As Bears try to move out of the gray and into championship contention, Ben Johnson lights a much-needed fire
Bears coach Ben Johnson hates ambiguity. His clarity and precision will continue to be vital next season as the organization seeks to win its first championship since 1985.
Johnson spoke from the heart this week when he said he would “forever be grateful” to players and staffers for their efforts in turning the Bears from a pitiful mess to a team that went 11-6 and won a playoff game. But his mind raced to what’s next. The urgency in his voice sounded like next season was right around the corner, not about eight months away.
“We go back to square one,” Johnson said. “We’re back at the bottom again. . . . If you feel otherwise, you’re probably missing the big picture. We’ve got to start from scratch.”
He even fired a warning shot about training camp, which, by the way, isn’t until July.
“A lot of guys talked about how difficult [last] training camp was,” he said. “I didn’t feel like it was anything out of my ordinary. They know what the expectation is.”
This guy has no chill.
Thank goodness.
The Bears have been missing that kind of fire for a while. Matt Nagy always tried to put a sunny spin on their struggles and offered exasperatingly vague solutions. He’s still looking for those elusive whys. Matt Eberflus constantly claimed it wasn’t as bad as it looked. It was.
Johnson, who just took the NFL by storm in his debut head-coaching season, is mad that it wasn’t better. He bordered on sounding angry at times as he targeted specific improvements that must take place this offseason:
† Johnson needs to “shore up” his offensive play-calling.
† Quarterback Caleb Williams has to fix his footwork.
† Williams and his receivers’ cohesion has a long way to go.
† Receivers can’t keep dropping passes.
† An offense that was No. 6 in the league in the regular season hasn’t “even scratched the surface of what we’re fully capable of yet” because of various hiccups.
His refusal to sugarcoat has become standard practice at Halas Hall. General manager Ryan Poles echoed Johnson by saying as impressive as the playoff performances against the Packers and Rams were, “it’s important to take a step back” and evaluate the entirety of the season rather than allow the analysis to be skewed by those games.
Johnson was particularly irritated by dropped passes. Imagine the time that goes into engineering and practicing a play, then it works in a game but fails because a ball bounces out of someone’s hands. It must be maddening.
The Bears had 29 drops, according to Pro Football Reference, the fifth-most in the NFL. That total included six by running back Kyle Monangai, five by wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus and four apiece by wide receiver Luther Burden III and running back D’Andre Swift.
No. 1 wide receiver Rome Odunze was charged with two drops out of 90 passes thrown to him but had a brutal one in the divisional-round playoff game against the Rams that cost the Bears a touchdown.
“I can tell you right now: That’ll be a point of emphasis for us when they come back in the springtime,” Johnson said, undoubtedly dreaming up drills for organized team activities in May.
None of Johnson’s points should be news to anyone on the Bears. He has been voicing them all season. It has been one of the most effective — and refreshing — aspects of his coaching style.
That’s especially true for Williams, who has embraced Johnson’s blunt feedback. They’ve reached a point where Johnson can say, as he did this week, he’s “his No. 1 believer” and still hammer Williams’ throwing accuracy, footwork and chemistry with receivers.
It goes back to one of his core philosophies.
“If you live in the gray, that’s where the bad stuff happens,” he told the Sun-Times last year. “I’ve seen more bad football in this league than good football, and one of the issues with some of those bad teams is the ambiguity. . . . The clearer we can be, the better off we’re all going to be.”
He was speaking specifically about player development, but that truth applies broadly, as well.
The Bears are in the gray right now. They’re neither great nor bad. And the only way to get out of that unsatisfying middle ground is to tell the truth about what still needs to be done. Fortunately for the Bears, they’ve got a relentless truth-teller.