Chicago Bears safety Eddie Jackson missed the final five games of the 2022 NFL season with a foot injury. But the former Alabama defensive back is promising to bounce back in a big way in the 2023 campaign.

On his Twitter account on Wednesday, Jackson wrote: “I’m going to have one of the best seasons ever played by a safety! Mark my words!!!”

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If Jackson had tweeted that before the 2019 season, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place. But nearing the reporting date for his seventh NFL training camp, the intervening four seasons haven’t featured the consistent all-star performances of Jackson’s first two.

As a fourth-round rookie, Jackson intercepted two passes, recovered three fumbles and returned two of his takeaways for touchdowns while playing all but three of Chicago’s 1,058 defensive snaps.

In his second season, Jackson earned first-team All-Pro recognition as he intercepted six passes and returned two plus a fumble recovery for touchdowns.

As soon as Jackson was eligible, after the 2019 season, the Bears signed the safety to a new contract – a four-year, $58.4 million extension that included $33 million in guaranteed money.

Across the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Jackson did not have an interception and gave up one more touchdown pass than he had passes defended.

In Jackson’s first two seasons, Vic Fangio served as the Bears’ defensive coordinator. But after Fangio left to become the Denver Broncos’ head coach, the Bears didn’t get the same production from Jackson in other defensive schemes.

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After the 2021 season, Chicago fired Ryan Pace, the general manager who had drafted Jackson, and Matt Nagy, whose first season as the Bears head coach had been Jackson’s All-Pro campaign.

New general manager Ryan Poles traded all-star pass-rusher Khalil Mack, released nose tackle Eddie Goldman and linebacker Danny Trevathan and let defensive linemen Akiem Hicks and Bilal Nichols walk in free agency in his first few months on the job.

But even though Jackson had the second-highest salary-cap liability on the team for the 2022 season, Poles kept him, with new coach Matt Eberflus saying the safety had “a fresh slate.”

Eberflus came to Chicago after working as the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator, and Jackson seemed more at home in the new coach’s scheme.

In the first game of the 2023 season, Jackson picked off San Francisco quarterback Trey Lance in a 19-10 upset of the 49ers. That ended a 30-game streak without an interception for Jackson, who had eight interceptions in the first 30 games of his NFL career.

Jackson had four interceptions and led the team with 80 tackles when he went down with his season-ending injury in a 31-10 loss to the New York Jets on Nov. 27.

In addition to causing Jackson to miss the final five games of the season, the foot injury kept him from joining his teammates in their offseason field work until June 7.

RELATED: BEARS’ EDDIE JACKSON GRATEFUL TO MAKE IT BACK ON THE FIELD

Chicago is scheduled to hold its first full-team practice of training camp on Wednesday. The Bears will kick off their three-game preseason schedule at noon CDT Aug. 12 when the Tennessee Titans visit Soldier Field. NFL Network will televise the game.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.