Ben Johnson makes controversial hire to Chicago Bears' coaching staff

In Ben Johnson, we trust. That is the mantra Chicago Bears fans are telling themselves when it comes to Johnson's latest hire to his coaching staff.

After officially announcing Declan Doyle as the team's offensive coordinator, the focus for Johnson and the Bears this week has been filling the coaching staff roles underneath each coordinator. Johnson got a jump start last week when he hired Antwaan Randle El to be the team's assistant head coach and wide receivers coach while also bringing over J.T. Barrett from the Detroit Lions to serve as the quarterbacks coach.

The goal this week was to find an offensive line coach and offensive passing game coordinator. While the Bears did have interest in ascending Lions' assistant David Blough, Johnson avoided plucking another coach from his former team. Instead, Johnson hired former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor to serve as the team's passing game coordinator.

While Johnson's initial hires have been praised outside of the little that is known about Doyle, the hiring of Taylor does raise some eyebrows. Unlike Blough, Taylor seems to be on the descent following his struggles in Jacksonville. There was a point where Taylor, the younger brother of Cincinnati Bengals' head coach Zac Taylor, was on the ascent given the emergence of Trevor Lawrence during his first season as the team's offensive coordinator in 2022. However, Lawrence's stalled progress since then has led to many pointing the finger at Taylor's play calling being the problem.

There is little need to worry about Press Taylor's role.

Despite his struggles over the last two seasons with the Jaguars, there is little need to be concerned with Taylor's role on the Bears' coaching staff. Most importantly, Taylor won't be calling plays for the Bears. In fact, Taylor will likely have a basic role.

For example, Thomas Brown started as the Bears' passing game coordinator last season and was mostly serving as a scout-team safety during practices while having little to no interaction with Caleb Williams. The same can likely be expected from Taylor next season.