Many Chicago Bears fans knew about Ben Johnson during last year's hiring cycle, and maybe even the year prior. But, his rise was always going to happen, and it started in motion long before he was a head coaching candidate.
Before Johnson was on the Bears' radar, before turned down a head coaching job in 2024, and even before he was the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, Johnson was a position coach. And even then, players knew he was going to be special.
In a recent interview, 4-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins joined CHGO's crew to talk about Johnson's rise and recent success.
"I remember he was the tight ends coach in Detroit. And I was getting whispers from guys who I had played with, who were in Detroit. They were texting me like, 'this tight end coach is the real deal. He's going to be a dude some day.'
"Guys were texting me like, 'this is Sean McVay. This is Kyle Shanahan. Like I'm telling you, we got that kind of a guy here. So, once he got hired by the Bears, the natural progression is, if it's Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, he's going to have a lot of success, and he has."
Kirk Cousins knew Ben Johnson was going to be special even while playing for a Bears rival
Two years before he took over offensive play-calling in Detroit, Johnson was indeed the team's tight ends coach. At that same time, Cousins was at the peak of his career with the Minnesota Vikings.
In a way, it's funny how all of this is tied together with an NFC North origin story of some sort.
It's also interesting to hear these perspectives from years ago, way before there was national buzz around Johnson as a coaching candidate. If anything, this shows how long it typically takes for someone to get their shot at becoming an NFL head coach.
Johnson wasn't a player in the NFL, so he was able to jump right into coaching two years after finishing at North Carolina. 16 years later, after starting in the collegiate ranks, Johnson is now as much of a household name as he ever was -- and he's just a year into his first head coaching gig.
After leading the Bears to an NFC North title, two wins over the Green Bay Packers, including a Wild Card victory, Johnson's trajectory is so far up that it's hard even to comprehend what might be right around the corner.
We can all just be thankful that the Bears were able to land such a phenomenal coach, especially since other players saw this coming several years earlier.
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It's just another sign that the Bears finally got something right.