and the conditioning.
“He was a man of few words,” Smith said. “But when he spoke, people listened because he showed it with his work.”
He was a reserve player in 2019, appearing in all 13 games and picking off two passes. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Brisker started every game and was third-team All-Big Ten. He had 57 tackles, three for a loss, and seven passes defensed to go along with an interception.
In the 2021 season opener, Penn State led Wisconsin in Camp Randall 16-10 with 2:15 left. In a play that is on every Brisker highlight reel, he intercepted Graham Mertz on fourth-and-goal and returned it 41 yards.
“Playmaker,” Smith said. “Everybody’s looking for a playmaker. On the defense, our job is to get the ball back for our offense, and that’s what he did. The game was on the line and he made the play and sealed the deal. That’s what Chicago’s gonna get. He’s got great instincts.”
Jaquan Brisker since 2019:
🥇 91.6 PFF Grade (1st among Big 10 Safeties)
🥇 92.2 Coverage Grade (1st)
🥇 14 forced incompletions (1st)pic.twitter.com/vfAiXbKP2G
— PFF College (@PFF_College) April 10, 2022
Brisker finished the season with six tackles for loss, seven passes defensed and two interceptions. He was first-team All-Big Ten, second-team All-American and a team captain.
“(The Bears) are getting a smart guy that’s gonna pick up the system fast,” Smith said. “You’re getting an athletic guy who can run. He’s got good size. He can cover. … And he can fit down in the box and play the run physical. Matchups on tight ends should be very easy for him. He should be able to cover those slots. He should be able to play anything on the back end.
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“I would be excited as a Bears fan. Years ago, you got one of our guys, Adrian Amos. He’s along those lines with a guy who’s one of the best safeties in the game.”
Before every game at Penn State, Brisker wore a T-shirt with a picture of Tale’. It read, “I love you. I’ll do everything for you.” Brisker plans to get a new shirt to wear under his Bears uniform, and he has a tattoo on his shoulder honoring his brother.
When he had an opportunity to choose his number, he liked the idea of No. 9 for Tale’.
“Once they told me I could wear (No.) 9, I was just thinking, three times three is nine,” Brisker said. “He always finds a way to let ’em know that he’s still here. … He wore No. 3. I wore No. 3 in high school. Just to keep his name still alive, three times three is nine.”
Tale’ used to tell Jaquan, “You’re going to be the one.”
“I feel every day his words, especially what we talked about before he left,” he said. “Everything he said, I try to live up to and always try to reach. Him saying that, I try to let him live through me and continue.”
“He wants to prove him right,” Smith said. “He’s like, ‘I’m doing this for you, Tale’.”
Jaquan Brisker wears No. 9 with the Bears as a way to honor his late brother Tale’. (Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)On April 30, surrounded by friends, family and former coaches, Brisker got the call from Poles.
“You just got the steal of the draft,” Brisker told the GM.
The coaches who know Brisker best and know what brought him to that point believe it.
“I’m talking to one of the beat writers for the Chicago Bears about their second-round draft pick, this is a dream come true for the kid,” Smith said. “He’s worked for this. No one has given him anything. He deserves it. He’s earned it. And he’s gonna be a great pro because he’s motivated. He loves football. He wants to continue to impress for his family.”
Said Ivy, “You have some guys that they understand it, but he had that ‘it,’ that, ‘I want to be the best player ever.’ He had that drive. He worked at it. He always worked his tail off in the weight room. At practice, he always went 1,000 miles per hour. Even in walk-through, he’s running full speed, and that’s when you notice, OK, this guy’s gonna make it. Just gotta make sure he stays levelheaded, and he did.”
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Through OTAs and minicamp, Brisker was already lined up as a starting safety. He showed off his playmaking, impressing coaches and teammates with his ability to punch the ball out.
As Duda thought about what Brisker could mean for the Bears and the city of Chicago, he remembered his own experience playing at Soldier Field.
In August 1986, the defending Super Bowl champion Bears hosted the Cardinals in a preseason game. Duda was a fourth-year defensive tackle for St. Louis. Things got testy, and a melee ensued after William “The Refrigerator” Perry body-slammed Cardinals quarterback Neil Lomax.
Duda found himself in the middle of it, and he couldn’t help but notice the reaction in the stands.
“I was thinking, ‘Jeez, I’d like to have fans like these guys,’” he said.
Thirty-six years later, he has a feeling that fan base is going to embrace Brisker.
“If you could just tell them that for me, they’re going to get a guy who’s going to give an honest day’s work every day,” Duda said. “If you want to quote that, quote it, because that’s what he’s going to do. People in Chicago can appreciate that.”
(Top photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
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