Ben Johnson’s ability to call offensive plays landed him the head coaching job with the Bears in 2025 and it helped the team win the NFC North on its way to the divisional round of the playoffs.
Johnson is raising the bar for himself in his second season in Chicago. He told reporters on Tuesday that he has changed “fairly significantly” since he first called plays for the Lions in 2022. Johnson said he believes he is “better in situations than I’ve been in the past” and that his improvement should help him face what he identified as the major offensive challenge that his team will face this season.
“We have different guys this year than we had last year and certainly anywhere else I’ve been,” Johnson said, via the team’s website. “The challenge is making sure that we’re all coordinated and on the same page and putting them all in a spot to succeed. But I love the challenge of looking at Luther Burden and how we get him the ball and maximize what he does best, along with Rome [Odunze] and Colston [Loveland] and Cole [Kmet]. We have this whole slew of weapons we’re looking to maximize. I think that’s the fun part. The plays don’t matter so much to me; it’s moreso, how do we get these guys the ball in space to do what they do so well?’”
All of the players Johnson listed will need quarterback Caleb Williams to deliver them the ball for the offense to come together as hoped. Williams thrived last season when things broke down, but Johnson said that the quarterback “just needs to worry about executing the play at hand” and that view underscores the coach’s confidence in his own ability to push the right buttons in 2026.
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