🏈 🚀 🎉 The Chicago Bears Got It Right With Ben Johnson. I Think. I Hope. 🎉 🚀 🏈

We've seen a whole lot of Bears head coaches flop. But this hire feels different. I think. I hope.

I’M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER when the Chicago Bears drafted Walter Payton.

I’m old enough to remember Payton/Payton/pass/punt.

I’m old enough to remember when Vince Evans became the franchise’s first Black starting quarterback.

I’m old enough to remember seeing the 1985 Bears beat the Colts, live and in-person.

I’m old enough to remember Version 1.0 of the Peanut Punch.

I’m old enough to remember Bobby Douglass rushing like a battering ram and throwing like a broken Howitzer.

I’m old enough to remember Denny Green ranting, “They are who we thought they were!”

I’m old enough to remember when Jim Harbaugh was a pretty okay quarterback.

And I hope that someday, I can write, “I’m old enough to remember when the Chicago Bears hired their greatest coach since George Halas — Benjamin David Johnson.”

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YESTERDAY, the Chicago Bears lured the former Lions offensive coordinator out of Detroit and into Halas Hall, likely with promises of riches, unprecedented personnel control, fan adulation, and competent quarterback play.

The Bears had plenty of decent options for an aggressive, offensive-minded HC — I’d have been okay with Baltimore OC Todd Monken, Washington OC Kliff Kingsbury, or Buffalo OC Joe Brady — but for most of us, Johnson had been The Guy since about a third of the way through last season, when the Lions’ offense began consistently stomping the crap out of the league.

In my lengthly Bears-watching life, outside of peak Mike Ditka, the team has never had a head coach who delivered an offense that consistently stomped the crap out of anything.

For mostly climate-centric reasons, the Bears have traditionally been a defense-first, special-teams-second, offense-coming-up-the-rear team, relying on the Richard Dents of the world to put a hurtin’ on opposing quarterbacks, or the Devin Hesters of the world to win games via a punt return touchdown when the Richard Dents of the world were having an off day.

And when the Bears did have high-end offensive talent on the turf — that talent being Walter Payton and, um, nobody else — they never had enough other pieces to chart a path to the Super Bowl.

I suppose that’s the story of this franchise: Never enough.

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DO THE CHICAGO BEARS have enough right now?

Welp, here’s what they do have:

• The head coach who everybody wanted.

• A quarterback who some believe has generational talent.

• $66 million of cap space.

• Four picks out of the top 75 in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Not bad. We’ll give that a solid B+. But here’s what they don’t have.

• A confidence-inspiring offensive line.

• A consistent pass rush.

• A general manager who has proven himself.

• A legitimate starting tight end.

• Depth at wide receiver.

• A running game.

Oy. That very much mitigates the “do haves,” which brings the whole grade down to a C-.

Ben Johnson’s a smart guy, so question #1 is, Why would he walk into a C- situation?

Easy.

Johnson’s other options were head coaching gigs with either Jacksonville (ugh) or Las Vegas (double ugh), or to remain an assistant with a Lions team that maybe, possibly missed its Super Bowl window.

The Bears have Caleb Williams. So it was kind of a no-brainer.

Additionally, if Johnson succeeds with the Bears — if he becomes the first coach to bring the city a Lombardi Trophy since Ditka — he’s immediately a football immortal, an outlier who overcame terrible ownership, terrible weather, and terrible juju before transforming one of the league’s flagship franchises into a winner.

Question #2 then becomes, can he do just that?

This is where that whole, “I think, I hope” thing comes into play.

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TO HIS CREDIT, Johnson is setting himself up for sideline success — and he’s doing so quickly.

Seeming minutes after the Johnson hiring was announced, we learned that he tabbed Dennis Allen as his defensive coordinator. Allen is experienced and respected, something you can’t truly say about any Bears DC since Vic Fangio. Or maybe even Buddy Ryan.

This tells me that Johnson came into Halas Hall with a plan, and a plan is something Chicago seems to never see from its head coaches.

Having a plan brings our grade up to B-. Having what looks like a good plan takes us to B.

And you know what catapults us to a B+? The NFC North’s bed-shitting playoff performance.

After being hailed as teams that repped the best division in football for much of the 2024 season, the Lions, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Green Bay Packers were all convincingly eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, telling us that the Bears might just share a division with a trio of underachieving paper tigers.

So all of a sudden, Ben Johnson and the Bears have plenty going for them:

• A young, potential-laden quarterback who a chance to flower under an innovative offensive mind.

• A division that ain’t all its cracked up to be.

• Enough money to bring in some quality free agents.

• Enough draft picks to fill a large handful of their many holes.

All of which means that the Chicago Bears will be in the playoff mix this coming season, and in the Super Bowl conversation the next.

I think. I hope.

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