The convention championship video games will happen Sunday in Kansas Metropolis and Philadelphia, however the Bears grabbed the NFL headlines Monday by hiring Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as head coach.
It did not come as a shock that Chicago lastly employed a brand new head coach. That is been anticipated because the membership fired Matt Eberflus the day after Thanksgiving. What got here as a little bit of a shocker was who the Bears landed — probably the most coveted coach on this cycle.
Like all hires, solely time will inform the way it ages. However in the interim, it appears like a giant day within the Windy Metropolis.
The Bears are one of the vital iconic franchises within the NFL, and so they play in certainly one of its largest and most football-obsessed markets. Extra necessary to the right here and now, they’re going to be pairing final yr’s No. 1 total decide, Caleb Williams, with the architect of one of many league’s finest offenses these previous few years. It is comprehensible if Bears followers are giddy in regards to the future.
To weigh in on what that would appear like in Chicago, we requested Carmen Vitali and David Helman to evaluate numerous features of the Johnson rent.
1. How do you want Ben Johnson’s match with Caleb Williams? What would be the largest adjustment every might want to make for one another?
Vitali: From this standpoint, the hiring of Ben Johnson needs to be a slam dunk. Johnson has introduced out the perfect in Jared Goff in three years as his coordinator. After posting a forty five.5 QBR in his first yr in Detroit in 2021, a profession low for a full season, Goff’s been within the 60s three straight years, together with a career-high 68.4 this season whereas main the Lions to a franchise-record 15 wins. From being given up on by the Rams to being within the MVP dialog in 2024, what Johnson has accomplished for Goff’s profession can’t be overstated.
The Bears are hopeful Johnson does the identical for Williams, who is far youthful and fewer skilled than Goff was when Johnson grew to become Detroit’s OC. Will that pace up or delay the method? It is a truthful query. Nevertheless it’s price noting that in Johnson’s three years as a coordinator, his offenses by no means completed decrease than fourth in yards per recreation or fifth in factors per recreation.
How Johnson adjusts to Williams’ inexperience and persona would be the largest hurdle on each side. Williams had excessive reward for Johnson’s scheme this yr, whereas Bears gamers throughout the roster talked about how they wished a no-nonsense kind of coach who calls for accountability. Properly, they’re about to get one. Johnson has been described to me as “intense” and “extra of a pitbull than folks understand” by individuals who labored with him in Detroit.
How Johnson balances that depth with additionally having to be accountable for the entire group might be his largest adjustment. He would not simply have to fret in regards to the offense, like he did as a coordinator, he now has to determine what the group’s schedule is like, how they costume on street journeys, what the menu is throughout the constructing, easy methods to finest talk his imaginative and prescient to his workers, group personnel and even the enterprise aspect of the constructing. He has to fulfill with the media and reply for not solely the offense however all three phases.
Oh, and he has to do it within the third-largest media market within the nation. All of that whereas making an attempt to develop a second-year quarterback. That is no small feat, and there’ll undoubtedly be a studying curve. Will Williams (and Chicago as an entire) have the persistence for Johnson to determine all of it out?
Helman: We do not know this for certain but, as a result of we have solely ever seen Johnson design an offense for Jared Goff. But when Johnson is nearly as good as we predict he’s, then I would hope he can tailor an assault to suit Caleb Williams — even when which means making vital modifications to what labored so properly in Detroit.
That appears like the largest adjustment to me: adapting the offense to suit a totally totally different fashion of quarterback. Goff is extra of some extent guard passer, whereas Williams’ athleticism and skill to make performs out of construction is what makes him distinctive. Johnson could be clever to intensify these talents whereas additionally reining in and correcting a few of Williams’ worse tendencies — particularly, hanging onto the ball too lengthy and never trying sufficient throws on time throughout the play design.
To Carmen’s level, I feel Williams’ largest adjustment might be sharing his major coach and play caller with the remainder of the group, which was not one thing he needed to do as a rookie till Thomas Brown received promoted late within the season — to blended outcomes. I do suppose Johnson will do an excellent job of mitigating that by hiring certified coaches to fill out his workers.
2. What ought to Johnson be on the lookout for in a defensive coordinator and who most closely fits that standards?
Helman: Johnson needs to be on the lookout for expertise, point-blank, interval. Ideally, somebody who has been a head coach earlier than, in order that he would not have to fret in regards to the defensive aspect of the ball on prime of every part else that is on his plate. Somebody with earlier head teaching expertise can even have recommendation on easy methods to deal with sure conditions Johnson will inevitably encounter. It needs to be somebody who additionally would not have an ego, although — somebody who will advise Johnson with out threatening his place or undermining him. He needs to be somebody Johnson trusts.
Schematically, it issues lower than it ever has. Defenses are fluid it doesn’t matter what their base bundle is. One factor to think about is how the present roster is constructed and the way a lot flexibility you need to regulate it. Do you principally have guys that match the 4-3 scheme the Bears have been operating? How a lot wouldn’t it take to transform to a 3-4? And do your wants on offense get in the way in which of with the ability to accomplish a scheme overhaul on protection? These are all of the issues Johnson and his new coordinator have to ask themselves.
Vitali: My eyes lit up after I learn that Dennis Allen is reportedly the favourite to turn out to be Chicago’s defensive coordinator, as a result of it is precisely the kind of rent that may be a grand slam for Ben Johnson.
