Bears general manager Ryan Poles is a scout at heart. He graded his head coaching candidates appropriately — and had the other members of the Bears’ hiring committee to do the same. Every time committee members finished a forum with one of the Bears’ 17 candidates in January, Poles had them fill out a form.
Poles created a scoring system. He had members of the committee write objective and subjective assessments of each candidate. There was even an area to list any whether a committee member knew the candidate, or knew others who knew them. If so, they had to make phone calls.
Poles reminded Bears president/CEO Kevin Warren of a lawyer preparing for a trial or a business merger. Chairman George McCaskey thought it looked more familiar.
“It was fascinating and thorough,” McCaskey said. “The sheet I remembered looked like a scouting report. … It fit right in with what Ryan does on a day-to-day basis.”
The coach the Bears chose had the highest score on the sheets: Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
Monday, Bears players get to see what all the excitement was about when they report to Halas Hall for the first day of the team’s offseason workout program. Phase I, which lasts two weeks, limits players to meetings, rehabilitation and strength and conditioning. It will mark the first time, though, that they’re all in the same building with Johnson and his coaching staff.
Johnson has already thought about what he wants to tell the team, but joked last week at the NFL’s annual meetings that he was putting off writing anything down.
“Listen, it’s a different regime,” he said. “What happened last year was last year. We’re moving on. We’re moving past that.”
Johnson’s mentoring of quarterback Caleb Williams will come with help from offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett. Like Matt Eberflus did last year, Johnson will limit exactly how many coaches communicate with Williams every day, starting this week.
“You go back to the basics,” Johnson said. “It’s the fundamentals of the quarterback position. What’s our footwork going to look like under center? From the shotgun? What are we calling the formations? What’s the defensive identification going to look like?
“So that we’re all speaking the same language, we’ve got to get on the same page because it’ll be a little bit different for him than what he experienced last year. And if we can mesh together and start speaking the same language, that’s when things will really start to take off.”
In the last 10 weeks, those inside Halas Hall have gotten to know the Johnson as personable yet driven. McCaskey sees the look in his eye in the weight room.
“Frenetic would be the best description,” McCaskey said. “He’s intense. You can see the competitiveness.”
Halas Hall feels empty in the offseason, Poles said, which always makes Day 1 of the offseason program feel special. But the anticipation of Monday’s return is more palpable.
“I’m just excited to see guys develop relationships with their new coaches,” Poles said. “I would love for them to feel our intentionality on how the staff was built and the people who are in the building. They’re going to understand that they’re going to be challenged … through that discomfort they’re going to know that they’re being challenged to be the best football player they can possibly be.”
Johnson’s staff has “a good combination of youth and experience, and intelligence and grit,” Warren said. Its members come from different coaching trees and schemes: defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, the former Raiders and Saints head coach, who will preach a steady diet of man coverage; running backs coach Eric Bieniemy, the Super Bowl winning former Chiefs offensive coordinator and a loud, aggressive voice on the practice field; and receivers coach Antwaan Randle El, the Super Bowl champ and Thornton Township High School legend.
With a smile, Johnson offered a colorful assessment of Bieniemy, who some in the league think is the NFL’s best running backs coach.
“He’s going to coach the piss out of these running backs,” he said.
Randle El has a “personality that I really think our guys are really going to be attracted to,” while Allen is “passionate about what his side of the ball is going to be about,” Johnson said.
Johnson, though, will be the main attraction. Bears bosses who have already gotten to know him can’t wait for players to do the same.
“He’s down to earth, he’s genuine, he’s got a ready smile,” McCaskey said. “But don’t be fooled.”