Ben Johnson's next trick: getting Bears to forget 2025 and start the climb again

INDIANAPOLIS — In his first year as a head coach at any level, Ben Johnson led the Bears to a six-game turnaround, won the franchise’s first playoff game in 15 years and received down-ballot Coach of the Year votes.

For Johnson’s next trick, he’ll be attempting one of the hardest things in sports — getting his team to forget what happened last year and attempt to climb the mountain again. Flushing the successes is, in many ways, more challenging than turning the page after a tough season.

Johnson has been clear all offseason that the Bears don’t get a head start on their 2026 journey just because they won the NFC North last year. Just three days after their season ended with an overtime loss to the Rams, Johnson declared his team was “back to the bottom again.”

He continued with that message at this week’s NFL Scouting Combine.

“We’ve got to give more than what we gave a year ago – coaching staff, players, everyone in that building,” he said. “We have to do a little bit more. And so when you look at it that way, yeah, we are back to ground zero, and we’ve got to continue to build on this thing.”

In 20 of the past 23 NFL seasons, at least one team — including last year’s Bears — has won its division after finishing last in it the year before. For every team that jumps up, though, one has to fall.

The Bears, who have posted consecutive 10-plus-win seasons just once since 1992, don’t have to look far for examples. The Lions and Vikings went a combined 29-5 in 2024. Last year, they went 18-16 and both missed the playoffs.

The Bears’ first step in trying to avoid the same fate is to acknowledge the challenge out loud.

“The moment you get comfortable and think you can take success from one year and just apply it to the next, you can be in for a rude awakening,” general manager Ryan Poles said. “The mindset that we have to have is starting fresh, rebuilding the foundation that we had, and then improving where we need to improve, specifically where our struggles are.

“If we have that mindset, we'll be good. If the mindset is, we'll be good just because we were good last year, I think you're setting yourself up for failure.”

The Bears know they need to fix via the draft, trades and free agency — and it’s mostly on defense. They need an improved pass rush from the edge and tackle spots. With Tremaine Edmunds on his way out, they must find at least one starting linebacker. They want Kevin Byard back, but currently have two starting safety vacancies. If Nahshon Wright leaves via free agency, the Bears will likely eye adding an outside cornerback.

On offense, the Bears have a vacancy to fill at left tackle.

Johnson has been more active in the Bears’ offseason planning than he was last February, when he was busy assembling a coaching staff. He attends draft meetings and, along with defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and other assistants, communicates to Poles exactly the types of players he’s looking for.That includes body type and skillset preferences, but also mental makeup and the prospects they fit into the Bears’ playing style.

“The more that we talk and go through, or watch guys and have conversations about our own guys, the more clarity we get from what they want,” Poles said.

There are obvious advantages to Johnson being in his second year. Quarterback Caleb Williams and his teammates don’t need to learn a new playbook. Defensive players know what Allen expects. The standards that Johnson so carefully built last season, off the field and on, are established.

In that sense, the Bears aren’t back at square one.

In so many other ways, they are.

“It does help frame our mindset,” Johnson said, “that we are going to have to give more.”