Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has had a first season to remember in the Windy City, thanks to the work he has done.
Johnson took a team that went 5-12 in 2024 and had a 10-game losing streak at one point in the season, and turned them into an 11-6 team that won the NFC North and beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card.
Those accomplishments were all accounted for when the AP announced its Coach of the Year nominees, which included Johnson. He will be going up against Jacksonville Jaguars' Liam Coen, Seattle Seahawks' Mike Macdonald, San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Shanahan, and New England Patriots' Mike Vrabel.
Ben Johnson gets nominated for Coach of the Year
It's a worthy nomination for one of the top young coaches in the NFL. Johnson has done great work in transforming this team from the bottom of the NFC North to one of the NFL's best eight teams.
The biggest makeover Johnson accomplished was on offense, with the running game. This was one of the worst rushing attacks in the NFL last year, and they finished in the top five this season. A big part of that was rebuilding the offensive line with four new starters, two of whom were selected as All-Pros.
There was also great work by Johnson in getting quarterback Caleb Williams to live up to his potential. Williams broke the franchise record for passing yards in a season and came within 100 yards of being the first Bears quarterback to reach the 4,000-yard mark. Most importantly, Johnson unlocked the clutch gene in Williams as he led an NFL-record seven comeback wins and game-winning drives in the season.
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This is a completely different Bears team from the one that played under Matt Eberflus over the previous three seasons. All of the changes and the franchise's turnaround are because of what Johnson did with the Bears in 2025, now making them Super Bowl contenders for the 2026 season.