As a young Bears fan, there wasn’t a ton to smile about before head coach Ben Johnson came to town. If you were around during the Bears last Super Bowl run, then you also remember Steve Jobs presenting the first iteration of the iPhone, which means a lot of time has passed since this team has reached the pinnacle of success in the NFL.
The team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2011, and the last time they secured a division title was in 2018 under former head coach Matt Nagy. The team was then eliminated in the Wild Card round by the Philadelphia Eagles that year in the infamous “Double Doink” moment that will remain etched in the city’s lore for years to come.
Trouble in Chicago
Nagy was brought to Chicago in 2018 after his success on the offensive side of the ball working alongside Alex Smith and Andy Reid. He won 12 games in his first season and was recognized as the AP Coach of the Year, but failed to replicate his success as he never won more than eight games in his following three seasons before he was fired.
Following Nagy’s departure, the Bears headed by general manager Ryan Poles brought in Matt Eberflus, who was coming off of a four-year stint as the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator.
Eberflus had experienced some success in Indianapolis behind talented players such as Shaquille Leonard, Anthony Walker and Kenny Moore, however this was his first head coaching role.
While Eberflus’ defense had stretches of pretty good play that kept the Bears competitive, their anemic offense stalled any attempts of seriously competing among a host of other issues.
The team went 3-14 in their first season under Eberflus which was expected, given that Poles was looking to retool the team to create extra cap space and gain draft picks to build for the future.
However, cracks started to form in the organizational culture after former defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned and running backs coach David Walker was fired shortly after for “conduct-related reasons”. The specifics were never made public, but it wasn’t a good look at all for a head coach who claimed afterwards that “the culture in our building is outstanding.”
These culture issues were later further exacerbated by quarterback Justin Fields publicly criticizing the coaching during a four-game losing streak. It started to become clear that coaches and players in the building were not on the same page, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy ended up taking the fall for the offensive shortcomings that season, and the Bears moved on from Justin Fields and revamped the offense with highly touted quarterback Caleb Williams, who was the No. 1 pick in 2024, as well as offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who came over from the Seattle Seahawks previously.
However, the offensive issues got even worse for the team, the offense continued to stall out, and Waldron’s decision-making was questioned on a weekly basis. Eventually, players even had to personally speak to Waldron and ask him to coach them harder. Wide receiver Keenan Allen said the following about Waldron,
““I would say (he was) just probably too nice of a guy. I think during OTAs and training camp, he kind of fell into a trap of letting things go. Not holding people accountable. Obviously those things lead to a slippery slope.”
Waldron was fired in mid November, after ranking 30th in total offense through nine games and a a 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots in which the Bears managed just 142 yards and went 1-for-14 on third down. Following Waldron’s departure, the Bears experienced a backbreaking loss to the Commanders in the infamous “Hail Maryland” moment that saw the Bears lose the game on a last second Hail-Mary touchdown throw to Noah Brown.
After that, the writing was pretty much on the wall, and after a failed go-ahead attempt against the Detroit Lions a few weeks later, Eberflus was shown the door.
New Look Bears
I felt it was necessary to recap at least the last two head coaching tenures to fully display why incompetent leadership has been a thorn in this organization’s side for far longer than this fan base is comfortable with. Talent has not been the issue with this franchise by any means, this franchise has the most players enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for crying out loud.
Nagy and Eberflus had plenty of talented players to work with on both sides of the ball, however practice reps and coaching never resulted in game day execution, and the lack of accountability after losses only made things worse.
Now, as we fast forward to 2025, Poles is arguably on one of the hottest seats in the league from a general manager standpoint. He’s entering his fourth year in the role, without a double digit win season or playoff appearance to his name, and as we know the NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” business.
Enter Ben Johnson, who has done plenty in the business in the past couple of seasons as he turned the Detroit Lions offense into a consistently dangerous offensive unit. In 2024, Johnson’s offense averaged a franchise-record 409.5 yards per game, helping the Lions average a league-high 32.4 points per game and accumulate 68 total offensive touchdowns – the most by any team in the NFL.
Johnson brought names such as Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta to national prominence, while simultaneously re-introducing the league to Jared Goff.
Johnson’s educational background involves degrees in mathematics and computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill back in 2004, which would seem to suggest he places value on analytics and data when it comes to making informed football decisions.
Various coaches around the league, such as Cincinnati Bengals head coach praised Johnson stating Johnson is “one of the smartest guys I’ve been around” and “competitive, hard-working, and bright” coach.
He will be expected to bring some of that magic to Chicago, as he has Williams orchestrating the offense behind an improved offensive line, while talented playmakers such as Rome Odunze, DJ Moore and D’Andre Swift will chip in significantly as well.
Johnson’s offensive additions of Colston Loveland and Luther Burden through the draft last month will also allow us to get a feel for his ability to evaluate players that he believes fit his scheme.
On the defensive side of the ball, Johnson has tasked veteran defensive coordinator Dennis Allen with leading the unit. Allen was most recently the head coach for the New Orleans Saints, and had a head coaching stint with the Las Vegas Raiders from 2012-2014.
He wasn’t very successful as a head coach, but as a defensive coordinator, in each of his final four full seasons calling the defense, the Saints were the only team to rank top-10 in points per game allowed every season.
Allen gets to work with players such as Tremaine Edmunds, Jaylon Johnson and Jaquan Brisker, who have already been leading a pretty competitive defense. With Johnson being an offensive mind as well as a head coach, he obviously will probably leave a lot of the install and teaching to Allen, who should be more than competent to lead after having head coaching experience as well.
They will obviously need an offseason or two to retool the defense completely in Allen’s image, but the Bears have had a reputation for being a competitive unit.
Future for Chicago
Overall, I’m excited about what Johnson is bringing to the table. I also love some of the assistant coaches he brought along with him to enforce discipline and accountability, noting wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle-El, running backs coach Eric Bienemy and defensive backs coach Al Harris specifically.
I get the sense that Johnson is trying to establish a no-nonsense culture of accountability, execution and toughness, the nature of some of his staff hires tell me that players in the building will be made an example of if they repeatedly fall short of the organizational standards, something that clearly wasn’t being enforced in the past.
Bienemy was also recorded intensely coaching up a player for a mistake during rookie minicamp last week, giving the public an inside look into how these players are being pushed on a daily basis.
Overall, the Bears have always had talented individuals in the building who gave them a chance to compete, however the negative intangibles always offset any opportunity this team had to seriously compete in the past.
Johnson’s arrival signals the opportunity to reset the culture and priorities in Halas Hall, he has stated that he will consistently put the players in uncomfortable situations to challenge them and help them grow, and if the team is willing to truly buy in, I look forward to witnessing the fruits of that process in September.
