Ben Johnson was a top head coaching candidate during each of the two previous hiring cycles before he left his post as Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator to become the Chicago Bears' head coach. As expected, he took a couple of Lions' assistants with him to the Windy City.
Johnson's previous boss, Lions' head coach Dan Campbell, proved to be pretty good at handling the turnover of his coaching staff as that team rose to success. To put it simply, other teams want to replicate a successful formula and one way to try to do that is to hire a new head coach from a successful team's staff.
The Bears' themselves made a bet that Johnson could make the transition from being top-flight offensive play caller to being a head coach who can set a tone and culture. One year in, that bet has paid off.
Ben Johnson is preparing for "problem" he is familiar with
Heading into the weekend of Week 17 action, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports took a fresh look at some topics that are percolating around the league.
As a product of this year's success, an NFC North title and potentially more, Jones reports Johnson is bracing for a potential raiding of his coaching staff.
"The Bears are braced for a potential raiding of the Chicago staff this winter."
Jones led by mentioning offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who the Bears can block from interviewing for other offensive coordinator jobs (i.e., where he could call plays) if they want to.
Elsewhere on the Bears' offensive staff, Jones mentioned passing game coordinator Press Taylor, quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy as potential offensive coordinator candidates elsewhere.
In terms of who could be interested in Doyle, Taylor, Barrett or Bieniemy, Jones added an interesting tentacle to that.
"League sources believe Dan Campbell will be in the market for a new offensive coordinator this year, and perhaps he pulls from Johnson's staff one year after Johnson took flight from Detroit."
On the Bears' defensive staff, one assistant stands out above the others as a coordinator candidate and Jones naturally mentioned him.
"Defensively, people need to understand just how great of a coach Al Harris has been. The former All-Pro and Pro Bowler has been coaching up takeaways as well as any assistant coach in the league the last few years."
Harris, Chicago's team's defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator, has overseen a unit responsible for a league-leading 21 interceptions. A coach the past 13 years, Harris was previously with the Cowboys. In his final four years in Dallas, the Cowboys had the most interceptions in the league with 72 between 2021 to 2024. He had Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland as first-team All Pros. Today, the Cowboys have the second-fewest interceptions in the league this season."
"The ball is worth millions, and no one has the turnover pelts on the wall like Harris."
As the Lions rose to prominence, as is always the case as a product of success, Campbell's ability to keep identifying capable assistant coaches was tested.
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Johnson saw that challenge up close, and now he's preparing for a similar test as the Bears have risen in his first year as a head coach. Time will tell how he handles it, but Bear's fans should not fret if multiple assistant coaches leave for other jobs after the season.