When the Chicago Bears hired Matt Eberflus away from his role as the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator in 2022, they were taking a chance on an unproven candidate who had the potential to be a difference-maker.
Yet, after four seasons, leading a 14-32 record, the Bears realized it was time to make a coaching change. This led them to hire former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who, like Eberflus, has never been an NFL head coach.
However, there’s also a strong case to be made that Johnson was the top coaching candidate in this year’s hiring cycle, so the Bears had to pay top dollar to get their guy. Usually, coach salaries remain under wraps, but now we know just how much Chicago had to pay Johnson to be their head coach.
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Ben Johnson earning ‘nearly unprecedented’ salary from Chicago Bears
What is Ben Johnson’s salary with the Chicago Bears? Despite coming onto the job with zero previous head coaching experience, Johnson is already in the top 10 of the highest-paid head coaches in the NFL.
In fact, according to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, the Bears are “believed” to be paying Johnson a salary of $13 million per season. That’s over twice as much of a salary than Matt Eberflus reportedly earned, which Cronin states was $6 million per year.
Yet, as Cronin notes, the Bears “didn’t cut corners” in pursuit of their top coaching candidate. Since there’s no salary cap on coaching staffs, the Bears are free to commit as much or as little to their coach budget as they want. Clearly, this time they chose to go all-out to make sure they didn’t come up short.
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