Has Ben Johnson Already Vaulted Past Andy Reid as a Play-Caller?

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson broke the latest poll from The Athletic. NFL insider Jeff Howe spoke to 20 executives and coaches for the 2026 edition of his annual NFL decision-makers' survey, and part of the survey included naming the three best offensive play-callers not named Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay (those two dominated so much of the voting last year that Howe excluded them in order to get a better feel for the offensive play-caller environment).

"Apparently, we'll also be excluding Johnson in the 2027 vote," Howe wrote. Of the 18 respondents, 16 included a vote for Johnson; Andy Reid came in a distant second place with seven votes, while Johnson's NFC North rivals, Matt LaFleur and Kevin O'Connell, received just four and two, respectively.

This should have come as no surprise. Few coaches have an arrow pointing higher than Johnson's after his debut season as head coach of the Bears, and there's good reason to believe that Johnson will win the Coach of the Year Award for 2026. But is Johnson really that good? Has he already shown enough to say he's a better play-caller than a head coach who's been to 12 conference championships, six Super Bowls, and won three of them?

Winning cures all, and Ben Johnson has made a habit of winning

Ben Johnson and Caleb William — Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson talks to QB Caleb Williams at practice. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The NFL world is full of pithy sayings, and one that is frequently used is 'winning cures all'. What this essentially means is that any problem, red flag, or concern related to a team, player, or coach can be overlooked as long as they're winning.

To be sure, Johnson still has some questions to answer. Caleb Williams' breakout season was great, but he left a lot of meat on the bone. Can Johnson coach him up to his ceiling? Was 2025 a one-hit wonder, or a sign of better things to come? Will he be able to adapt and overcome defenses that now have a full year of tape to study? Can he strike a finer balance on his aggressive mindset that contributed to the Bears' heartbreaking Divisional round loss last year?

We'll have answers to these questions soon enough. But for now, all we have to go on is the 2025 season, and what we saw from Ben Johnson in 2025 was a whole lot of winning. You know who didn't do much winning in 2025? Andy Reid. Spare me the excuses related to Patrick Mahomes' injury. That wasn't until Week 15, and the Chiefs were already 6-8 at that point.

For one season, at least, Ben Johnson was undeniably a better play-caller than Reid. But that was just one year, and even the best coaches can have a bad season. Reid's resume is still one that will make him a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach one day. Was Johnson really good enough last year to place him above such a sterling career?

Andy Reid's star is showing some tarnish

In no way am I trying to disrespect Reid. He's proven to be one of the very best, most winningest head coaches in NFL history with a level of consistency that is almost without peer. However, following a horrendous Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and a six-win season in 2025, it's fair to wonder how much more winning he has left ahead of him and whether he's falling behind on the trends.

At a time when the NFL is moving away from a spread offense and into heavier 12- or 13-personnel sets, Reid doesn't appear ready to make that switch. They still have future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce, but their second tight end, Noah Gray, has never recorded more than 40 receptions in a season. Jared Wiley is a fourth-round pick from 2024 with two career receptions, and Jake Briningstool went undrafted in 2025 and has no NFL stats at all.

Ben Johnson, on the other hand, has been one of the NFL's leaders in moving to 12- and 13-personnel sets, and the Bears have set him up for success with their drafting strategy.

And then there's the running game. Ben Johnson actually sets and installs his run game, something you don't usually see from offensive play-callers, much less from head coaches. It's the foundation of everything else that Johnson wants to do on offense. Meanwhile, Reid's offense has largely ignored the run game for the better part of seven years. To his credit, their signing of Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III suggests they're finally ready to change that.

But Reid may be a day late and a dollar short in that regard. Mahomes isn't getting any younger, and he's coming off of a major injury. Kelce is likely playing his final season. Even six-time All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones is on the wrong side of 30. Reid himself is 68 years old; Ben Johnson just turned 40.

I'm not sure that I would have voted Johnson ahead of Reid, but I can't blame the executives and coaches who did. Reid has had a wildly successful career and he could still very well add another Super Bowl or two to his resume before he hangs it up. But while he's chasing trends, Johnson is setting them with an innovative juggernaut of an offense, one that he believes can break the 2013 Broncos' NFL scoring record.

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