The Chicago Bears just earned their biggest January win since 2011, the last time they won a playoff game.
They got their top target, Ben Johnson. Not only that, but Johnson wanted to come to Chicago. He was widely considered the best candidate in this hiring cycle and even last year’s, and he’s now the head coach of a franchise that has been synonymous with a struggling offense.
Every story about Johnson comes with the caveat that we have no idea how this will turn out. Based on what we know about Johnson and what the Bears need, it makes sense. Based on his introductory news conference, he passed the test.
His first game is still more than seven months away, and let’s not forget about the 12-4 Bears in 2018 and Coach of the Year Matt Nagy, so we won’t really know if Johnson is a “home run” for a few years.
At the risk of throwing cold water on the excitement of a city that needed it, there are some questions not only about Johnson but his bosses. He provided some answers Wednesday and others we’ll monitor as his first year goes along.
Can he ‘command a room’?
Asked for his reaction to the Johnson hiring, one coach on another team called Johnson “smart” and a “good play caller,” while adding that he’s interested to see what Johnson is like in front of the whole team. He was not alone as we had conversations with league sources throughout the week.
That’s been the common response to Johnson, whose only real “red flag” is the unknown — we have no idea if he can translate leading the Lions offense to leading the entire Bears team.
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“What gives me the confidence is the players that I was just with and the respect level that they have for me along with the people that I trusted in that building who would come up to me time and time again and assure me I’m ready,” Johnson said. “(Lions special assistant) Chris Spielman, (quarterbacks coach) Mark Brunell, people that were with me, saw me in front of the room, saw me in the meeting room. They believe in me, I believe in myself. I’m ready for this next challenge.”
The idea of “winning” a news conference is trite. We’ve played that game in Chicago with all the teams. But the way Johnson commanded the room, when he addressed his co-workers in the Halas Hall lobby and how he took questions from reporters gave us a sense of what matters more — how he will approach standing in front of the team.
🗣️ “This is exactly where we wanted to be.” pic.twitter.com/mT56UoVGdl
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) January 21, 2025
In early April, when the team returns to Halas Hall to begin its offseason training program, Johnson will get his first opportunity to deliver his message to the team. His first impression was strong. Being an “offensive guru” and “math whiz” might not translate in people’s minds to charisma. Johnson showed it Wednesday. That should make players and staffers confident that he can do it when it’s time to lead the team.
How will he handle game management?
In Matt Eberflus’ first two seasons, we didn’t see any games in which things changed based on a tactical head-coaching decision. The collapses were notable, and defensive tackle Justin Jones dropping in coverage in Cleveland stands out, but that was schematic — not a coaches challenge, a decision to go for it on fourth down or a timeout.
That was one of my questions heading into 2024 — if the improved team would play in more close games, how would he handle those situations? We got that answer, resoundingly.
Here comes Johnson, who has never thrown the red challenge flag or called a timeout or been the one to ultimately decide to go or punt on fourth down. Game management was part of the Bears’ interview process, and Johnson appreciated it. They gave him a situation and asked him, “What are you thinking? What are you telling the quarterback? What’s your play?”
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“The game management portion of it, it is something that has to be thought about,” Johnson said. “It’s a very deliberate plan of attack so that the head coach and the coordinators are all on the same page. These situations, they got to be practiced early. The quarterback has to be treated like a coach in these situations. He needs to see the game through the play caller’s eyes. Well, when it comes down to these situations, end of half, end of game, things that arise, he really needs to be in tune with the head coach as well, and what we’re thinking, what we’re trying to get done.”
Johnson praised the game management staffers in Detroit and plans to bring some of that to Chicago, but the quarterback element stood out, especially after what happened in Detroit on Thanksgiving when it was clear that Caleb Williams and the coaches were not on the same page in the final seconds.
The image of Johnson flashing a timeout signal while on FS1’s “Breakfast Ball” this week certainly resonated with fans, when Danny Parkins asked him about that scenario.
The 9 second mark of this clip was my favorite moment of the conversation with Ben Johnson today on @BrkfstBallOnFS1 pic.twitter.com/YOqthb8TB5 pic.twitter.com/coBQmIDhOn
— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) January 23, 2025
With any head coach, we won’t have the answer to this one until the games get underway, and it can evolve, too. Remember the days when Andy Reid’s game management was constantly criticized?
Can the hiring process be trusted?
Chairman George McCaskey, president/CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles saw one of the biggest Q rating jumps in a two-week span. After the end-of-season news conferences on Jan. 7, the city was in full “here we go again” mode. Now, after landing Johnson, paying what the Bears presumably had to pay to get it done? Well, the power trio is the toast of the town. Imagine the tequila shots people have sent to Warren’s table over the past week.
