Matt Eberflus is watching his tenure as Chicago Bears head coach starting to crumble. After reaching 4-2 to start the season, he’s been struck with back-to-back devastating losses. First was the Hail Mary defeat in Washington, and then the absolute drubbing in Arizona. Stats coming out of that sequence aren’t kind. Eberflus is 14-28 overall as a head coach, 3-18 on the road, and 6-19 against teams with a record of .500 or better. Plenty of fans are ready to move on, which is why they were excited when Albert Breer of the MMQB mentioned that Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, the widely-viewed top head coach candidate in 2025, was eyeing the Bears job last January.
Benjamin Allbright of KOA Colorado, one of the top national insiders, poured gas on those flames. When asked where Johnson will end up after the current season concludes, Allbright made it pretty clear: If Eberflus is out, Chicago is the job he wants.
Ben Johnson should be at the top of the Bears’ list.
Nothing matters more moving forward than the success of quarterback Caleb Williams. They must find somebody who can elevate him to the status of NFL elite, where he belongs. Johnson has routinely shown over the past three years that he is one of the best offensive minds in professional football. If you don’t believe it, just look at the numbers.
- 2022: 4th in yards and 5th in scoring
- 2023: 3rd in yards and 5th in scoring
- 2024*: 7th in yards and 1st in scoring
The biggest part of this story is Jared Goff. Many wrote the quarterback off as a lost cause when the Los Angeles Rams traded him for Matthew Stafford. In 42 games under Johnson’s guidance, he has thrown for 10,853 yards, 73 touchdowns, and 23 interceptions for a 101.1 passer rating.
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If Ben Johnson could get that out of him, there is no telling what he might do for Williams. The path ahead seems straightforward. Chicago hires the coordinator in January and then spends the off-season overhauling the offensive line. If things go as planned, this offense should take a big leap.
@jmscooby, trading Kmet is not equal to Hockenson–Kmet has much more value in that his rate of catching passes thrown to him is among the highest in the league (8th at 90% and highest of all TE’s). What they need to do is utilize Kmet more, whether running seam routes or slants–that he isn’t running away from cornerbacks isn’t nearly as important as him catching what is thrown his way.
Sounds a lot like the Waldron hype about being the guy who resurrected Geno’s career. It’s beginning to look like Kerry Joseph might have had more to do with that and the good news is he is also on the Bears’ staff.
But yeah, Johnson would be an upgrade at HC.
When an owner owns a team they have to pay players and amount of money that is between the salary cap and salary floor.
There are no limitations on coaching salaries – Just what the market “sets.”
But throwing money at coaches, without knowing what to look for in coaching is really bad. It just saddles a team with salaries of fired coaches.
What you you need for coaches and coordinators? It shouldn’t be hard, but somehow, it is.
It was the coaching. It’s the coaching. Funny all these articles about coaches coming to Chicago pop up the same time Luke Getsy gets fired in Las Vegas after half a season. Is Caleb Williams great and Justin Fields has limitations? Maybe, but it’s the coaching. Williams had Lincoln Riley, Fields had Getsy. Jayden Daniels has Kingsbury. Shocking how it is leadership and the mental aspects of running a team that wins, while good plays become bad, and great players don’t matter. I hate the “I told you so” aspect of life, but in order for people to learn to… Read more »
Devil’s advocate:
If I’m Ben Johnson, the first thing I do is trade Kmet. You may not want to hear it, but the Lions traded away TJ Hockenson the year Johnson took over as OC. TJH was faster than Kmet in the 20 yd shuttle and 3 cone drills. Then they drafted LaPorta to replace TJ, and is a better fit for their offense.