Bears News: Poles on hiring Ben Johnson, potential for new defensive coordinator |
CHICAGO - When the Chicago Bears fired Matt Eberflus, general manager Ryan Poles promised the Bears would extensively search for their next head coach. He kept his promise as Chicago interviewed some coaches and others not even on the map.
But in the end, they landed on the candidate everyone wanted - Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. “We did a lot of research. (Director of Football Administration) Matt Feinstein in our group put some data together. (Johnson)’s done some things that are special in terms of getting the offense to operate at a high level and that stood out. So, he was always the top candidate, but you never know. It’s like the draft. You never know how it’s going to fall, so you have to be prepared and that’s the reason why we did what we did,” Poles said. “Doing the research on Ben starts with watching the games and his feel for calling plays, I thought, was second to none. That really stood out and then when we spent time together on the zoom call, he basically came through the screen (and) was like, ‘I want to be there and I want to help you guys win’ and that really separated him from everybody else.” Johnson has been coaching in various roles in the NFL since 2012. His professional football coaching career started with the Miami Dolphins as an offensive assistant. He would also serve as an assistant quarterbacks coach, tight ends coach, assistant wide receivers coach and their top wide receivers coach. When he went to the Detroit Lions, he started in offensive quality control before becoming their tight ends in 2020. In 2022, he became Detroit’s offensive coordinator. In 2023, there was talk that he would become a head coach, but he decided to stay for one more year. When he finally made that change, Johnson wanted to stay in the NFC North, which is the most competitive division in the league. That is part of why Poles and the rest of the Bears are excited about Johnson's appointment as the next head coach. “Our entire organization is fired up about Ben Johnson. Throughout the entire process, we came away really impressed with his passion, his leadership, his football IQ and his vision for winning football,” Poles said. “He’s direct in terms of his communication. I think that’s really important with anybody and then we just talked about the adaptability. I would have been concerned if he said that this is a cookie cutter thing; I’ll bring Detroit’s playbook here and just drop it. He probably wouldn’t be here if he said that. But, he understands that he’s got to shift and change and adapt to the talent that he has and that awareness is really encouraging.” With Chicago’s head coach finally in place, decisions will have to be made about the offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators. The defensive coordinator position may be the most pressing since Johnson will call the offensive plays. The special teams unit had a solid season last year under special teams coordinator Richard Hightower. While Poles said the team is keeping their option at defensive coordinator open, he sounds pretty open to hiring someone to replace current defensive coordinator Eric Washington. “I’ve had conversations with our front office. They’ve been working through free agency and through this whole process, which by the way is awesome,” Poles said. “We’re at the level where I can step away, really lean into this and for those guys (to) be able to run that process really, really well. But, we’re going to stay open-minded. If we need to adapt to 34, 43, we can do that and actually a lot of our guys have the flexibility to do that.”
