Bears coach Ben Johnson was asked Thursday about trying to make life easier for his new offensive linemen.
Ease, he said, had no place in the discussion.
“It shouldn’t be easy,” said Johnson, who was hired away from the Lions’ offensive coordinator job in January. “This should be hard. Spring should be hard, training camp should be hard.
“Anything worth doing is hard, so it’s going to take a lot of work, it’s going to take a lot of effort. In particular, Year 1, we should not be comfortable as we’re coming into the springtime.”
The Bears emerged from the first wave of free agency with three starters — center Drew Dalman, defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett — to go with starting guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, whom they acquired via trade. They’ll all be part of the team’s extra minicamp next month.
That’s when things get hard.
“We’re going to load these guys up, we’re going to see what they can handle, we’re going to fail, and that’s O.K.,” Johnson said. “That’s part of how you learn and how you grow and you get better. And so, we’re going to encourage that as a coaching staff. Nothing about this is about making it easier.”
That’s not intimidating to the newest Bears.
“It’s exciting,” said Dalman, who spent his first four seasons with the Falcons. “I feel like it’s reality. So acknowledging that is awesome. Just having someone who embraces challenges, and that’s what the NFL is all about, is really exciting. It makes us feel like we’re going to approach everything head on.”
That didn’t always happen under Matt Eberflus. Culture is the most over-used word in the NFL — and talking about is typically a crutch used by teams that can’t point to wins and losses. But Johnson will be deliberate in stressing what he finds important as a head coach.
Thuney is a four-time Super Bowl champion who played for two of the great coaches and with two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history — the Patriots’ Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and the Chiefs’ Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.
“Just seeing how guys approach the day, how guys approach practice, the intensity that they have in meetings and the attention they pay to detail … ,” Thuney said. “You have to try not to look too far ahead and maximize each day — try and make the most of it.”
Jarrett was practically the mayor of the Falcons’ locker room over 10 seasons, being nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award twice.
“I had an opportunity to join this team, join Ben, be a part of something that is gonna be special,” Jarrett said. “Me being somebody who wants to be in a position to compete for championships, encourage the younger guys around me, and just really share my experience and my hunger for greatness to others who want to achieve it.
“I’m in as special place in a special time in a special moment where I’m supposed to be.”
That’s the Bears’ hope. Johnson — and the promise of hard work ahead — has been part of the allure.
“You want to be a part of exciting football, you want to be a part of scoring a lot of points, you want to be a part of creativity and doing things a little bit different,” general manager Ryan Poles said. “That’s fun. That’s fun to work in that environment. … There’s going to be some of those foundational things you got to put together that are tough, but what this can be is really exciting.”
