When Ben Johnson became the head coach of the Chicago Bears, he immediately made plenty of promises and pledges to not only the team, but the fan base.
Essentially, Johnson told us all what we wanted to hear.
But the one question remained: would he back it up?
To this point, Johnson has backed up much of what he said from Day 1. His philosophy of wanting to win but "win by a lot" came to the forefront after Chicago selected both Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III to begin the draft.
But, another promise he made was to breed competition by totally dismantling the depth chart.
"We talked about it the moment the players got back in the building.
"It was going to be a competitive environment. There is no depth chart right now. If you want to play, you've got to go earn it," he said.
Ben Johnson already followed through on one of his first promises to the Bears
As it turns out, Johnson wasn't kidding. If you were to go take a look at the official Bears website, you would see a completely blank depth chart.
Now, on one hand, one could back up an argument that this is somewhat silly based on the fact that we know who the starting quarterback is going to be. It's Caleb Williams.
Along with positions like the team's number one corner (Jaylon Johnson) or starting center for example, in Drew Dalman, we already know quite a bit about this team's pecking order.
However, that entire discussion would be completely avoidant of the point at hand. Johnson's aim in doing such a thing was to make a statement to the team, and he certainly did that.
For a position like running back, this statement rings loud and clear. The Bears can easily cut D'Andre Swift and save some money in the process. Kyle Monangai has received a ton of hype as a potential late-round sleeper who could emerge.
Even Roschon Johnson could get a crack at starting.
Furthermore, there are free agents still out there like Nick Chubb or J.K. Dobbins. This team is a long way away from seeing its depth chart finalized, and Johnson wants his players to know that.
Spots on this team are going to be earned, as Johnson said. Nothing is being handed out, and for players to come in early during the offseason and understand that idea is key.