Not many people expected Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson to win Coach of the Year at the NFL Honors award show, but the voting was a tad disrespectful towards him.
It turned out to be New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel winning the award at the NFL Honors show. That was not surprising, as Vrabel took the Patriots to the Super Bowl in his first season as the head coach, so that was expected.
What wasn't expected was the results of who got how many votes in the Coach of the Year category. It turns out that Johnson got less first place votes than many expected; that's because he got just one.
Ben Johnson only one first place vote for Coach of the Year
Most reasonable Chicago Bears fans would acknowledge that, since Johnson didn't make the Super Bowl, Vrabel was worthy of winning it, but it feels a bit disrespectful to only have one first-place vote for him. Johnson arguably had a more impressive resume than the other nominated coaches.
In 2024, this was a Bears team that was a complete mess with a 5-12 season that ended with Chicago losing 10 of their last 11 games. Johnson had to fix everything about this Bears team in his first season.
He ended up completely flipping the script on Chicago, transforming them into an 11-6 team that won the NFC North and an incredible NFC Wild Card game against the Green Bay Packers. It had been since 2018 that the Bears last won the division, and 15 years since they last won a playoff game.
Johnson retooled an offensive line that allowed 68 sacks in 2024 to allow just 24 sacks in 2025. He made quarterback Caleb Williams into a clutch machine with seven comeback and game-winning drives, an NFL record.
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Who knows how the rest of the voting went, but that was a clear indicator that Johnson was at the bottom when he should have been near the top. Good motivation for the young head coach going into the 2026 season.