There was no telling what the Chicago Bears would truly get when they hired Ben Johnson. GM Ryan Poles had spent months since firing head coach Matt Eberflus researching various candidates. He knew early on that Johnson was likely the top candidate, but he didn’t want to dilute the process by pushing his thoughts on others helping with the search. Once everybody else reached the same conclusion, Poles understood what he had to do. He put on the full-court press to ensure Johnson was the Bears’ next head coach.
Once done, the only thing he could do was wait and see what happened. Everybody knew Johnson’s reputation as an offensive mind. What they couldn’t be sure of was how he’d handle motivating players. Plenty of guys could be great with Xs and Os. Only a select few understand how to manage personalities. It didn’t take long for Poles to recognize how savvy Johnson was in that department. In fact, some of the coach’s tactics reminded him of somebody the GM had worked with in the past.
He told the story to Sean Hammond of the Chicago Tribune.
Our setup is very different than Detroit. And it’s been cool to see going practice by practice. It’s almost like one day is Rome (Odunze’s) day, and you realize that day that maybe DJ (Moore) didn’t get a touch. And then all of a sudden DJ’s getting touches (the next day), and it has this really unique way to keep all of these offensive weapons engaged and active.
It brings me back — and I don’t compare them, it’s just the great one that I’ve been with, which was Andy (Reid) — (he) had the ability to do that as well. That creates excitement, that keeps everyone alive and a part of the identity of what you’re trying to do. It’s kind of using scheme to amplify the talent that we have, which would make it very different than what Detroit’s doing.
Ryan Poles dropping an Andy Reid mention is no small thing.
He worked under the future Hall of Fame head coach for almost a decade, winning a Super Bowl in 2019. The GM knows better than most what kind of impact Reid had on the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive evolution. Part of that was understanding player psychology. If he wanted everybody to buy in, he had to find ways to get everybody involved. That meant making them think their number could be called anytime. Just look at the Chiefs’ playoff run this past season. They featured Travis Kelce in the divisional round win over Houston. Then in the AFC championship, Xavier Worthy got eight touches for 101 yards and a touchdown.
Johnson does those same things. Ryan Poles understood immediately what it would do for the morale of the Bears offense. The collective buy-in will be apparent once everybody believes a game could be their time to shine.
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