Bear Digest

Ben Johnson bringing in former college teammate to staff per report

No position has yet been confirmed but a CBS Sports report says Boston College offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Will Lawing is joining the Bears staff.
Gene Chamberlain|
Could Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland be getting a new tight ends coach?
Could Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland be getting a new tight ends coach? | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears are adding another assistant to their staff who has longtime ties to Ben Johnson.

Matt Zenitz, a CBS Sports college writer, posted that Will Lawing will join the Bears staff, although no specific position has been designated.

Lawing was a wide receiver at North Carolina from 2004-07 and Johnson was a quarterback for the Tar Heels then. Both came in as walk-ons.

Because Lawing has been a tight ends coach in the NFL, the hiring will no doubt fuel speculation about Bears tight ends coach Jim Dray, a holdover from the Matt Eberflus era. However, Lawing also has offensive coordinator experience and might be headed for a post higher up the food chain so to speak.

Lawing was offensive coordinator the past two seasons under Bill O'Brien at BC, and also the tight ends coach. He was tight ends coach for the Patriots in 2023 and coached for the Houston Texans from 2014-2020, from 2014-16 as a defensive quality control coach, in 2017-18 as an offensive assistant and his last two years as tight ends coach.

His college assistant experience included 2021-22 at Alabama under Nick Saban as an offensive assistant and in 2013 with Penn State as a grad-assistant coach.

Johnson, himself, was a grad assistant coach and then tight ends coach at Boston College from 2009-11, and Bears GM Ryan Poles played on the offensive line at Boston College.

With Lawing taking on the coordinator duties under O'Brien, Boston College's finished 2-10 this past season and the offense was 85th out of 136 in scoring. In 2024 they were 67th of 134 in scoring and finished 7-6.

Anything the Bears could do to help bolster several areas on offense would be a plus. Their tight end blocking wasn't a weakness, although it could improve. Pro Football Focus had Colston Loveland graded the 12th best tight end among those who threw at least 100 blocks an Cole Kmet was 35th.

They couldn't complain about the producton. It was more catches than Detroit had from tight ends had in 2024 with Johnson as coordinator but the Lions had a higher total in 2023 from their tight ends.

Loveland's season met with a disappointing finish as he suffered a concussion and missed part of the fourth quarter and overtime against the Rams.

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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.