Wright enters the chat in the Bears’ secondary conversation

Over the past month, Nahshon Wright has repeated the same routine almost every day. Wright walks to his Bears locker at Halas Hall once practice and meetings are done, grabs his phone and enters the chat.

Nearly 400 miles northwest, his cousin Mekhi Blackmon follows the same pattern when he has a free moment near the Minnesota Vikings’ practice facility.

Roughly 950 miles south, his brother Rejzohn Wright does the same from his New Orleans Saints locker.

The three enter a text group chat where everything is shared, both good and bad. An interception. A pass breakup. A bad route. A missed tackle. A wrong first step.

“It’s cool,” Nahshon said. “We get to bounce ideas off of each other and we keep each other uplifted because (training) camp is obviously, it’s a long three, four weeks.”

The chat might seem like a small part of their day-to-day NFL lives. Most families have group chats. But this one has served as a unique source of help for all three family members in their different paths.

For Nahshon, a fifth-year player on his third team, it’s helped him navigate one of the most important training camps of his career. Nahshon wanted to prove to himself and the rest of the NFL he still has a role in the league.

“I rely on it heavily,” Nahshon said. “They obviously know exactly what I’m going through, the hours that we put in, the long days. So to have that uplift from them is obviously good for me.”

Persevering through the storms

It’s hard to pinpoint when the chat officially formed.

Nahshon, Mekhi and Rejzohn grew up near each other in the California Bay Area. Nahshon is the oldest of the trio, beating out Mekhi by about six months, and is almost two years older than his brother.

The consensus is it started sometime during Rejzohn’s senior year of high school in 2017-18. Nahshon and Mekhi attended different junior colleges at the time. But the trio remained a part of each other’s lives and held each other accountable by sharing updates.

“As soon as I had something to say, they stopped me and put me in my place,” Rejzohn said. “(They) just let me know to just keep my head down and keep doing what I do and God will handle the rest.”

Nahshon attended a couple junior colleges before enrolling in Laney College in Oakland, Calif. Mekhi went to nearby College of San Mateo. Rejzohn joined his brother at Laney in 2018 and they played their first college seasons together that year.

Messages of support started to supplement the football as time went on. The three commiserated about their day-to-day lives of being junior college athletes. The long car rides to and from campus. The minimal resources. All of it.

All of it happened as Nahshon and Rejzohn continued to process the fatal shooting of their father in 2017.

“That’s kind of something else we’ve all dealt with together at the same time,” Mekhi said of playing in junior college. “That was a hard time for (Nahshon), but storms don’t last. I can see how he persevered through that situation.”

Nahshon helped Laney win a state championship in 2018 and then transferred to Oregon State in 2019 for two seasons. The Dallas Cowboys drafted him in the third round in 2021.

Mekhi joined Colorado in 2018 and then transferred to USC in 2022 before the Vikings chose him in the third round in 2023.

Rejzohn partially followed his brother’s path. He left Laney for Oregon State in 2020 before joining the Carolina Panthers’ roster as an undrafted free agent in 2023.

“Sometimes I sit back and I’m really grateful,” Rejzohn said. “I feel like we already won even though we haven’t all proven ourselves in NFL. But we’ve made it this far together. So it just feels like a win all in all.”

Honest conversations

It didn’t take long for Nahshon, Mekhi and Rejzohn to realize they shared something unique once they all reached the NFL.

Not only were they three cousins playing in the NFL. They were cornerbacks who understood what the others had to do on the field and how they felt.

The chat offered an opportunity where they could be “raw” with each other. They didn’t have to hold back. It’s family, anything can be said.

“We can kind of relate to the different aspects of the game, how our body is feeling, because we typically do the same thing,” Mekhi said. “So I guess just it being two more (defensive backs) that we each lean on is a little more special.”

Those honest conversations continued as each player dealt with adversity.

After selecting Nahshon in the third round, the Cowboys mostly used him on special teams during his three years there. Dallas traded him to the Vikings last August in the middle of training camp and Nahshon never found his place on the team. The Vikings released Nahshon in April.

