At his introductory press conference Wednesday, Bears coach Ben Johnson took aim at the Packers and the rest of the NFC North as he sets out to “win now” with a roster he believes is ready to compete.
“There are three reasons why I wanted this job,” Johnson said. “This place is special; these people are special. This is exactly where I wanted to raise my family. This roster that Ryan’s built is stocked and loaded. Everyone wants to talk about the quarterback,.. but there are a lot of pieces in place. And finally, i wanted to stay in this division. I know this is the toughest division in football… And to be frank with you, I kinda enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”
The Bears hired Johnson, 38, after three seasons as offensive coordinator for the Lions. In his first season, he helped them jump from 25th to fifth in scoring, then they finished fifth last season and led the NFL with 33.2 points per game this season.
Johnson takes over a team that looked good on paper, yet went 5-12 under predecessor Matt Eberflus this season. Johnson was a little mystified about why the roster produced that record.
“Going into this season, I thought this place was a sleeping giant,” he said. “I was more concerned about the Chicago Bears than any other team in the division.”
Johnson got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Boston College and was there from 2009 through ’11, then held various roles with the Dolphins under coaches Joe Philbin and Adam Gase from 2012 through ’18 and joined the Lions as a quality control coach for Matt Patricia in 2019.
When Lions coach Dan Campbell was hired in 2021, he made Johnson the passing-game coordinator and promoted him to offensive coordinator the next season.
