When we were told that Ben Johnson was going to assemble a strong staff with the Chicago Bears, those folks weren't kidding.
It didn't take long for Johnson to bring some familiar faces with him from Detroit like Antwaan Randle El and JT Barrett. But, he also hired a former Sean Payton protégé in Declan Doyle to be his offensive coordinator.
Speaking of the Payton tree, Dennis Allen is your Bears defensive coordinator.
There have been a few other hires as well, with Johnson really going hard after some respected coaches and building a strong staff.
Saturday, the momentum continued in a very surprising move by the Bears.
Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy agreed to become the Bears' running backs coach under Johnson.
Bieniemy had been serving as the offensive coordinator at UCLA for the past year and was previously in the same position with the Washington Commanders, where he somehow got a 3,900-yard season out of Sam Howell.
Eric Bieniemy was the wild card hire no one saw coming in Chicago
Once again, to this point, Johnson had been doing a phenomenal job putting together a line of coaches and assistants who each have different strengths and many of them come from familiar coaching trees.
But, Bieniemy will surprise a lot of fans.
Just a couple of years ago, many were slamming the table for Bieniemy to become an NFL head coach. For whatever reasons, he wasn't given the opportunity, yet continued his career in coaching as a coordinator after leaving Kansas City.
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Speaking of his time in Kansas City, Bieniemy was largely credited with helping Patrick Mahomes during the early stages of his career. As the Chiefs' offensive coordinator from 2018-2022, Bieniemy won two Super Bowls with Mahomes and Andy Reid.
His offensive creativity has been known to be a step above the majority of minds in this league, similar to Johnson.
Now, Chicago somehow finds themselves in position with both Johnson and Bieniemy on staff.
Not only that, but Bieniemy is going back to being a position coach, not a coordinator. That tells you something.
That speaks volumes about the belief Bieniemy must have in this organization, in Johnson and in Caleb Williams. Sure, he's going to be coaching the running backs. But, you have to believe Bieniemy will have an influence on the passing game some way, somehow.
This new territory Bears fans are living in just continues to get wilder. The Bears didn't just do one thing right in hiring Johnson. They've done just about everything right since then. And they aren't done just yet.