Bear Digest

The big winners and losers from start to the Ben Johnson era

Analysis: The plans revealed by Ben Johnson at his opening press conference and what others said have made it clear who doesn't benefit and who will.
Gene Chamberlain|
D'Andre Swift makes a cut after a reception for the Bears. Swift already wasn't retained as a free agent in the Ben Johnson attack once.
D'Andre Swift makes a cut after a reception for the Bears. Swift already wasn't retained as a free agent in the Ben Johnson attack once. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Winning the press conference meant something at one time for the Bears, that is, until even HITS principle became a potential stroke of genius.

They've had coaches win opening pressers before and make no mistake, Johnson did win his in a big way. He probably did his better than any other coach they've hired, even more so than Matt Nagy, who sounded pretty much as coherent until developing a knack for word salads after watching too many Mitchell Trubisky overthrows. 

Johnson sounded like a responsive, logical, deep-thinking and normal human being. He didn't put anyone to sleep, arrive DOA, come off as a football Poindexter, or show up with a bad mustache.  

One of his main reasons for coming to Chicago was he wanted his kids to grow up in this area. You can't get any more of a mainstream, mature adult thinker than this.

Sure, he brought up John Shoop, one of his mentors. However, fewer Bears fans remember the Shoopster these days and, anyway, he was a pretty good guy who just liked to say "it takes a village to run the ball," too much, and also lacked all the weapons necessary to do what he wanted on offense with that roster. After his firing, Shoop did look a lot better when Terry Shea was the one who followed him as coordinator.

Chicago appears to be the biggest winner now before any games have been played.

There are others. There are also losers, just as there are for any transaction, hire, trade or game involving a team. Here are the winners and losers from Ben Johnson's hiring.

Winners

1. GM Ryan Poles

A few weeks back, president Kevin Warren was asked about his GM's future and contract and said he was his GM going forward but added: "When we say long-term, you know, a year is lifetime."

Yikes.

Listening to everything said about Poles' leadership in the hiring process and how pleased the Bears were with their result, it's obvious their GM did something to help solidify his own footing.

"I thought it was a first-class process and Ryan should be commended," Warren said afterward.

Revisit this after next October and it will be much more apparent if Poles' future is a lifetime, or a few months, but on Wednesday he had the kind of street credit he had after the great trade back with Carolina to acquire D Moore and picks.

2. QB Caleb Williams

Considering Williams had a 14.3-point higher passer rating, only one interception in eight games and two more TD passes (11) and 4% higher completion percentage (64.55) once ridded of Shane Waldron, consider what could happen now with an offensive play caller as accomplished as Johnson.

No offense to Thomas Brown, but Williams has the experience and success rate saying he could easily advance a second-year QB who spent his first year running for his life too often.

3. WR DJ Moore

Moore, in 2024, was 4.4 yards per catch below his career average at a career-low 9.9 yard per catch and still made 98 receptions.

Considering Moore was also sixth in total yards after the catch despite catching it with three or four people on his back each time, there appears to be no limit to the yards after catch he'll achieve with Johnson as coach because the Lions were 222 yards after the catch better than any other NFL team. Johnson schemes receivers wide open.

3. Kevin Warren

A coach hired, Warren can now go back to figuring out where he's getting money from to begin digging for a new stadium in this calendar year, like he promised.

4. George McCaskey

Fans tend to quickly forget they were chanting "sell the team, sell the team," when their new coach was as polished and professional as Johnson appeared.

The owner doesn't appear so cheap when he no doubt forked over something in the range of $13 million for a highly sought head coach.

The last head coach, who was actually the result of the owner's own flawed search, becomes a distant memory when there is hope provided by a new, promising head coach.  

5. The rank and file

Bears players said last season they needed better discipline and to be held accountable.

So there was Johnson, standing in front of a full media corps and numerous others, looking at four players he hadn't coached yet, four key offensive players -- Williams, Moore, Cole Kmet and Rome Odunze -- and telling them to get used to being "...comfortable with being uncomfortable."

They're all going to need to feel this way if those four are singled out for it.

And that's what they all asked for last year.

Losers

1. RB D'Andre Swift

It doesn't need to be this way, but Swift was with the Lions in Johnson's first year as offensive coordinator and while Johnson was a position coach. Yet, before Johnson's second year the Lions felt the need to upgrade to make their running game more dangerous and let Swift leave in free agency.

Could Ashton Jeanty be in the Bears' future?

2. WR Keenan Allen

Johnson made do with Amon-Ra St. Brown as the only real star of his receiver corps and developed the rest of the contributors. He's not going to look at the Bears receiver corps and say they need to spend the money in free agency to keep a 34-year-old veteran when that cash can be spent on a free agent offensive lineman who the line needs.

Johnson is more likely to elevate a player like Tyler Scott to a higher level or to take a rookie from a later round and make good use of them the way he did for Kalif Raymond and Tim Patrick.

The Lions flourished without a star receiver other than St. Brown even before Jameson Williams figured out how to use his speed to get open two years ago, or when he was injured three years ago. 

Who really expected Sam LaPorta would be doing what T.J. Hockenson had done in the NFL right away?

3. CB Tyrique Stevenson

His habit of lapsing into stupid mistakes in between flashes of dominance is the kind of thing Johnson's promise to hold players accountable is directed at, but it could work the other way. If Stevenson takes it to heart, he could still turn it all around and live up to his potential.

4. NFC North defensive coordinators

The other divisional defensive coaches have been able to benefit from good down-and-distance situations because of the blundering Bears committing so many presnap penalties.

Johnson's Lions were top nine for lowest presnap penalty totals in each of his three full seasons, and had the third-fewest last year.

The party's over for those defenses.

5. NFC North head coaches

Johnson himself pointed out during an after-press conference chat with reporters that the Bears run defense was the reason his offense struggled against them in 2023 for two games.

"This year what was a little different than 2023 was (Andrew) Billings being out. Him being out, we could feel that when we played Chicago," Johnson said.

"Big Bill" will be back and if the Bears defense returns to stopping the run, retains one of the league's better pass defenses and has a potent Johnson offense, there's every reason to believe Johnson can turn things around rapidly as he promises to do.

"There’s no question it can happen in 2025," Johnson said.

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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.