The Chicago Bears are one of several teams in the market for a new head coach. After firing Matt Eberflus earlier this season, the Bears need a new direction. They have a pretty solid selling point in that whomever coaches the team next will get to steer the next several years of last year's No. 1 overall pick, Caleb Williams' career.
One of the names that has been rumored quite often for that Bears job is Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who has been arguably the hottest candidate on the market in each of the last two coaching cycles, only to return to Detroit. Johnson has designed one of the NFL's best and most versatile offenses, so it makes sense that he has been highly sought after.
And Williams is among those intrigued by him.
"It was fascinating to watch because he had wrinkles for counters and things like that throughout the game," Williams said of Johnson's game plan vs. the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night, via The Athletic. "I think he's obviously done really well. So it would be cool to see how that all goes down."
The Lions started that game slowly, but eventually hung 31 points on the board against one of the league's best defenses.
Detroit obviously has a bunch of pieces on offense that the Bears do not: Arguably the NFL's best offensive line, plus elite weapons at wide receiver (Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams), tight end (Sam LaPorta) and running back (Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery).
Chicago has good receivers, but could lose Keenan Allen to retirement or free agency this offseason. Cole Kmet is a solid contributor, as is D'Andre Swift; but they're not quite at the level of the Lions' stars. And as we saw throughout this season, the Bears' offensive line is not up to snuff. All of which is to say, hiring Johnson wouldn't immediately solve all their problems. But it would at least give them a coach who has consistently shown that he knows how to put players in position to succeed, and that's more than what we could say for this year's Bears coaching staff.
