Ben Johnson is a home run hire for the Bears, with one big caveat

Hiring Ben Johnson is brilliant, unless one thing happens.

It’s been a long, long time since the Chicago Bears hired a coach that other teams actually wanted. A history littered with the Marc Trestman’s of the world, you have to go back to the 1982 hiring of Mike Ditka to find a coach the Bears landed who other teams were actually interested in.

That changed on Monday with the news that Ben Johnson, architect of the NFL’s No. 1 offense with the Detroit Lions was staying in the NFC North to lead the Bears.

The hottest name on the market, Johnson had been tied to interviews with the Jets, Saints, Jaguars, Cowboys, and Raiders — everyone looking for a new leader. This came after a 2024 cycle in which numerous other teams were interested in interviewing Johnson, only to be rebuffed by his decision to stay in Detroit.

It’s a very good day if you’re a Bears fan. Giving Caleb Williams to Ben Johnson is like handing a $20,000 saxophone to a trained musician after he was played for a year by a child struggling in the grade school band. There is no doubt Johnson will come in and revolutionize Chicago’s offense, but as easy as it might be to get swept up in the excitement there are still some serious reservations about Johnson’s fit with the Bears roster that could cause this to backfire.

Why Ben Johnson is the best thing imaginable for the Bears

Every coach in the NFL has an identity, but the best ones aren’t beholden to this ideal when it’s clear there’s a better path forward. Ben Johnson typified this in Detroit by putting the brakes on his pre-snap creativity early and slowly building Jared Goff into a juggernaut.

The most encouraging characteristic of Johnson as a coach and potential franchise builder is the instructional quality of his coaching style. Year-over-year in Detroit he focused on one specific layer of the offense to work on, before then moving to another. The 2024 season was when this all came together and we got to see the fruits of those labors. The end result was an offense that led the NFL in scoring, was 2nd in passing, and 6th in rushing.

The transformation of the Lions was holistic, but Goff’s development exemplified what Johnson did to the offense. If we look at the quarterback’s 2021 season before Johnson and compare it to now, well, they’re two different players.

• Jared Goff (2021): 3,245 yards, 67.2% cmp, 19 TD, 8 INT
• Jared Goff (2024): 4,629 yards, 72.4% cmp, 37 TD, 12 INT

When Johnson arrived in Detroit he quickly worked on solidifying the offensive line, then set about making Goff a more efficient quarterback — before then tweaking the wide receivers, and finally installing a new running game. It was a slow-burn approach that was required to see the offense grow steadily, and he had the freedom to build this over time. It’s for this reason that Johnson didn’t want to abandon the Lions a year ago, instead wanting to finish seeing this all come together.

If that same approach is applied (and works) in Chicago, well, there could be some very special seasons on the horizon for the Bears.

Why Ben Johnson could be a terrible fit

The comparison between Jared Goff and Caleb Williams ends with them being former No. 1 overall picks who played for college teams in California. Goff was a humbled, bruised former star when Johnson arrived in Detroit. Five years in Los Angeles and a Super Bowl berth showed flashes of brilliance, but he was explicitly told he was not the guy by the Rams when they traded him to the Lions for Matthew Stafford and immediately won a championship.

Goff was at a crossroads. He would either slowly fade into obscurity like so many former No. 1 picks, or he could buckle down, do everything asked of him, and ensure he would remain an NFL starter. That’s exactly what he did, as Goff became an on-field extension of Ben Johnson. From pre-snap reads to play execution, Goff served as a football robot being fed code from his offensive coordinator.

That kind of verbiage is often taken as a slight, but it’s not. It takes a profound level of understanding, ability, and study to completely internalize an offensive game plan as Goff did under Johnson, and then be able to execute on it. We’ve seen these traits from Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers — unquestionably all legendary quarterbacks.

How does this approach mesh with Caleb Williams though? That’s the million-dollar question in Chicago. Williams is a very different kind of player whose greatest attribute is his skill as a playmaker and improviser, throwing off-platform and creating something out of nothing. Williams tends to call his own number on plays to pick up yards with his legs, and refuses to quit on downs by throwing the ball away (often to his detriment).

If we continue my saxophone analogy, it’s as if Williams is an incredible instrument for someone to use, but now he’s being handed to a classical musician and being asked to play jazz. It could work, but there will be some awkward growing pains. It will be incumbent upon Johnson to learn how to harness Williams’ profound athletic ability and seemingly super-human talent for creating post-snap and making him keep those abilities as tools in his toolbox, but first relying on the game plan he’s given.

The other aspect to this is that Williams will need to get much better as a deep passer. Despite his impressive rookie numbers, it was pretty bleak when you dive deeper into how Williams got his yards. Williams’ average air yards in 2024 were a paltry 3.5 yards, which ensured a boosted completion percentage — and a lot of passes for little effect. He ranked 49th in the NFL among passers this season and 30th among quarterbacks with 10+ starts.

In addition, Williams led the NFL in poor throws (passes where a receiver was open but the ball was uncatchable) with 110. It’s going to take a considerable amount of work to ensure Williams becomes a better downfield passer, while also stopping his tendency for taking deep sacks by trying to extend plays.

Some of these issues are present with DJ Moore as well. One of Moore’s best traits as a receiver is a knack for getting open downfield on broken plays. He routinely comes off the top of his route to find soft spots in defenses and make opponents pay. It will be an easier transition for the Bears’ top receiver, but he’ll also need to become a better route runner and a more crisp release to satisfy the Johnson game plan.

Another element that’s a cause for concern is the lack of offensive line talent Chicago has right now. When Johnson set about revamping the line in Detroit he was gifted Penei Sewell, Taylor Decker, and Frank Ragnow — three top-flight OL just in need of coaching. The same can’t be said of the Bears’ current roster, and there will be growing pains there as well. It will take longer to develop this unit, and Johnson needs the freedom (and, more importantly, time) to do this without pressure.

There’s simply a chance here that while Johnson is inheriting some talent, it’s not the right kind of talent to replicate the success he had in Detroit.

Measuring expectations is needed

Fans in Chicago, and more importantly the Bears front office, need to understand that this will be a slow burn. There’s such a profound amount of work to be done on the Bears roster that the greatest coaches in the world would need time to turn this around.

It’s highly unlikely we will see a quick turnaround like the Washington Commanders were able to do this season. That organization had ample underutilized talent that was able to be taken to the next level. The Bears have standout players at a few positions and empty cupboards at others.

At the very least Ben Johnson will need three seasons to turn this around. The goal will be incremental improvements year-over-year, and then the Bears could be ready to contend when (and if) the window closes on the Lions. That is the positive side of this scenario.

For what it’s worth: I do think this is going to work. Johnson is simply too talented to take this job without confidence that he can get results. However, there remains a chance this could go wrong if the current personnel in Chicago aren’t able to become the types of players Johnson can win with. That will take a profound lack of ego from GM Ryan Poles to admit he’s made some wrong decisions, but if the coach and GM are in lockstep with roster turnover they could make this work.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what the Chicago Bears do next.