In just one year, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has earned the respect of his peers in the NFL and the football world for what he has done with the franchise in his first season.
The Bears went through quite the transformation as a team, going 5-12 in 2024 before Johnson came to the Windy City and bouncing back to 11-6 last year, which included a division title and a playoff victory. Illinois Fighting Illini head football coach Bret Bielema was at Bears OTAs last week and complimented Johnson for the operation he is running with the Bears.
"The practice that I witnessed, nothing schematically we'll talk about, but like the organization, the detail, the communication," Bielema said via 104.3 The Score. "I always say the greatest thing you can bring to an organization is communication and consistency. And what I saw witnessed, in my opinion, 18 years ago of going to NFL camps, Ben (Johnson) is just on top of everything. Everybody in that building speaks his language. I'm a huge Bears fan, right? So I grew up in the era, the Super Bowl Shuffle in '85. I was 15 years old, right? So I've been a Bears fan for a long time. And to see the way they're led right now and to see the organization behind it, from personnel to schemes, you know, the Bears have an unbelievable setup. They got four practice fields. They, in my opinion, would be one of the top five facilities and organizations in the entire NFL."
Ben Johnson is running a well oiled machine in Chicago
It was a lot of work that Johnson got accomplished in one year with the franchise. The biggest thing he had to do was change the Bears' culture, as they went from a team used to losing every year to one that posted a winning record in his first campaign.
This became clear throughout the 2025 season, when the Bears found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter multiple times. Chicago showed resilience by completing an NFL record seven comeback and game-winning drives, including six in the regular season and one in the NFC Wild Card win over the Green Bay Packers, when they were down 18 points.
Johnson's biggest homework assignment was working with quarterback Caleb Williams to get him to develop into an elite quarterback. While there were times when Johnson had to get in Williams' face and address his accuracy issues, the young quarterback still managed to show improvement, breaking the franchise record for passing yards in a season with 3,942.
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The Bears still have work to do to be in the Super Bowl conversation, but Johnson has this roster in the right spot, making it realistic to see this team hoist a Lombardi Trophy within the next three to five years.
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