There hasn’t been a more patient NFL head-coaching candidate than Ben Johnson that I can really ever recall. It’s extremely rare for a hot coaching name to bypass taking a job during a hiring cycle — Johnson was patient enough to ride things out in Detroit for two cycles.
Johnson was pursued by the Panthers in multiple years and was easily the hottest name on the market last offseason, impressive considering Bill Freaking Belichick was in the wind. Johnson finally made the jump this year, just two days after the Lions were eliminated, taking a gig within the NFC North to run the Chicago Bears.
The move speaks volumes about Caleb Williams and, with the news the Jaguars were also interested, perhaps even more about Jacksonville GM Trent Baalke.
I ranked the Bears as the best coaching job on the market primarily because of Williams and his upside. It’s clear Johnson agrees and it should make Midway football enthusiasts extremely optimistic for the future of the franchise.
Johnson’s offense in Detroit was revolutionary. In the three years he was offensive coordinator, Jared Goff completed 68.1 percent of his passes and *averaged* 4,457 yards, 32 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions per year. The Lions went from a bottom-of-the-barrel team to the unquestionably best offense in football. Dan Campbell deserves the, ahem, lion’s share of credit, of course, and is probably happy for his colleague, even if he’s not thrilled about having to gameplan against Johnson’s offense twice a year.
We can’t know if Johnson will be a good head coach — moving from a coordinator to the head honcho is a leap that’s impossible to predict — is but we can make a logical leap and suggest the Bears offense should make a quick turnaround under Johnson.
As a Lions coach, Johnson got to see Caleb up close multiple times, including the incredible second-half performance Williams put on against the Lions in Week 16 on Thanksgiving Day.
Even though the Bears offense was stuck in the mud for most of the season under Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown, there were absolutely a ton of “wow” moments mixed in from the rookie. You can bet Johnson’s seen every throw Williams made as a rookie, especially with the late-season matchup, and that likely played a huge part in his decision to take this job.
Goff is an excellent quarterback who has played well under multiple coaches and on multiple teams, but he truly flourished under Johnson, thanks in part to the Lions offensive coordinator stuffing his bag full of outrageous tricks. Johnson’s offense utilized the Lions speed with stuff like mid-field laterals off the catch to Jameson Williams:
The Lions dominant two-headed run game with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs set up just silly stuff like Knuckles tossing teeters to tight end Sam LaPorta:
Or perhaps you prefer Amon-Ra St. Brown dropping dimes to Jared Goff off an end around?
A multi-lateral fleaflicker bomb to LaPorta? Sure, why not:
Offensive linemen catching touchdown passes? Offensive linemen catching touchdown passes.
The dude got so creative he ran an end around to a starting tackle and it nearly worked except Penei Sewell was smart enough to pull the ball down instead of throwing it.
And of course the famous fake fall from Goff against, naturally, the Bears:
This probably didn’t hurt him in his interview with Chicago!
Now, look, having an incredible offensive line — Detroit’s is arguably the best in the NFL — and a ridiculous cabinet-full of weapons plus a head coach who empowered Johnson to get weird regardless of the down and distance and the aforementioned running game certainly makes things work a lot easier than it might for other teams.
But there’s no question Johnson’s offense should click quickly for Chicago. Williams is a ridiculously athletic quarterback who’s also shown the ability to thrive as a pure pocket passer. The Bears have to improve the offensive line and do it quick. But D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze, along with Keenan Allen, D’Andre Swift and Cole Kmet is a pretty good starting point to unearth some big scores. We saw them in the second half of games this season really produce when their backs were against the wall. If the Bears operated like that from jump street instead of being hyper conservative, they probably win a few more games last year.
The good news is the bad results mean Chicago has a solid draft pick with a quarterback already in the fold. And now they have their coach, who should very much help to unleash the full skillset Williams possesses.
My only issue with Chicago was the front office, but Johnson clearly felt comfortable working with Ryan Poles and George McCaskey. It makes me feel better about the situation because of how concerned he’s been with other situations around the NFL. When he decided to stay in Detroit last year, he even cited ownership, the front office and the coaching staff being on the same page as part of the reason.
Which leads us to Jacksonville. It remains completely stunning the Jags continue to employ GM Trent Baalke, who has overseen the Urban Meyer disaster and managed to weasel his way out of trouble by shifting blame onto Doug Pederson. Johnson was definitely interested in the Jaguars gig — that’s been a poorly-kept secret around the league for months.
The Lions most offensive explosive day came against Jacksonville, when Johnson’s unit dropped a 50-burger on the hapless Jaguars defense. It should have been clear at that very moment that Shad Khan needed to do whatever he needed to get Johnson in the building.
But it sure sounds as if the reason he’s in Chicago and not Jacksonville is Baalke.
It’s an easier division with a potential franchise quarterback in Trevor Lawrence and would have gotten Johnson and his family back to the southeast, where both he and his wife are from. He was willing to take on the Lions and Vikings and Packers — all ascending teams who made the playoffs this year — six times a year instead of dealing with the setup in Jacksonville.
This isn’t the first time a (potentially) great head coach has been chased from a franchise by Baalke either. Baalke famously feuded with Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco, winning a power struggle with the mercurial coach and sending him to Michigan, where he would eventually win a national title before returning to the NFL with the Chargers this year. Baalke would oversee the disasters that were Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly before getting the boot and slinking his way into the Jags front office, eventually replacing Dave Caldwell when his old boss got fired by Jacksonville.
Baalke’s never been hired as a general manager without working in the organization first and outside of the time he spent with Harbaugh and a somewhat fluky 2022 run by the Jaguars, hasn’t had much success with his rosters. Trevor Lawrence was a layup first overall and hasn’t panned out the way his pedigree expected. Taking Travon Walker over Aiden Hutchinson was a really poor decision, and one that felt fueled by Hutch playing for Harbaugh at Michigan and a scouting blind spot related to the length of his arms. The latest foul up for the Jags GM appears to be serving as somewhat of a tiebreaker for the hottest head coaching candidate on the market.
Johnson ultimately picked the Bears because of Williams and his upside, especially on a rookie contract. There’s no doubt about that and it says a lot about Caleb’s potential. But the decision to choose Chicago also speaks volumes about the situation in Jacksonville and it should tamper enthusiasm for a slam-dunk hire in this cycle.
