The case can be made that the Chicago Bears have never been winners of a NFL coaching cycle.
Prior to Ben Johnson, the four recent coaching hires for the Bears were Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, and Matt Eberflus.
The hiring of Trestman was an outside-the-box hire as the Bears were trying to usher the organization into the modern era of NFL offenses. What the Bears failed to vet is Trestman's ability to lead a locker room. While John Fox was a household name, it was clear that his run with the Bears served as his retirement tour. While there was a lot to like about the hire of Nagy, he wasn't the top candidate available in the way Johnson was. With Eberflus, there, quite frankly, was nothing to be encouraged about from the moment he was hired.
The Bears' hiring of Johnson was a completely new process. Johnson was the top coaching candidate available this offseason, and the Bears spared no expense in courting him. In unfamiliar territory, the Bears' head coach hiring has been universally praised. The latest praise arrived from Bleacher Report, as Maurice Moton had them among the winners of the 2025 NFL coaching cycle.
The praise of the Bears' Ben Johnson hire continues.
One talking point that was featured in Moton's work was the idea that the Bears weakened the Lions' coaching staff. Dan Campbell's coaching staff was poached this offseason with Johnson landing with with the Bears, and Aaron Glenn hired by the New York Jets. In each case, Johnson and Glenn also had several assistant coaches follow them.
Now, it would be misguided to think that Lions are going to take a step back. They still have playmakers littered across both their offense and defense. Having said that, it will be interesting to see the impact that Johnson's departure has on Jared Goff. It was Goff's work with Johnson that resurrected his career as a quarterback in the NFL. Now, the test will be if the success is sustainable with Johnson now with the Bears.