For Ben Johnson, 2025 was the time to make the leap from coordinator to head coach.
He found what he believes to be the ideal situation in Chicago, accepting the Bears' top job earlier this week and with it, the expectation he'll turn around a team in need of leadership.
The former Lions offensive coordinator will have to change residences, moving from Detroit to Chicago, but he won't need to leave the NFC North. The familiarity of the division helped entice him to the Windy City, Johnson admitted during his introductory press conference on Wednesday.
"I wanted to stay in this division. I know this is the toughest division in football right now," Johnson explained. "There's three teams that made the playoffs this year. I've got tremendous amounts of respect for the coaches and players in this league having competed against them for the last six years. (Lions coach) Dan Campbell, (Vikings coach) Kevin O'Connell. Talk about two guys who are up for Coach of the Year awards as the season ends here.
"And to be quite frank with ya, I kind of enjoyed beating (Packers coach) Matt LaFleur twice a year."
Johnson knows Chicago well and tipped his cap to the work accomplished by the previous staff, acknowledging former coach Matt Eberflus made Johnson's job difficult in their recent meetings with the Bears. He also seems to have an affinity for the city, pointing to an annual trip he and his family have made to Wrigley Field to catch a Chicago Cub series before capping that note with an excited tone: "I know we're going to have so much fun living here."
Bears fans will hope the Johnson era proves to be incredibly fun, but in order to reach such a joyful future, the coach acknowledged plenty of work needs to be done.
"I do have a message here for the players: Get comfortable being uncomfortable," Johnson said. "The bar has been set higher than it's ever been set before. The only way for this team -- and for you as individual players -- to reach your potential is to be pushed and to be challenged. That's exactly what I and my staff plan on doing. We're going to push, we're going to challenge. And along with those high standards there's also going to be a high level of support as well."
Johnson's viability as a head coaching candidate certainly didn't limit him to a single choice. He's been a hot name in the hiring cycles since the end of the 2023 season, but decided a year ago that he'd prefer to return to Detroit to pursue a Super Bowl with the Lions after falling painfully short in last season's playoffs.
A year later, Johnson knew it was time to make the leap. When considering the current state of the Bears, it wasn't difficult to understand. Chicago has what they believe is a franchise quarterback in Caleb Williams.
It's a good place to start. As Johnson said (with a smirk), "having a quarterback helps."
"Listen, it's clear that modern football in the NFL is quarterback-driven," Johnson said. "That is no secret. You can look at analytics. Right now, quarterback success is a higher predictor of winning and losing than turnover ratio, which it's been for 20-plus years. That's changed. So there is no doubt that Caleb played a large component into my decision.
"He is a phenomenal talent that had, as many quarterbacks do, an up-and-down rookie year. Where I see my role is as a supporter of him. This offense will be calibrated with him in mind. We're going to build this thing -- this is not simply a dropping of a previous playbook and starting there. No, we're ripping this thing down to the studs, and we're going to build it out with him first and foremost, and then the pieces around him next. I really look forward to challenging him and pushing him, as I said before, to continue to grow and develop."
Williams' development is obviously paramount to both Chicago's and Johnson's long-term success. But this team also had glaring issues up front, struggling to protect the former No. 1 overall pick for much of the 2024 season. Williams was sacked a league-most 68 times -- 16 more than the next closest quarterback (Houston's C.J. Stroud) -- and was frequently forced to heroically escape the rush just to stay upright for another second or two.
The position group must be addressed by general manager Ryan Poles in the offseason, an effort in which Johnson will play an essential part.
"I think offensive line is certainly an area that we need to get better play from going forward," Johnson said on Wednesday. "Something that Ryan and I already talked about. We will develop a plan of attack for how to get that done. But I'm looking forward to getting an excellent offensive line coach into the building to help develop the young talent we already have on the roster, and we will certainly talk about acquiring talent to bolster that unit as well. I certainly was blessed the last few years with the men that I worked with and that was something I would love to replicate here as well."
That's the big question for Johnson in his first year as Bears coach, in which he'll also function as Chicago's play-caller: Can he find the same success with a talented quarterback, but without the same rock-solid offensive line that existed in Detroit?
Johnson said Wednesday he sees the roster Poles built in Chicago as "loaded" and pointed to that as a main reason why he accepted the job. His tone fits the usual optimism that follows a new coaching hire in January, but as the Bears proved in 2024, while roster upgrades will fuel the offseason hype machine, it doesn't always lead to wins.
It'll be about the work ahead for the Bears. Fortunately for Chicago, Johnson comes from a franchise that provided the rest of the NFL with a blueprint on how to turn around a club in quick order.
He'll attempt to replicate that success with another NFC North team.
"Listen, we'll evaluate the whole roster," Johnson said. "I have not watched all the tape, but I have a good feel from game planning against this defense, and certainly seeing the crossover tape from the offense, that I feel really confident about the current level already in the building. Going into this season I felt like this place was a sleeping giant. To be honest with you, I personally was more concerned about the Chicago Bears than I was anyone else in this division.
"Now, there's a number of reasons why that did not unfold. That's why I'm here, I'll get to the bottom of that. We'll see if we can't get that correct and cleaned up. But I was very encouraged with what was already on the roster here, and like I said before, this division as hard as it is, really excited about competing here."