That was my Girlfriend and I , and he was nice enough to send two shots back our way. pic.twitter.com/RVuuWp8N7Z
— Jerry (@steiner1111) January 22, 2025
Did anyone have any doubts about Johnson, wondering, “Wait, is he as good as we think he is if the Bears got him?” Unfair? Well, the cynicism would be understandable based on the Bears’ recent hires.
The decision-makers, unsurprisingly, were proud of their process, even if they hired Johnson without meeting him in person. After erring in the Shane Waldron offensive coordinator hire, having misjudged the compatibility element, as Poles alluded to after the season, the Bears said they went as far back as talking to Johnson’s former teammates at North Carolina and co-workers at Boston College.
Maybe they didn’t need to interview 17 candidates, but none of it matters if they got their guy, and if their guy turns out to be the guy.
“Ryan said we were going to cast a wide net, so we wanted different backgrounds, different skill sets coming to the table,” McCaskey said. “I’m very impressed with the process Ryan laid out, his field of candidates, how thorough he was, how specific he was in communicating to us the traits that we were looking for to bring winning football back to Chicago.”
They bucked public perception and sold Johnson, even if the franchise’s recent history might have blared, “Stay away.”
“I talked about alignment last year when I came back to Detroit, and that was really important to me, to see that the structure setup was conducive to winning,” Johnson said. “All those questions were answered throughout the interview process. The guys in front of me right here, George, Kevin, Ryan, I believe in them, and I really believe that we will be able to turn this place around.”
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Will the GM get Johnson the players he needs?
The Bears have 15 wins from 2022-24, and the front office will be the same, for anyone looking to doubt if this will work. The roster in 2024 was better than what the record turned out to be, and maybe we’ll see that a better head coach will get the most out of the personnel.
Like any coach, Johnson figures to have his preferences for skill sets at each position, especially on offense. The Bears don’t have the Lions’ offensive line or backfield. To try to get the Bears close to that level, Poles needs to hit on free-agent acquisitions and draft picks. Now he’ll have Johnson by his side for that evaluation.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time together,” Poles said. “That was part of our interview process, how do you handle discrepancies when it comes to player acquisition? And he answered it perfectly. It’s spending time and watching tape together to figure out what direction we need to go in. We’re going to have different opinions, we’re going to see players differently, but it’s coming together, watching tape and figuring out what’s best for the organization. So I think that part is going to come easy.”
Johnson knows — he said it Wednesday — the offensive line needs work. He had to have enough trust in Poles’ GM acumen to take the job. If Johnson was attracted to this roster, one he considered a “sleeping giant” last fall, it’s a roster that Poles built, too.
The best thing going for the personnel department might be the addition of Johnson and a new coaching staff. Detroit’s draft picks have worked out well, and more importantly, Johnson was successful in putting those players in position to succeed.
Will the lack of head-coaching experience matter?
This goes back to the micro-element of game management, but there’s a lot more that goes into head coaching. The responsibilities are endless. Johnson is the public voice of the team now — and he quelled any concerns about that this week as well as in his interviews.
“Listen, it’s no secret that I was being portrayed as an offensive guru, OK, and … whether I was quality control, position coach, tight end coach, receivers coach, coordinator, I’m whatever the job requires me to be and so that’s where I really wanted to let those people know on every call that I had that there was more substance than maybe I articulated in any media session or what you might see on the sideline,” Johnson said. “There is a lot more there and I’m really excited about this next challenge because it’s going to be a little bit different for me. Honestly, it’s going to get me outside of my comfort zone as well, but I felt like I was truly able to articulate what the vision would be and how a plan of attack and go after it.”
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Johnson will be intimately involved with the training staff daily when it comes to player injuries. Coordinators on defense and special teams will report to him. He’ll be talking to everyone on the staff from departments such as nutrition to mental performance to PR to player engagement to equipment to video to analytics. That’s all new to him, as it would be for any first-time head coach. Having a defensive coordinator with head-coaching experience in Dennis Allen should help, but Johnson has to balance everything while making sure the Bears are set up to win.
Being a first-time head coach also means increased public scrutiny, especially in this market. Whether it’s questions from beat reporters after a loss or handling criticism from radio hosts, we’ll learn a lot more about Johnson when adversity hits.
In the limited time this week, we’ve seen his approach, and it’s a lot different than other head coaches who have been in Halas Hall. The impressions have been universally positive. This is still going to be new, though Johnson sure looks the part as someone who can handle it. The Bears haven’t had someone who has, successfully, in a long time.
(Photo: David Banks / Imagn Images)
