Before Caleb Williams arrived as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, it looked like Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus was standing on shaky ground within the organization. Yet, after finally feeling like they landed their franchise quarterback, they decided to give Eberflus a third season in Chicago.
It likely didn’t hurt that Chicago improved from three wins to seven from 2022 to 2023. Now, the Bears enter Week 9 at 4-3, a respectable mark considering they’ve had a rookie quarterback start all seven games. However, now we’ve learned that one of the NFL’s brightest offensive coordinators had earmarked the Bears’ potential head coach opening as one he’d like to pursue.
Related: See where Caleb Williams lands in Sportsnaut’s NFL QB Rankings
Ben Johnson reportedly wanted to become Chicago Bears head coach this past offseason
As great as the Chicago Bears have been defensively, allowing the fourth-fewest points in the NFL, they’ve still struggled offensively, ranking 16th in scoring. Averaging 23.3 points per game is respectable, but chances are the Bears expected more after overhauling their offense.
Chicago has a star receiving corps, led by D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, and first-round rookie Rome Odunze to go with tight end Cole Kmet. They also added running back D’Andre Swift plus drafted a ‘generational’ talent in Caleb Williams. Yet, they’re only averaging 2.1 more points per game.
One way the Bears may have been able to morph into one of the league’s best offenses is if they’d hired a new head coach and now it looks like one top playcaller had a very strong interest in moving to Chicago.
According to
“He (Ben Johnson) was definitely connected to the Chicago job last year. There were some people who thought that was the one he wanted, and obviously it didn’t come open.”
SI’s Albert Breer on Chicago Bears/Ben Johnson
All rights @ESPN1000 @kapjhood @thekapman @adamabdalla @xjhoodespn "There were some who said that was the one he wanted" #BenJohnson #DaBears #Eberflus pic.twitter.com/eI9v9CuRHz
— Bearlissimo (@Bearlissimo1) October 29, 2024
Related: 1 bold prediction for every game in NFL Week 9, including what happens with the Chicago Bears
That’s a bit of a bombshell. Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is widely regarded as a top-five offensive coordinator and playcaller in the NFL. He’s one of the most in-demand coaching candidates in the league and feels like a sure bet to get any head coaching job he pursues.
He’s a big reason why the Lions rank first in scoring this year and had the fifth-highest scoring offense for the past two years too. But imagine if he were to ditch Detroit, only to join one of their biggest rivals, where he’d get to take on Dan Campbell and his old team twice per season? That would have spiced up an already exciting NFC North division.
Who knows, maybe Johnson will still get his chance, depending on how Coach Eberflus manages the rest of this season. Early on, it appeared that there would be no way that Chicago makes a head coaching change, but 4-3 can quickly turn to 4-4 and spiral out of control from there. We’ll see if he can help the Bears return to the victory column this Sunday, taking on an underrated Arizona Cardinals team that’s been playing hard under coach Jonathan Gannon.
