In a world of one-hit wonders, NFL coaches suspect Bears' Ben Johnson is built to last
Bears coach Ben Johnson doesn’t want to be a one-hit wonder.
Neither did Matt Nagy, who went 12-4 in 2018 and never posted another winning season with the Bears. Nor did Dick Jauron, who went 13-3 in 2001 in what proved to be his only successful year with the franchise.
In the NFL, though, it happens more often than not. That’s why there are only five head coaches left in the league who were hired by their teams before 2021.
One season of success doesn’t guarantee a dynasty — or even a long career.
“You want to win the Super Bowl, and you want to win multiple Super Bowls,” said Dan Campbell, who just finished his fifth season with the Lions. “You want to do what [former Patriots coach Bill] Belichick did, and [Chiefs coach] Andy Reid, all these guys, if you can. That’s what we’re in it for.”
Campbell detailed the ups and downs of his Lions teams, which started at 3-13-1 in 2021 and peaked with a 15-2 record in 2024 and missed the playoffs last year.
“There’s nothing sicker than when you’re finding wins, you’re winning, but deep down you’re like, ‘We don’t match up with anybody in the playoffs … ” Campbell said. “So you’re always trying to improve and get over the hump.”
Campbell, who mentored Johnson in Detroit, thinks the Bears head coach is built to do just that.
“Ben’ll be fine,” he said. “Ben’s highly driven, he’s very smart. Highly competitive.”
The longest-tenured coach in the NFL agrees.
“He’ll do a great job with that,” Reid said. “The way he’s wired, he’s not going to lose focus.”
That’s one thing general manager Ryan Poles noticed in his first season with Johnson. Every day, he said, Johnson instilled a sense of urgency to get better.
“We talk about standards a lot — setting a high, high bar for yourself as an individual and a football team,” Poles said. “You’re constantly chasing. It makes you stay focused on the process more than the results.”
The chase only intensifies now, whether Johnson wants to think of it that way or not. It didn’t take Johnson long this offseason to grow tired of being congratulated for a 11-6 season and the Bears’ first playoff win in 15 years.
“You don't want to hear it anymore, all right?” Johnson said. “It was great for the first week, but now our sights are turned.”
The Bears have taken steps to fight the sense of self-satisfaction within their roster — they’ve turned it over, particularly on defense. Gone are both starting safeties, one starting cornerback and a starting inside linebacker. Safety Kevin Byard, a captain the last two years, signed with the Patriots. Receiver DJ Moore and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, captains in 2024, were traded and released, respectively.
“When you lose so many guys to free agency and you bring in a new crew, that does help with the entitlement and complacency,” Johnson said.
He’ll have less time around those players, though. In the NFL, first-year coaches are granted extra offseason work with their new teams. That’s not the case in Year 2. Jaguars coach Liam Coen, who in Year 1 went 13-4 and finished second in Coach of the Year voting, has already adjusted accordingly.
“We need to be as intentional as ever with the way we attack each day …” he said. “We’ve got no time to waste.”
He’s prepared for the possibility, if not perhaps the likelihood, that the Jaguars won’t win 13 games again this year. But that doesn’t preclude them being better than they were last year.
“I don’t know what those results are,” he said. “I do know that if we’re chasing those results we’re not going to be living in the moment.”
As the 49ers’ defensive coordinator last year, Robert Saleh watched head coach Kyle Shanahan navigate another tumultuous season — but still finish 12-5. Since 2019, Shanahan has won 10 or more games five times — and only six games in each of the other two. All the while, he said, the 49ers were moving generally in the right direction.
Johnson, he said, can do that, too.
“Ben is a very, very talented football coach — he’s one of the better ones in football,” said Saleh, the new Titans head coach. “There’s no doubt he’s going to keep that thing going for a while.”
History shows, though, how much easier that is to say than to do.