Bear Digest

Why Ben Johnson so badly needed Bears top pick Colston Loveland

Tight end didn't necessarily look like a need for the Ben Johnson offense but the Bears coach had seen through trial and error in Detroit how his offense can work best.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tight end Sam LaPorta (left) celebrates a Lions TD with tight end Brock Wright last year. The use of two tight ends, in particular, was a strength that developed under Ben Johnson.
Tight end Sam LaPorta (left) celebrates a Lions TD with tight end Brock Wright last year. The use of two tight ends, in particular, was a strength that developed under Ben Johnson. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

More than anything else, the selection of Colston Loveland in the draft at No. 10 gave Bears coach Ben Johnson options.

Within those options is one he likes the most for starting games, arrived at through trial and error. It's the 12-personnel package, or two tight ends.

"We want the defense on their heels, we are always going to be attacking on offense," Johnson explained. "We believe in multiplicity, that's both formationally and conceptually.

"We are going to make things very challenging on the defense each and every week. We want the ability to morph, whether it's 50 runs in a game or 50 passes in a game. It does not matter."

Johnson went through three seasons with the Lions and they altered the roster to find a way to best fit what he wanted to do with the attack. The end result, after they went 15-2 last season, 15-3 counting their shocking home-field playoff loss to Washington, was they like starting out games in 12-personnel or run-heavy packages. Some have been more run-heavy than others.

They don't always want to do it and definitely things change within games. However, 12-personnel let them start out establishing the run game better and from the run game comes play-action passing. Loveland's impact is to let them move more easily between the run-heavy and passing formations, and more importantly, to make defenses think they're doing one thing when they're doing the opposite.

"It's versatile. We can do whatever we need to do," Bears GM Ryan Poles said of the impact. "We can run the ball and play a physical brand of football. If you match that with a more physical, bigger personnel group? Well, you have a mismatch on your hands, as well.

"It's multiple and it allows Ben to do what he does best, which, one, is to have a physical brand of football, but also be creative and do some things that are going to put teams in a pickle."

The Lions didn't automatically start out this way.

They went through the first seven games of 2022 with Johnson as coordinator and didn't seem to have the personnel to start games in this way, so they dealt tight end T.J. Hockenson to the Vikings. After they traded him, they were less able to go 12-personnel packages since they'd just lost a tight end. They wound up starting out in three-wide receiver or four-wide receiver packages 11 times that year and went 9-8. Two of their run-heavy personnel packages weren't even real 12-personnel because they included an extra offensive lineman.

The next year, Johnson used three or four wide receivers 12 times to start games as they made their run to the NFC Championship Game when Sam LaPorta was the tight end.

However, during that 2023 run, Johnson closed the regular season with 12-personnel in beating Minnesota convincingly 30-20, then decided to go to that package when it all counted most in the playoffs. They started with tight ends LaPorta and Brock Wright in two straight playoff wins over the Rams and Buccaneers. Then it was back to three wide receivers in their NFC Championship Game loss to the 49ers.

That late run may have shown Johnson how they were best able to dictate to defenses because it all flipped for them with the last regular-season win over Minnesota.

Starting with that game, Johnson went to run-heavy personnel packages in 16 out of 22 games. They reeled off an 18-4 record in that period. The run-heavy formations did include one with tackle Dan Skipper in as an extra blocker and another with two running backs on the field, but there was no doubt about their intention then and the other 14 games were 12-personnel.

Obviously Johnson has different personnel in Chicago but he now has Loveland in the obvious LaPorta role. He has Y-tight end at a much higher level than he ever had available in Detroit with Cole Kmet. He also has three higher quality wide receivers now and only had two through most of his time in Detroit.

Considering he ran 12-personnel a third of the time last year in games, with two more dangerous tight ends he could be using it even more.

What all of this does is give Johnson the ability to change up what he does to fit opponents but the key is he can run 12-personnel whenever he wants. This is where the Lions offense looked best after it evolved.

"I know he's going to put us in great positions, put Chicago in great positions to win games," Loveland said after the draft. "I'm just super excited for it."

It's a methodology developed through trial and now Johnson has his new LaPorta and the Bears can benefit from that Detroit experience using personnel packages.

LaPorta already heard this from Johnson in a talk.

“I told him who are some of my favorite tight ends to watch; I mentioned a couple," LaPorta said. "I put LaPorta's name in there. Shout out to him, too. Heck of a player.

"But Coach Johnson, he's like, 'Yeah, you remind me a lot of him. We obviously do a lot of things with LaPorta. I can see you doing a lot of those thing as well.' That was pretty cool to hear. Now seeing it come full circle, I'm excited."

The circle completes with Loveland, Kmet and Johnson going to 12-personnel as he tries to both get the running game to work and deceive defenses in any way possible.

When Matt Nagy was Bears coach, he so badly wanted a U-tight end like Loveland to unleash his attack, and thought he had it in Trey Burton. He didn't.

Johnson has one, and he has the Y. Look out.

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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.