RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Bears assistants don’t typically spend a lot of time with coach Ben Johnson on game day.
That’s by design — Johnson is notoriously intense and not particularly chatty hours before kickoff — but also practical. Many of the team’s assistants head up to the coaching booth before Johnson’s pregame speech.
Even from the coaching box, though, they can feel Johnson when he takes the field. His confidence is contagious, even through binoculars.
“Why do you think you're going to win?” offensive coordinator Press Taylor asked. “We have Ben. Like, that's a big part of it.”
Many around Halas Hall believe the same — that Johnson has the intoxicating blend of coaching acumen and force of personality the Bears have been missing since Mike Ditka was fired after the 1992 season.
His second season will be a test of just how right they are.
Spend enough time at Halas Hall — this is my 14 th season — and you’re training to look for traps. Marc Trestman often addressed the team from the back of the meeting room? John Fox wasn’t sure the Bears were going to draft Mitch Trubisky until the very end? Matt Nagy is going to keep using Cody Parkey even after all his regular-season misses? Matt Eberflus’ whole coaching ethos is rooted in a defensive film grading system?
Caution about Johnson’s second season, then, is essential. But his second training camp already feels more stable than the last time the Bears defended their NFC North crown.
In the offseason after the infamous “Double-Doink,” Nagy, the NFL Coach of the Year, held a kicking derby in which he believed that quiet — “Augusta Silence,” he called it — applied more pressure than crowd noise. It was a circus. Days later, the Bears held a convention in which many of their past heroes declared Nagy's team Super Bowl contenders. It was far too presumptuous for a team that didn’t even win a playoff game.
The Bears and Packers played in the NFL’s Thursday night opener. Nagy wore George Halas’ fedora into the stadium to commemorate the Bears’ 100 th season. The Bears lost 10-3 and Trubisky had a 62.1 passer rating.
That momentum was lost forever.
Seizing it this year matters.
Cynicism is well-earned around these parts. Squint hard enough, and Caleb Williams’ “Madden” coronation in June looks a bit like the Bears’ 2019 convention. Still, this training camp feels different — in part because Johnson feels the same. For all the attention received got in Year 1, from chanting “Good, Better, Best” to ripping off his shirt on “Black Friday” to filming a scene in an upcoming Hallmark movie, Johnson remains the same hard-driving head coach.
“I think that's the biggest compliment you can have,” receiver Rome Odunze said.
His demands haven’t changed. The players have noticed.
“I feel like the culture has been set,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “I feel like the expectations have been set.”
Those have been communicated — shouted, really — to his quarterback. After initially wondering if Johnson hated him, Williams has reacted to the daily challenges the way those at Halas Hall hoped he would.
“They both want to be great and win Super Bowls,” general manager Ryan Poles said. “That's all that matters.”
With a strong season, Johnson has a chance to define the Bears’ identity for the next decade: unflinchingly intense — remember him reaching full boil when a phone rang during his press conference? — with offensive panache. A we-do-what-want rushing attack with a takeaway-happy defense. A head coach stomping on the field and making those around him giddy he’s headed for their sideline.
“There were things when I took the job that I really strongly believed in — and so that's still going to be the pillars of it,” Johnson said Friday. “I don't want to deviate too far from things I believe in. I think we had some success and it worked. …
“It's really more about trusting the people around me, delegating, knowing their strengths and weaknesses better than I did before.”
That’s what Nagy didn’t have. Shortly after the “Double-Doink,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Nagys best assistant, left to become the Broncos head coach. He look linebackers coach Brandon Staley, who went on to become the Chargers’ head coach, and defensive backs coach Ed Donatell with him.
Johnson, by contrast, returns almost all of his staff — all but offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who didn’t call plays, and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy. Every day, Johnson said, he learns “a gold nugget” from defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, a two-time head coach.
In team meetings, Johnson and his coaches make it clear to their players the Bears have gone from being the hunter to being hunted. Coming off their first NFC North title since 2018, the Bears have the most difficult strength of schedule in the NFL. They have the weight of expectations, too, that have crushed previous Bears coaches.
If the was a secret to the Bears’ success last year, he said, it was the relationships formed in the summer.
“We're in a race right now to develop the same chemistry that we had a year ago," he said.
There will be some changes to training camp. The Bears purchased high-end cameras that allow them to cut up practice film in real time. Practice times will fluctuate in August, a nod to the short weeks and prime-time showings they’ll have to deal with all season. The grueling practice that molded the Bears last season? They’ll have another one of those soon.
Joint practices in Cincinnati and Nashville — and the hotel stays, meals and camaraderie that comes with them — were scheduled with the sole purpose of bonding the Bears.
What Johnson wants will remain the same.
“It’s going to be a physical, it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a demanding ordeal,” Johnson said. “Anything worth doing is going to be challenging. These guys all know that. And I think they embrace it.”
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