Allen might need failed as a head coach, however he is been one of many league’s finest defensive playcallers for roughly a decade. One in all Sean Payton’s finest choices as Saints head coach was selling Allen to DC in 2015, which instantly introduced them legitimacy on that aspect of the ball and ultimately turned them into one of many NFL’s elite items. Allen is the kind of coach who can deal with each accountability on the defensive aspect all through the week and on recreation day. And, extra importantly, he is confirmed he can get outcomes along with having all that have.
If it winds up not being Allen, for some purpose, it must be somebody like him. I would name Steve Wilks or Robert Saleh, who’ve related résumés.
Did the Bears make the best transfer in hiring Ben Johnson?
3. Johnson was the most well liked candidate in the marketplace, regardless of not serving as a head coach beforehand, which might give him nice autonomy. Do you suppose his hiring makes it roughly probably that GM Ryan Poles, who isn’t underneath contract past this season, stays in Chicago long run?
Vitali: Poles made this deal, they need to let him see it by means of. It should not be contingent on this yr, both. There’ll inevitably be some bumps within the street. Pretty much as good of a coordinator as Johnson is, we do not but know the way he’ll fare as a head coach. There needs to be a protracted leash for him and Poles, as properly. The truth that Poles went out and received the consensus finest candidate on this teaching cycle is all you possibly can have requested of him. That ought to earn Poles extra belief by the group and may immediately give him rapport with Johnson. Hopefully, they’re going to work collectively to get the mandatory personnel for Johnson’s imaginative and prescient (*cough* offensive linemen) and have a frequently blossoming working relationship.
Helman: The Bears shocked lots of people across the NFL by ponying up and providing probably the most fascinating teaching candidate the contract he wished. Hopefully, that is not the one lesson they’ve discovered.
All the perfect organizations within the NFL have a unity of function and cohesion on their workers. You are not prone to get wherever if the top coach and normal supervisor have totally different concepts, totally different motives and totally different priorities. For example, the very last thing you’d need as a Bears fan in 2025 is Poles working to save lots of his job whereas Johnson is working to put a basis for the longer term.
We have seen one of these dysfunction so many instances in Chicago. Matt Nagy and Ryan Tempo traded as much as draft Justin Fields the yr they received fired. Mitchell Trubisky and Caleb Williams had been each drafted the identical yr their head coaches had been fired. That is the kind of maneuvering you’d wish to keep away from. And for that purpose, here is hoping Poles has purchased himself at the very least just a few extra years with every part he is accomplished to get so far. I do not consider the Bears’ roster is the explanation for his or her struggles, and Poles deserves credit score for that.
Can Ben Johnson get the BEST out of Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears?
4. How do you anticipate Johnson’s switch from Detroit to Chicago to impression the steadiness of energy within the NFC North? How quickly might you see the Bears profitable this division?
Helman: I would be extra enthusiastic about Johnson’s probabilities of a fast turnaround if he had left the NFC North, as a result of this division is not shaping as much as get any simpler. The Lions are shedding some necessary coaches, certain, however they’re going to nonetheless boast one of many NFL’s finest rosters in 2025. The rosters in Minnesota and Inexperienced Bay aren’t solely good, however they’re coached by two of the brightest younger coaches within the league.
All three of those groups have confirmed they’ve what it takes to constantly push for the postseason, whereas all we are able to do with Johnson is guess. Something is feasible, because the Washington Commanders reminded us this season, however I would not anticipate Chicago to push for a division title till at the very least Johnson’s third yr — which is precisely how issues performed out in Detroit.
Vitali: Can we simply take a beat? Each offseason Bears followers get their hopes up solely to be let down. This group hasn’t earned the good thing about the doubt. I ought to know, I grew up outdoors Chicago following it. Pretty much as good of a candidate Johnson is, he is nonetheless a bet. Even when it does in the end work out, it won’t occur immediately. Detroit went 1-6 to begin Johnson’s first season as offensive coordinator in 2022.
All three of the opposite groups within the NFC North seem arrange for sustained success, even when the Lions lose each their coordinators. Their roster is constructed in a method the place their core is underneath group management for a number of seasons. This does not do something instantly to the steadiness of energy within the NFC North. Let’s have a look at the Bears have a profitable season earlier than we put division expectations on them, or did we be taught nothing from this previous offseason?
5. Johnson will find yourself being the perfect Bears coach since ___?
Vitali: See above. Let’s simply wait and see.
Helman: Here is some excellent news: the bar isn’t very excessive.
Lovie Smith is the one Bears head coach because the legendary Mike Ditka to depart city with a profitable report. Chicago’s 4 hires since Smith have gone a mixed 75-118. The Bears have gained the division simply as soon as up to now 12 years, and so they have not gained a playoff recreation since 2010.
So, I am not asking for a lot. If Johnson merely delivers a profitable report, he’ll mark an enchancment over the previous decade of coaches. If he wins the division or only one playoff recreation, he’d be the perfect Bears coach since Lovie.
Carmen Vitali is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. Carmen had earlier stops with The Draft Community and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, together with 2020, which added the title of Tremendous Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You possibly can comply with Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.
David Helman covers the NFL for FOX Sports activities and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He beforehand spent 9 seasons masking the Cowboys for the group’s official web site. In 2018, he gained a regional Emmy for his position in producing “Dak Prescott: A Household Reunion” in regards to the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Comply with him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.
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