The Chicago Bears have traditionally sought a specific style of head coach over the years. They want somebody who is hard-nosed, disciplined, and tough. Guys who reflect the mentality of the city. That is why they've tended to drift toward coaches with defensive backgrounds. However, the NFL has changed a lot in the past 40 years. Rule changes have made it much more of an offensive league. Smart teams have leaned into that, prioritizing the pursuit of sharp offensive minds to lead the way as head coaches.
Chicago has tried that in the past with mostly negative results. Nobody considered Mike Ditka an offensive guru, so he didn't count. Marc Trestman was a disaster. Matt Nagy started well but fell off rather quickly after that. Now, after a brutal three-year stint by Matt Eberflus, the Bears opted to swing big this time. They put on the full-court press to lure Ben Johnson away from Detroit. To the shock of many, they succeeded. Based on what Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times has heard, Chicago got the next authentic offensive genius.
That’s why Johnson is here, and the expectations going into his first season with the Bears — and first season ever as a head coach at any level — are difficult to pin down.
There’s rationale to demand a lot and a little and everything in between.
Johnson has been the most coveted coaching candidate in the NFL for years, and the Bears were the team to finally lure him from a very good job as Lions offensive coordinator. It seems like half the league has chased him. There is consensus that he’s the next offensive genius, and with a roster that’s fully built out to win now, so he’d better.
The Chicago Bears are on a great path if this is true.
Not every offensive head coach is a true genius. It is easy to separate the good ones from the greats. Sid Gillman was probably the first offensive mastermind of the modern NFL, making a name for himself as head coach of the Chargers in the 1960s. Fittingly, Don Coryell followed in his footsteps, revolutionizing the passing game in the 1970s and 1980s with the Cardinals and Chargers. Next came Bill Walsh, mastermind of the West Coast offense, and Joe Gibbs, creator of the single-back system. Mike Shanahan emerged onto the scene in the 1990s with the Denver Broncos, followed by Andy Reid in the 2000s, and Sean McVay in the 2010s.
The results speak for themselves.
- Gillman: 122-99, 1x AFL champion
- Coryell: 111-83
- Walsh: 92-59, 3x Super Bowl champion
- Gibbs: 154-94, 3x Super Bowl champion
- Shanahan: 170-138, 2x Super Bowl champion
- Reid: 273-146, 3x Super Bowl champion
- McVay: 80-52, 1x Super Bowl champion
Seems the offensive geniuses do a lot of winning. If the experts are right about Johnson, the Chicago Bears have positioned themselves as a legitimate NFC threat for the first time in two decades.
