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.
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