After the disaster that was his first head coaching hire, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles had to nail it the second time around. One season in, it looks like he did with the choice of Ben Johnson.
Johnson has put to bed any flimsy idea that he might not be head coaching material. His offensive mind has proven to be matched by his ability to set a tone and a culture, and everyone attached to the Bears knows what to expect now.
ESPN's Courtney Cronin has taken a close look at Johnson's impact on the Bears heading into his second season as head coach. Poles' perspective, as a co-prominent front-facing member of the organization, was, of course, captured.
Ryan Poles uses perfect word to sum up Ben Johnson's impact on him and the Bears' organization
"It's probably my biggest weakness, I trust early," Poles said. "We went through a process to hire, and once you hit all [checkpoints], and once you're in the boat with me, you get everything. You can have the keys to my car, my house, garage code, you can sign in my iPhone if you want, you can watch my kids, I watch your kids. I'm all in."
"So he (Johnson) hit all of those boxes. So I started at a high level of trust and worked backwards, and it's remained extremely high and I believe it'll stay up there."
Poles can step back a bit and let Johnson take more of the reins of responsibility. He could not do that with Matt Eberflus, which he more or less confirmed as he continued to praise Johnson to Cronin.
"It made me proud, because there has to be trust to do that," Poles said. "It's almost like it's your baby and you've got to hand it over, but when you hand it over to the right person, you have a ton of confidence and you're at peace."
Poles seemingly had to circle back to that last word, if only to reinforce its importance and appropriateness.
"I would say that's probably the best word. This is the most at peace that I've been."
A successful head coach has to be, before anything else really, a steady, capable hand at all the wheels they have to take. Some are cut out for that responsibility, while some simply aren't, and it can't be known until they are in the role.
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Poles said Johnson has given him more peace than he's ever had as Bears' general manager. It's safe to say that sentiment also applies to the entire organization and the fanbase.
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