Ben Johnson was extremely critical of his new team during training camp, calling their Sunday practice at Soldier Field "sloppy". It’s right for him to call the team out, usually that leads to better results. On top of that, Johnson has every right to hold this team to higher expectations. He just led one of the top offenses in the NFL. That doesn’t happen with sloppy play.
Johnson chose the Chicago Bears over other teams, more so because of the players and the potential they had. Caleb Williams is in his second season and has shown he can be a good quarterback in the NFL. It’s obvious why Johnson chose the Bears. But remember back before last season, he turned down a job with the Washington Commanders to remain with the Detroit Lions.
It turns out the Commanders might have a better offense than the Bears and, even with the Terry McLaurin situation, they are set ahead of this season. I’m sure he wouldn’t have had these problems in Washington. If the Bears don’t look even half as better this upcoming season than last, he just might start regretting spurning the Commanders.
Ben Johnson is finding out just how hard the Chicago Bears job truly is
Johnson wasn’t going to have an easy job taking over the Bears. They haven’t had a winning season since 2020 and haven’t finished the season above .500 since 2018. This team has been on the struggle bus for years and a new coach wasn’t going to be an easy fix. The Bears have had several new coaches and none have figured out how to win with this team.
This upcoming season will probably be harder for Johnson than any other coach simply because of the expectations. He came in after turning the Lions from an afterthought in the NFL into a team that was actually favored to reach the Super Bowl. What he did with the Lions offense earned him a shot at coaching in the NFL.
Johnson will have to find a way to reach this team and change this culture. That’s probably the one thing this team needs more than anything is a culture change. They need a coach that’s going to believe in them and have discipline both in-game and in the locker room.
If the Bears struggle this year and the Commanders thrive for the second-straight year – and even do it without McLaurin – I’m sure Johnson will always have in the back of his head why he walked away from the Commanders job. Surely there’s no guarantee. But if Dan Quinn keeps the Commanders atop the NFC, it will be a hard pill to swallow.