Mekhi played in 15 games during his rookie season in 2023 but missed all of last year with a torn ACL. Rejzohn jumped around the Panthers and Las Vegas Raiders practice squads in 2023 before signing with the Saints. He missed all of last season with a toe injury.

The texts never stopped throughout it all. Even when Nahshon and Mekhi lived together in Minnesota, they made sure to text in the group to support Rejzohn.

“It’s really encouraging,” Rejzohn said.

Time to prove it

When the Vikings released Nahshon on April 7, Bears general manager Ryan Poles, head coach Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen were all interested in the idea of adding a former top-100 draft pick to the roster.

Nahshon’s 6-foot-4, 199-pound frame fit the build of what Allen wanted in his secondary. A team can also never have too much secondary depth.

But what happened in Dallas? They went to the person at Halas Hall who was right there when it happened.

Bears defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator Al Harris was the Cowboys’ defensive backs coach from 2020 until last season and personally worked with Nahshon during his time in Dallas. So when asked if Harris thought the Bears should sign Nahshon, he didn’t hesitate.

“It was a no-brainer for me,” Harris said. “That was a no-brainer. (Nahshon) has a high ceiling. You can see the talent there. He has the size, he just has to make the plays.”

That was all the Bears’ brass needed to hear. Poles signed Nahshon to a one-year contract a day after his release.

The move didn’t make much noise when it happened. The Bears already had their starting cornerbacks on paper.

The team signed Jaylon Johnson to a four-year extension last offseason that made him one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league at the time. The Bears also had third-year player and starter Tyrique Stevenson, who oozed talent, along with Josh Blackwell and Terell Smith as backups.

But Nahshon entered spring practices motivated that he could make a difference.

“I definitely feel like I have a lot to prove,” Nahshon said. “I feel like I can play in this league. So definitely every day I feel like I have something to prove.”

After a relatively quiet spring, Nahshon has made the most of his opportunities in training camp. Allen inserted Nahshon into a starting cornerback slot on the first day of camp after Jaylon Johnson suffered a leg injury. Nahshon hasn’t given up the spot since.

He’s adopted Allen’s “sticky” mantra in the secondary. Allen plays a lot of man-to-man coverage, which requires defensive backs to stay on receivers from the moment the ball is snapped.

“I think the things that he may have lacked a little bit in Dallas as far as bringing the drills and the mindset to the field, you can see it now,” Harris said. “He has matured. It’s slowing down for him now.”

That maturity came with help from outside the building. Nahshon has described and sent videos of plays he wanted feedback on from both his brother and cousin.

An interception to end a situational drill.

A tipped ball that led to an interception.

A route that he got burned on.

He’s sending all of it to prepare himself for whatever situation he faces.

“I think he just handled it all professionally and his approach to the game has never changed,” Rejzohn said. “If you wake up any day and you feel like you don’t have nothing to prove in the NFL, then you’re just wrong to begin the day. I think he does have something to prove and he knows it in the way he attacked his offseason.”

‘Special’ bond

It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day life of training camp. Especially when you have something to prove.

But in between the texts of play descriptions and videos, Nahshon, Mekhi and Rejzohn appreciate how unique it is for three family members to be playing the same position in the NFL.

“We’ll randomly just call each other and be like, ‘This is really crazy,’” Mekhi said. “But we’ve been working for so long. We have always trained together for so long, so it was just a matter of time.”

What’s next is still to be determined. Mekhi was fully cleared from his ACL tear and tried to prove he can play a role in the Vikings’ secondary over the past month. Rejzohn was also cleared from his injury as he tries to find a spot on the Saints’ 53-man roster.

Nahshon seems to have found a home in Chicago. His play likely already secured him a role in the Bears’ secondary. Injuries to Jaylon Johnson and Smith only made his addition more valuable.

Whatever happens next, one thing is certain. The three cousins will grab their phones wherever they are, enter the chat and talk ball.

“It’s special,” Nahshon said. “It’s special.”