The new-look Bears promised to give coach Ben Johnson everything he needs to get them on track after six consecutive non-winning seasons, but there’s one thing they can’t give him: patience.
The organization is pulsing with urgency amid the belief that the door is open to climb into contention even after going 5-12 this season, and Johnson won’t get much of a runway with a roster that should be built to compete for a playoff spot. It’s imperative that Johnson deliver results in Year 1.
The clock is ticking, particularly on quarterback Caleb Williams’ rookie contract window. The Bears have Williams signed for about $10 million per season for four seasons — they already wasted the first one — at a time when the 15 highest-paid quarterbacks are making at least quadruple that.
The goal in that window is to get Williams playing at Joe Burrow’s level but on Gardner Minshew’s salary. That creates incredible value and allows a team to spend lavishly everywhere else to build a championship-caliber roster.
Patrick Mahomes was making about $4 million when he won his first Super Bowl and went to another, and Burrow was making about $9 million when he took the Bengals to the Super Bowl. Jalen Hurts’ salary-cap number was under $2 million when the Eagles reached the Super Bowl at the end of the 2022 season, and the 49ers made it last season with a meager expense of about $900,000 for Brock Purdy.
It gets much more difficult when the quarterback gets his second contract, market value for which is likely to eclipse $60 million per season this year, but that’s a good problem Bears general manager Ryan Poles would love to have.
In the meantime, Johnson needs to maximize what’s in front of him. This is much different than when Matt Nagy stepped into the job in 2018 after the Bears went 5-11 the season before, or when Matt Eberflus took the helm in 2022 when the team was transparently burning the roster to the ground to start the rebuild.
As unlikely as this might seem for a team that has gone 15-36 over the last three seasons, this is the Bears’ moment.
In the past year, they landed the quarterback and coach that everyone wanted. The Lions’ coaching staff has been decimated, the Vikings don’t know who their quarterback will be and the Packers finished with the same 1-5 record in the NFC North that the Bears did. Of the teams chasing Johnson, the Bears offered the best combination of existing talent and offseason assets with $66 million in cap space and the Nos. 10, 39 and 41 picks in the draft.
This is no re-rebuild. New coach or not, it’s absolutely time to win now.
“There’s no question it can happen in 2025,” Johnson said. “It depends on how hard we’re willing to work and how much we’re willing to sacrifice.”
It depends on him, too. The popular theory inside Halas Hall is that virtually anybody but Eberflus and Shane Waldron could’ve gotten better results from the roster this season, but Johnson is a first-time coach and has plenty to prove.
What little track record he has suggests he’ll provide an immediate boost to an offense that finished 28th in points per game (18.2) and last in yards per game (284.6) this season. The Lions were 25th at 19.1 points per game in 2021, and when Johnson took over as offensive coordinator the next season, they jumped to fifth at 26.6.
The Bears hired him to have that kind of effect. Johnson is responsible for far more than running the offense now that he’s a head coach, but the organization is still betting on his strategic expertise making a difference immediately.
And from there, everyone in the building needs to view a quick turnaround in Year 1 as merely a basic requirement for Johnson. It’s a minimum expectation. If that’s all it took to be a successful Bears coach, Nagy would still be here coasting off going 12-4 in his first season. He trailed off to 22-27 over the next three seasons and was gone.
For the Johnson hire to truly matter, he has to lift the Bears to something sustainable and not just an occasional uptick. The Jaguars and Cardinals make the playoffs every few years. The Chiefs and Bills live there. There’s an enormous difference between flukes and powerhouses.
Johnson arrived at exactly the right time if he wants to build something that endures. He got here early enough in Williams’ career to help him find his way. The Bears don’t have huge money committed to anyone beyond 2026 other than wide receiver DJ Moore, and Johnson will partner with Poles to direct the way they invest that $66 million and those draft picks.
Johnson and Poles need to pounce on that opportunity and produce wins next season — and well beyond it.