Bear Digest

Best five things anyone said when Bears welcomed new players

A lot gets said at press conferences that needs to land in the circular file but there were very important statements made when the new Bears showed up at Halas Hall.
Gene Chamberlain|
Grady Jarrett's talk about coming into Halas Hall and being a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee had to please Chicago fans.
Grady Jarrett's talk about coming into Halas Hall and being a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee had to please Chicago fans. | Chicago Bears on SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

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Much of what is heard at Halas Hall in the offseason is subterfuge or unbridled and unrealistic optimism about the Bears.

It's often camouflaged thinking or downright lies. Or it makes people want to yawn and fall asleep faster than a big turkey dinner on Thanksgiving.

And then Ben Johnson speaks.

Although GM Ryan Poles had plenty to say, it was Ben Johnson who once again emerged the star of sound bites.

Johnson often answers far more directly than reporters are used to hearing. Matt Eberflus would blush if he heard how direct Johnson is.

It's unclear if it's Johnson's nature or rubbed off on him from his time in Detroit with Dan Campbell, but he had some gems.

Here are Ben Johnson's best comments.

1. Not supposed to be easy

Johnson bristled and seemed almost upset by being asked what needed to be done to make it easier for the "gelling" of his offensive line.

"It shouldn't be easy," Johnson fired out. "This should be hard, the spring should be hard, training camp should be hard. Anything worth doing is hard. It's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of effort. In particular, Year 1 we should not be comfortable.

"As we're coming into the springtime, we're going to load these guys up, we're going to see what they can handle, we're going to fail and that's okay. That's part of how you learn and how you grow and you get better. We’re going to encourage that as a coaching staff. Nothing about this is about making it easier. So yeah, it's going to be fun."

Don't expect smiles and laughter at camp.

This is good to hear from the standpoint that it follows Matt Eberflus after he had promised everyone needed to come to camp with their track shoes because they were running, and he had the demanding HITS principle.

If a coach came in with a softer approach after players had to perform to something supposedly as strenuous as the HITS principle, it would be easy to see how veterans would suddenly slack off. However, Johnson's comment guarantees that won't happen.

This had to be the most fun thing to hear in two days of press conferences.

The Bears meatball sect could see Ditka-Ryan written all over that comment.

2. Fitting the talent

Johnson has maintained he won't be running the Lions offense all over again and the extent of this wasn't really certain. What is apparent is he isn't going to ask players to do things they aren't good at and will aim the offense at their talents, even on the offensive line.

"At the end of the day, we'll push this thing as far as we feel the collective group can handle upfront," he said of his line. "That's where intelligence is so important to expand on that variety."

The idea is to have a line capable at multiple blocking schemes.

"If we get really good at a particular type of blocks, that's what we're going to feature," Johnson said. "We're not going to try to do something that doesn't make sense."

Johnson won't be making square pegs fit into round holes.

3. Goosebumps

There will be some pushback about the Bears bringing in a 32-year-old defensive tackle on a three-year deal but Grady Jarrett wasn't a choice they settled for. Johnson really wanted him.

From the way he talked about Jarrett, it's exactly what the team needed after a year when the locker room seemed to lack direction, leadership or at least a collective ability to get in line behind the coach.

"He's relentless, he's passionate about what he does," Johnson said of Jarrett. "Just talking to him today gave me goosebumps because this guy loves football and he's going to bring that element to the team."

The description of how he and Jonah Jackson viewed Jarrett while they were in Detroit was almost comical, and one of several comments that brought a smile to Ryan Poles' face while Johnson spoke.

"You feel his presence," Johnson said. "He's a guy you have to game plan for when you go against him.

"When I was in Detroit with Jonah, we talked like, this is a guy that you have to–you come out of the game and you're sore because you played against him."

4. Ownership

There was plenty of talk last year about how some of the 68 sacks allowed actually were the fault of Caleb Williams for the way he held the ball too long or exited the pocket the wrong way. Even Williams came out at a press conference and defended his line.

Every offensive lineman knows the first rule of offensive line club is you don't talk about the quarterback making mistakes. Especially with a young QB, you try to boost him by protecting him and taking blame. You own the mistakes just like the good plays.

Jackson knows it.

"I'd say for any quarterback, you've seen what happened last year, he took a lot of hits," Jackson said. "You have to build confidence in a young guy like that and in any quarterback honestly."

It works the other way, with coaches holding players accountable. Johnson made this clear with his comment about what he expects from Jonah Jackson, a former Pro Bowl player.

“The guy's a pro bowl caliber guard, so that's what we're going to get out of him," Johnson said so honestly.

5. Man of the Year

Jarrett's comment about how he arrived at Halas Hall had to stir feelings among longtime Bears fans

"I'm watching from afar, to be able to walk in the building that is associated with Walter Payton," he said. "I've been a two-time Walter Payton Man of Year award nominee. I've met his family a couple times. So the pride that I have in this place didn't, I didn't even know it really lived in me until I walked into the building. So I'm just so fired up.”

And he emphasized the last sentence in a way that made you think he was getting ready to play a game.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.