The Lions’ practice facility was mostly empty on Saturday, Jan. 11. Players stayed home to enjoy the payoff for finishing atop the NFC — a first-round playoff bye.
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn went to the office and each hunkered down in different conference rooms to do virtual interviews with teams hunting for a head coach. The Bears were one of four teams with whom Johnson did a virtual interview — but he didn’t want them to see it that way.
“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘I want this job,’” chairman George McCaskey said Wednesday. “The last thing he said before we turned off the camera was, ‘Did I tell you that I want this job?’”
The feeling was mutual. The Bears had targeted Johnson as their top candidate since firing head coach Matt Eberflus the day after Thanksgiving, convinced that his play-calling acumen and leadership skills were a perfect pairing with quarterback Caleb Williams and the rest of the Bears’ roster.
“He basically came to the screen and was like, ‘I want to be there. I want to help you guys win,’” general manager Ryan Poles said. “And that really separated him from everybody else.”
Despite a full-court press from the Raiders and part-owner Tom Brady, Johnson was steadfast that the Bears were his first choice.
“I know what this city is about,” Johnson said at his introductory press conference. “It just simply did not take me a long time to decide that this is where I wanted to be, I wanted my family to be. And these are the people that I wanted to be around.”
He had found Poles, with whom he had mutual friends from their shared Boston College graduate assistant experiences— they used the same cubicle a year apart — to be trustworthy and a willing partner. He believes McCaskey and Warren have established a linear structure that’s conducive to winning despite the fact the Bears are coming off a 5-12 season.
“It was clear to me from the beginning that the priorities were straight,” he said.
The 38-year-old considered the Bears roster to be “stocked” with talent. — and thought Williams had the potential to be one of the league’s great quarterbacks.
Johnson was motivated to stay in a division he considers the best in the NFL — and against the rival Packers.
“I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year,” he said.
For the last 10 summers, he and his family traveled to Wrigley Field for one Cubs series. Johnson knew it was where he wanted to raise his family. He didn’t need to tour Halas Hall first for that to be the case
“It doesn’t take long to realize that this place is special,” he said. “These people are special.”
Johnson used the virtual interview to talk individually to Poles, but also to McCaskey and Warren and the entire search committee, which consisted of cap guru Matt Feinstein, chief administrative officer Ted Cruz, human resources maven Liz Geist and senior player personnel director Jeff King. Johnson and King share an agent in Rick Smith.
The virtual interview contained one session that Johnson didn’t see anywhere else but should resonate with Bears fans: the team put up game situations and had Johnson tell him what plays he’d call, what he’d tell his quarterback and if and when he’d take timeouts. Game Management 101 — a skill at which Eberflus failed.
“I actually really appreciated that,” he said. “Because that’s really where I’ve thrived as a play caller over the last few years, and being put on the hot seat and trying to think in real time.”
When the Lions lost to the Commanders on Saturday night, the Bears sprung into action. A job search that completed 17 interviews needed to strike quickly. Smith presented the lucrative deal to Johnson, who checked the notes that he made after his initial interview with the Bears. Johnson knew he was ready to leave the Lions, believing that the program was established enough to survive a coordinator change. He was ready to take over his own team.
He agreed to the contract Monday and flew to Halas Hall on Tuesday, where he signed it.
“It did not take me long,” he said, “particularly with that first interview in the back of my head.”
When the Bears landed the coach they wanted, many around the league were surprised. Moving quickly required the Bears to be efficient, calculating, and generally un-Bears-like. Wednesday, team executives basked in the hiring, even as they acknowledged —from experience — that winning the offseason isn’t the same as winning games. One, though, could lead to the other.
Johnson said that, entering last season, he considered the Bears’ roster more dangerous than that of the Packers or Vikings, who wound up joining the Lions in the playoffs.
“There’s a number of reasons why that did not unfold,” he said. “Which is why I’m here. I’ll get to the bottom of that.”
Poles winced a bit when he heard it.
“You can take that both ways,” he said. “It’s great, also frustrating because of what happened. But I do believe everything happens for a reason.”
Johnson was the people’s choice. Warren said that he was having dinner at Old Pueblo Cantina in Lakeview when a Bears fan sent him a shot of tequila with a note attached that said, “Please hire Ben.” Warren sipped his tequila, folded the note and brought it home with him. He planned to show Johnson later.
Warren described the pairing of Johnson and the Bears as “bashert,” a Yiddish word that means meant to be.
It’s a credit to the Bears that Johnson seemed just as excited about the marriage as the franchise is.
“It doesn’t always happen that the most popular choice is the best choice,” McCaskey said. “But I think in this case, we have that result.”
