The NFL needs the Ben Johnsons of the world. The genius and the belligerence. The brainiac and the maniac.
He is unhinged and undeniable in equal measure, imposing his own quirky nuisance to traditional offensive convention and with it inciting a new chapter of Super Bowl contention for the Chicago Bears.
Spiky rivalries are relished, and feuds willingly fuelled. He does not care for tame. He lets opposing teams know he does not like them, and lets head coaches know he is coming for them. In doing so he has become the most influential figure in flipping the Bears narrative from bruised to buoyant.
“You guys know what next week is? Enough said.”
Johnson had been referring to Chicago’s upcoming matchup with their fierce divisional rival Green Bay Packers after just masterminding his side’s latest win over the New York Jets.
“F*** the Packers! F*** them! I f****** hate those guys!” said an animated Johnson in the Bears locker room. Again, he does not care, nor does he care for those Packers.
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Highlights of the Philadelphia Eagles at the Chicago Bears from Week 3 of the NFL season.
By modern standards he is something of an obscurity. In an era when half of NFL sidelines tend to include a disciple of Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, he comes from a different branch with his own interpretation of the motion-fuelled play-action zone-run Shanahan system.
Pre-snap motion and subterfuge remain paramount like any good Shanahan offense, but Johnson is creating a new kind of horizontal and diagnosis stress for defenses, whose coverage plans have no place to hide against him. He sees and induces moves on the chess board before they even happen.
Through four weeks Johnson’s offense ranks first in yards with an average of 429 per game, as well as topping the rushing charts with an average of 196.3 yards on the ground. The Bears are meanwhile third in dropback success rate and eighth in EPA/play despite spending the last two weeks without starting quarterback Caleb Williams.
Johnson lost Williams to a hamstring injury late in Chicago’s 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week Two. It would be easy to look back on that game with some question marks around the Bears buzz, but this was a Brian Flores blitz-centric defense we are talking about. It happens to the best of the league from time to time.
His team has since averaged 434 yards and 25 points per game in back-to-back victories over the Philadelphia Eagles and, most recently, the Jets.
The 27-7 win over Philadelphia arrived behind 38-year-old backup quarterback Case Keenum, who finished 24 of 34 passing for 247 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions while making his first start in almost three years. A week later he orchestrated a 23-12 win over the Jets behind Tyson Bagent, who finished 25 of 34 passing for 268 yards and an interception in just his fifth career start.
History suggests the most gifted and successful coaches in football are still able to find ways to win no matter who is serving them under center. By doing so Johnson is thrusting himself firmly among the elite architects of his time. Right up there with the Shanahans and McVays. Plug-and-play mastery.
In both games without Williams the Bears head coach leaned on the league’s most effective and dynamic rushing attack as a foundation for success behind his backup play-callers. D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai combined for 115 yards from 30 carries on the ground against the Eagles, followed by 204 rushing yards from 45 of Chicago’s 54 total carries against the Jets. The latter saw Monangai lead the way with 146 yards and two touchdowns as the Bears dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 42.45 minutes to the Jets’ 17.15.
It also marked the first time a team had recorded more first downs (34) than offensive plays by their opponent (32) since September 1999.
Success by way of Bagent was no fluke. Johnson has been banking on it, planning for it, assured of the quarterback depth seemingly mandatory to any productive team in today’s NFL. Sure, Plan A is Williams. Should Plan Bagent and Plan Keenum come into play, he is more qualified than the majority of the league to survive and thrive.
“I do think there’s a lot of merit to having a strong number two quarterback, which he certainly fits that bill. I’m of the mind that he’s probably one of the best 32 in the NFL,” Johnson said on Bagent earlier this summer.
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NFL Overtime Show with Phoebe Schecter and Jason Bell analyse the impressive start the Chicago Bears’ offense made against the Carolina Panthers.
Johnson’s rise to stardom came with the Detroit Lions as he resurrected the career of quarterback Jared Goff within, at its peak, the most creative offense in football. A running back tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery was the quintessential picture of Johnson’s offense, mixing electric speed and flair with hard-nosed running between perfectly-crafted lanes. Coveted balance teed up play action production to Amon-Ra St Brown and Jameson Williams as a field-stretching attack capable of hurting rivals at every level, in every way, at every moment. It was offensive football at its breathtaking best, attacking every corner of the field, from all angles and at an unrelenting rate of success.
He prided and still prides himself on invention. One occasion last January saw Johnson roll out offensive lineman Theo Benedet on a seam route against the Packers. He also utilised six-foot-nine reserve offensive lineman Dan Skipper as a dwarfing receiver, unleashing him on isolated routes in one game and teeing him up for a trick play touchdown catch on another. Penei Sewell would meanwhile become a prominent decoy to a smoke-and-mirrors running game, Johnson’s counter-flow system wreaking havoc in the face of lane discipline and play identification for defenses. His bag of tricks became the most in-demand of its kind in the NFL, prompting the Bears to turn to him as their man to lead Williams forward.
In fact, it was for Williams that Johnson decided to make Chicago his home once the head coaching jobs came calling.
His trickery has shown no sign of drying up. Johnson underlined his quarterback situation in Johnson style last Sunday as he deployed both Keenum and Bagent in the same formation on the opening drive of their win over the Jets. Only he could somewhat poke fun at his ability to win with backup quarterbacks over the last two weeks.
Johnson has become a refreshing necessity to modern football, asserting himself as one of the most impactful and innovative offensive minds of his generation while also retaining a notion of nostalgia to his rah-rah competitiveness. He is football through and through, the blend of guile and passion bringing an entire city behind him in the process.
Aaron Rodgers previously claimed he owned the Bears during his monopoly on the rivalry in Green Bay. Johnson has ripped up said script as he seeks to rewrite Chicago supremacy. His team claimed two of three games between the teams last season, including the playoff victory, while winning their first NFC North title since 2018. Before then
“He wants to beat them really bad like everyone else in the room, like every Chicago fan. Beat them real bad, and make them quit,” said receiver Luther Burden III this week.
As for Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, he resisted the temptation to bite on any early mind games.
“This game is about players,” he said. “And so we’ll keep it about the players. You know, I’m not the one out there. They’re playing. So, I think that’s always been my mentality, and we’re gonna keep it about those guys.”
Packers safety Evan Williams added: “It’s easy to have a camera in front of you and say whatever you want. That’s not going to stop you from getting hit in the mouth on any given Sunday… It’s not going to show up on Sunday. It’s not going to save you.”
Game on. Just as Johnson wants it.
Chicago had won one playoff game since 2006 prior to his arrival in 2025. Johnson has transformed the Bears, while becoming one of the most important figures in football. The NFL is better with his art and his antics in it.
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