For the last, I don't know, one hundred years, the Bears have had a very specific reputation. They've gone through some good seasons, some bad seasons, some more bad seasons after that, but they've always – for better and for worse – remained the NFL's proudest Mom and Pop Shop.
And sure, calling yourself that is just a convenient way to brand yourself as a lovable entity that shouldn't be blamed for literal decades of incompetence, but them's the breaks when your dad helped found the league.
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But over the past few decades, the Bears' habit of ... underwhelming contentment? ... has started to catch up with them. It's why the decision to hire Lions' offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is so exciting – not only did they go get the best candidate on the market, but that candidate was intrigued enough by the Bears to say yes. Progress! And according to one NFL agent, the entire hiring process made the Bears look like they were, for the first time maybe ever, on the forefront of how modern franchises operate. While talking to 670 The Score on Tuesday, NFL agent Rick Smith – who does represent Johnson – explained why.
It seems like the Bears might be a competent football organization now?
"This was the best process I've seen in a heck of a long time from any team in the National Football League," Smith said. "That meeting between Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, that one-on-one, was so important. Because they had to come out feeling good about each other. Because they had to come out feeling good about each other. And giving that form to do it, under NFL rules where you can only do it virtually, was absolutely fantastic. It's the only team that does something like that ... it was football. Everything was about football ... they just talked ball, and vision."
I mean, on one hand, awesome. This all sounds great. They're doing things that other teams have figured out decades earlier, but whatever – the Bears are doing them now too and that's worth applauding. On the other hand, this is Ben Johnson's agent, so how much are we going to really believe any of this? George McCaskey and Kevin Warren are responsible for giving Smith arguably one of his biggest paydays ever, so of course he's happy with the process. I would be too!
Are the Bears back? TBD (/obviously yes). But agents like dealing with the Bears again, and you take the wins where you can get them. Hopefully they charm Trey Smith's agent next.