The Chicago Bears hired Ben Johnson in the hope that he would set and embody a standard of success that had been, let's just say, elusive for the franchise going back basically 40 years.
Heading into his second season, that standard has been established as the focus shifts to what's next. A division title and a playoff win are a nice starting point, but everyone wants more, and Johnson is naturally the face of that.
Last season, the Bears had a top-10 scoring offense in the league for the first time since 2018, Matt Nagy's first season as head coach. After winning a lot of close games last year, Johnson is fighting the regression narrative, with expectations as high as they've been for the Bears since Mike Ditka was head coach.
Ben Johnson continues to pull no punches when it comes to 2026 goals
Dan Pompei of The Athletic recently spent a day shadowing Johnson. The Bears' head coach revealed a particularly lofty goal for the coming season as he looks to keep the foot on the gas pedal.
"After winning the North in his first season as a head coach last year, Johnson has higher aspirations. Much higher."
"You’ve got 31 other teams coming to training camp saying, ‘Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,'", Johnson said. “I want more than that. I want to have the highest-scoring offense ever, which happens to be the 2013 Denver Broncos. I know how many points per game they scored (37.9), and I want to surpass them. I want shutouts. I want blowouts.”
When he was the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator, Johnson rarely took his foot off the gas pedal as a play caller in blowout wins, to the occasional chagrin of opponents. Upon arriving as the Bears' head coach, he made it clear one of his goals was to dominate opponents every week. That was a refreshing mindset from a Bears head coach, and an early sign Johnson would be different from his predecessors.
Johnson wondered about the NFL record for consecutive victories, which Pompei revealed is 21, set by the New England Patriots spanning the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
“Why can’t we do that?” Johnson wondered. “There has never been an undefeated season (since teams have been playing more than 14 regular-season games). The moon is the Super Bowl, but we’re shooting beyond that, for the stars. And I want these players to feel that each and every single day they come in.”
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With just three double-digit wins for the Bears, Johnson had to keep his foot on the gas as a play caller in a different way last season. He's hoping to shift back toward domination offensively, which is equally crazy, diabolical, and not surprising. A goal of becoming the highest-scoring offense ever this season somehow feels feasible when Johnson puts it out there.
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