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Earlier this week, the Chicago Bears announced former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as the team’s next head coach. Johnson led one of the league’s best offenses this past season in Detroit and now has the opportunity to help develop Caleb Williams, who had an up and down rookie season after being drafted number one overall by the Bears.
Johnson is sliding into the relatively small shoes of Matt Eberflus, who was fired by the Bears about two thirds of the way through the season. The final straw of Eberflus’ Bears tenure occurred during a late game blunder on Thanksgiving against the Lions, a blunder which FS1’s Danny Parkins recently described in hilarious detail during a long-winded question to Johnson.
“If you were playing Detroit on Thanksgiving, and your quarterback took a sack, and you had one timeout, and were out of field goal range, and the clock was running down and there was confusion everywhere… would you A) let nothing happen and a wild Hail Mary that had no chance of winning, or would you B) help your quarterback out and call a timeout? Again, hypothetically?” wondered Parkins.
“We’re not going there today,” replied Johnson with a smile. “We’re not going there.”
Johnson was on the opposite sideline for the Lions when the disaster described by Parkins unfolded on Thanksgiving, which indeed ended any Bears chance of pulling off what would have been a massive road upset win.
Clock management is something that several NFL coaches had bizarre blunders with down the stretch of this season, including Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris on multiple occasions. While this will be Ben Johnson’s first rodeo as a head coach, it should ease Bears’ fans minds that he, along with the rest of us, saw the error in Eberflus’ decision making down the stretch of the Thanksgiving game.
Beyond managing the clock, the Bears are also hoping that Johnson will be able to manage a Chicago offense that got quite predictable despite its array of weapons during the 2024 season.
In any case, with their head coach now hired, the Bears will turn their attention to the upcoming NFL Draft, which will take place in April.
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