Why Chris Simms Believes Ben Johnson’s ‘Psycho’ Tendencies Will Lead To Greatness
Chris Simms played in the NFL for years and has covered it since retiring. His father is also a two-time Super Bowl champion. So the former quarterback knows a thing or two about head coaches and what separates the great ones from everybody else. There are several factors, but the overarching connection among them is a borderline unhealthy obsession with football. They are so dialed in on every single thing their players and coaches do that it comes across as psychotic behavior. Simms believes Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson fits into this category.
Mind you, Simms doesn’t mean this in a bad way. He explained to CHGO that such a mentality as Johnson showed during the 2025 season is often what many future greats have shown.
“He’s a psycho – and all good coaches are psychos,” said NBC analyst Chris Simms, a former quarterback. “(Kyle) Shanahan is a psycho. (Sean) McVay is psycho. (Mike) Vrabel’s a psycho. (Bill) Belichick was psycho. Bill Walsh was a psycho. Bill Parcells was a psycho. You got to be a psycho. Period. I think you guys see that in the press conferences. And I mean psycho in a good way. It’s all about football. It’s all about pushing buttons to be better at football.”
Those coaches prove that it isn’t about background. Offense? Defense? That doesn’t matter. It comes down to how you motivate and how disciplined you are with players. It’s about getting them to play smart, detailed football. That requires a level of obsession that many coaches don’t have.
Ben Johnson already has the attention to detail.
Bears players joked and mildly complained from the outset about the head coach’s constant pestering about every small thing they did wrong in practice. Nothing was allowed to slide. If you didn’t execute a play how he wanted, you’d be sent to the sideline, and somebody else would be brought in. The standard was set from the beginning. There would be no grading on a curve. Either you could do the job or not. This keen eye would carry over into his play calling.
Johnson quickly earned a reputation for masterfully setting up defenses throughout the game. He would run a specific type of play multiple times. Then in the 4th quarter, he’d show the same play again, only this time it would do something completely different, often resulting in a touchdown. The game-winning score to D.J. Moore against Green Bay in the wild card round was one such example. His razor-sharp memory made it possible. This is a quality you often find in other elite offensive minds. Sean McVay is one such example.
Johnson also understands the value of authenticity.
You’ll find that the worst thing a head coach can do in the NFL is try to be somebody they’re not. The most successful ones are true to themselves. They show the players who they are and what motivates them to be great. That honesty of character is often the quickest way to earn a locker room’s trust. This is something many people doubted Ben Johnson could do. They saw him as too scientific and mathematical. He would never understand how to connect with people. It didn’t take long to realize the opposite was true. Few coaches had a better sense of the moment when motivating players than Johnson. His shirtless celebration after beating Philadelphia was a perfect example.
Great coaches always have an uncanny knack for this kind of thing. They don’t deliver the same cookie-cutter speech after every win. They understand that certain games and opponents mean more than others and craft their motivations accordingly. Everybody remembers Jimmy Johnson’s iconic post-game speech after beating the San Francisco 49ers in the 1992 NFC Championship. He knew the caliber of opponent his team had just beaten, and how brutal the climb back to the mountaintop had been for Dallas.
Johnson also has an added bonus that other “psychos” enjoyed.
That is a say over the roster composition. Bill Parcells often clashed with owners and general managers because they wouldn’t give him final say on the players he coached. “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.” It was a concise explanation for a complex problem. Many coaches lack the eye for talent. However, you’ll often find that the psycho coaches Simms referenced don’t have that issue.
| Coach | Players he drafted |
| Bill Walsh | Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Charles Haley |
| Bill Belichick | Tom Brady, Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins, Rob Gronkowski |
| Jimmy Johnson | Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Jason Taylor |
| Andy Reid | Donovan McNabb, Jason Kelce, Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes |
| Sean Payton | Jahri Evans, Jimmy Graham, Cameron Jordan, Alvin Kamara |
It’s still early, but there are already signs Johnson is in that same tier. Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, and Kyle Monangai were all instant hits as rookies this year. If that is a taste of things to come, the Bears are in far more capable hands than they could’ve ever dreamed.