The Bears got the head coach that they wanted, and which (I think) all of us Bears fans expected them to hire. Within a day or 2 of the Lions losing to the Washington Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs, former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson signed on to be the Bears' next head coach. This is something that, honestly, should have happened last year. Matt Eberflus' coaching tenure was a train wreck, and as soon as the Bears decided they were going to move on from Justin Fields and draft Caleb Williams, they should have also parted ways with Eberflus. Instead, they repeated the same strategy that has already failed for them twice before: of drafting a new quarterback, who's rookie development would be stunted by a lame duck coaching staff.
Such unbelievably incompetent management!
So are Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams doomed to repeat the failures of John Fox and Mitch Trubisky, along with Matt Nagy and Justin Fields? Obviously, only time will tell.
There are a few positive signs here. Johnson successfully rehabilitated Jered Goff's career after Goff was traded to Detroit. So he does have that history of turning things around for a struggling quarterback. Goff has been fantastic as a Lion (except for that final playoff game). He's been highly efficient, and has been good at protecting the football.
Photo credit: Photo/Paul Sancya / AP.
Ben Johnson has already shown that he can help rehabilitate a struggling quarterback.
A lot of Goff's success can be traced to Johnson's success as a schemer and play-caller. So Bears fans should also have some confidence that the Bears' play-calling, blocking, and route concepts will be much more competent in 2025 and beyond. We hopefully won't see all the schematic failures that we have seen the past few years.
If we're really lucky, the Bears will also find a way to land Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty in the upcoming NFL Draft. If he proves to be a consistent workhorse back in the NFL, like he was in college, then the Bears' offense could have a dominant running game to act as a safety net for Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. It's a hell of a lot easier to call plays when you have a running back who can power his way for 4 or 5 yards against an 8-man box.
Of course, the Bears will also have to acquire some offensive line help. Nabbing an elite guard or tackle in free agency would go a long way towards stabilizing the offense and keeping Caleb Williams' jersey clean.
I will be rooting for the Bears to draft Ashton Jeanty.
A lot of Johnson's success will be dependent on who he and the Bears sign as offensive and defensive coordinators, and other assistant coaches. I will also be curious as to whether Johnson will still be the primary offensive play-caller as a head coach, or if he will delegate that responsibility to his offensive coordinator. Play-calling is supposedly one of Johnson's strengths, but head coaches often struggle as play-callers because it requires them to juggle too many balls at once.
In any case, I feel much better about Johnson's hiring than I felt about Eberflus' hiring. I just wish this move had been done last year. We might be looking at the Bears making a deep playoff run with rookie Caleb Williams, instead of watching that storyline unfold with Jayden Daniels and the Commanders.
I do, however, feel kind of bad for Lions fans. I remember how I felt when Barry Odom left UNLV to take the head coaching job at Purdue. I'm still bitter about it, especially considering how much of UNLV's top players have since transferred to Purdue or other schools. The dust had barely settled on UNLV's Mountain West Conference Championship loss to Boise, when news broke of Odom's departure. It raised serious questions about whether Odom's head or heart were still with the Rebels in the weeks leading up to that Championship game, and if it may have contributed to the team's abysmal performance.
The quick turnaround of the Lion's playoff loss, and Johnson accepting the Bears coaching job shows parallels to the UNLV / Odom situation. Clearly, Johnson was already talking to the Bears. Clearly, he was planning on taking the job. He signed the contract the next day. Was Johnson looking ahead to his job with the Bears, instead of focusing on preparing the Lions' offense for the playoff game against the Commanders?
Just like with college football, I strongly believe that the NFL needs to better regulate coach poaching. If it were up to me, no team would be able to interview anyone from another team's active coaching staff until after the SuperBowl, regardless of whether those teams had already been eliminated from playoffs or not. Coaches should be focused on their job now; not on potential future jobs with other teams.
My team may have benefitted from the league's lack of oversight and regulation in this instance, but I know too well how it feels to be on the other end. I know how it feels to wonder how things might have gone down if my coach wasn't actively interviewing for another job while he was supposed to be focused on a playoff game. Lions fans, I get it. I feel your frustration.