Armed with dynamic weapons and an obsession for dominant run schemes, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson is evolving beyond his success in Detroit to maximize Caleb Williams and a loaded roster.
Ben Johnson isn't the same play caller he was in Detroit.
The Chicago Bears' coach started calling plays for the Lions in 2022 and continued as Detroit's offensive coordinator for three seasons, helping the organization become one of the top offenses over that time period.
Even though Detroit ended as a top-5 scoring offense in each of those three seasons, Johnson feels he has changed as a play caller since joining the Bears.
“I would say fairly significantly," Johnson said. "I'd like to think I'm better in situations than I've been in the past. You continue to grow, and you learn from your own mistakes or things that have gone well for you. You look to tailor it to the guys that are available, and we have different guys this year than we had last year and certainly anywhere else I've been. The challenge is making sure that we're all coordinated, on the same page, and putting them all in a spot to succeed. I love the challenge of looking at (WR) Luther Burden (III) and how do we get him the ball and maximize what he does best, along with (WR) Rome (Odunze), along with (TE) Colston (Loveland) and (TE) Cole (Kmet). We have this whole slew of weapons that we're looking to maximize. I think that's the fun part. The plays don't matter so much to me. It's more so, how do we get these guys the ball with a little bit of space to do what they do so well.”
In Johnson's first season with the Bears, Chicago ended as the No. 9 scoring offense. Caleb Williams set the franchise record for passing yards in a single season (3,942), and Chicago's run game finished with the third-most rushing yards (2,345).
When it comes to the Bears' rushing attack, Johnson's fingerprints are all over it. Bears tight end Cole Kmet sat down with NFL Network's Stacey Dales at Halas Hall on Tuesday and shared Johnson's involvement in the run schemes.
"He's just a true football coach, you know," Kmet said. "I've been around a lot of guys that like their pass game, they love their pass scheme, and they love the ball in the air. At the end of the day, Ben loves the run game and that's his baby. I've never been around a play caller let alone a head coach that will do the run install. Usually that is the offensive line coach or the run game coordinator or whoever it might be, but Ben takes a lot of pride in it, and he wants to make sure everybody is on the same page when it comes to the run game."
Veteran wide receiver Kalif Raymond has been on the same page with Johnson going back to their time in Detroit. For the first time in five seasons, though, Raymond is on a new team, but reunited with Johnson.
Despite the two having history together, Raymond is adjusting to Johnson's offense in Chicago.
"Some of the stuff I've heard before," Raymond said. "The difference here, is there's a lot of things that are here, that's now changed versus where I'm coming from. So, some stuff's the same, some stuff's new. So there is a bit of studying still going on. You're in new spots and then hearing it, a good bit of it is different too. So, there’s enough to where I understand schematically what we're trying to do, but the verbiage and everything like that, you still kind of like dial that in, whether it's one thing or another. So that's a little bit of change.”
And that's to be expected, especially since Johnson isn't just copy and pasting what he did in Detroit and expecting that to work in Chicago. Williams is a different quarterback from Jared Goff, and that newness extends to the other 10 starters on offense.
Here's an in-depth breakdown of how the Bears created explosive plays last season compared to how Johnson manufactured them in his three seasons as the offensive coordinator with the Lions.
Johnson embraces the challenge that comes with calling plays and trying to find the best possible ways to maximize his players' abilities. That's what the elite play callers in the NFL do better than anyone else.
It's up to Johnson to navigate the different trends that come and go naturally with every season and to evolve while staying in the forefront of change, but in the end, football is "about the fundamentals."
"And I think those building blocks and those pillars we don't waiver from," Johnson said. "Our guys are probably tired of hearing about it this spring, and yet they're still going to hear about it in training camp and throughout the season as well. It's the reason why we're able to do some fun stuff, some creative stuff on offense, is because they take those simple fundamentals to the next level and they can apply them. We can add a few layers, whether it's the ball handling or whether it's a little nuance with the route running. And that's where it really comes together nicely.”
