Bears hiring Lions OC Ben Johnson as head coach: Sources

The Chicago Bears are hiring Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their head coach, league sources said Monday, landing arguably the most highly coveted head-coaching candidate in the NFL as they aim to stop a four-year playoff drought.

Chicago is turning to Johnson, one of the league’s fastest-rising offensive coaches, in hopes that pairing him with quarterback Caleb Williams could return the team to contention in the competitive NFC North.

Johnson became available to hire this quickly after the Lions’ season ended Saturday when the team lost to the Washington Commanders in the divisional round. He is already beginning to fill out his staff; Johnson is expected to select former New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen as his defensive coordinator, according to a league source.

Chicago ran a wide-ranging coaching search, officially interviewing 17 candidates. But Johnson was considered one of the leaders from the outset, and the team didn’t need to enter a finalist stage of interviews at Halas Hall to reach its decision — one that seems sure to please its franchise quarterback.

“Selfishly, I want an offensive-minded guy so I can build with him and be with that coach for the next 19, 17, 15 years,” Williams said on the “St. Brown Podcast” with Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown last week.

“If it’s Ben …” Williams then said with a smile.

There’s little doubt that Williams was intrigued by the possibility of playing for Johnson. After the season ended, one day after the Lions beat the Vikings to clinch the top seed in the NFC, Williams was asked about Johnson as a candidate, and he pointed to a Lions touchdown when Johnson countered what Minnesota showed them on defense.

“Just knowing how he was going to play it and countering. I think he’s done it all year,” Williams said. “It’s been really cool to watch. During our game, I would watch and try to learn something. It was fascinating to watch because he had wrinkles for counters and things like that throughout the game. He’s obviously done really well. It will be cool to see how all of that goes down.”

One of the biggest selling points the Bears have is Williams, the 2024 No. 1 pick. For Johnson to choose Chicago, he likely feels good about Williams as the quarterback.

“There’s no question that this guy is talented,” Johnson told reporters earlier this season. “I remember standing on the sideline last game and you can hear the ball whistle by you. He’s got quite a fastball and has some creativity to him, can extend plays and is accurate down the field as well. Like I said, I haven’t really dove in and can tell you much more beyond that, but he’s been impressive from afar.”

The Bears fired Matt Eberflus 12 games into this season and finished the year 5-12 — their sixth consecutive season at .500 or worse. Eberflus became the first coach in Bears history to be fired during the season.

The team began conducting interviews on Jan. 8, and Johnson’s interview with the Bears came on Jan. 11 over video conference. Only three candidates interviewed in person: former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, former Carolina Panthers and Commanders coach Ron Rivera, and former Tennessee Titans running back and Tennessee State coach Eddie George. McCarthy was considered a serious contender for the job, but the franchise went for the big swing on a young, offensive-minded coach instead of the retread hire.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles was “the point man” for this search, along with president/CEO Kevin Warren and chairman George McCaskey. For the franchise to land the most coveted coach says a lot about what they were able to sell Johnson, which starts with Williams, but also includes $66 million in cap space (per Over the Cap), the No. 10 pick in April’s draft and two second-round picks (giving Chicago three picks in the first 42 selections). Even with those resources, Johnson still had to be comfortable with that power structure.

As the sixth head coach since 2012 and fifth hire since McCaskey took over as chairman, Johnson apparently wasn’t fazed by the cycle of turnover at Halas Hall. He also might know that if anyone is able to end the cycle and win, well, that coach would be immortalized in Chicago.

Johnson, 38, called plays for one of the NFL’s best offenses in each of the past three seasons in Detroit, overseeing a group that helped transform the Lions into a Super Bowl contender. Three of the four highest-scoring seasons in Detroit’s 95-year history came under Johnson, including a franchise-record-setting 564-point season in 2024. In the regular season, Detroit put up 30 points in 10 games, scoring 40 on six different occasions and 50 twice. The Lions’ 222-point differential in 2024 also broke a franchise record that stood since 1934.

Those are unheard-of numbers in Bears history. Under Johnson, the Lions finished in the top four in total offense three times. The Bears last finished in the top four in total offense in 1977. The Lions led the league in scoring in 2024. The Bears haven’t done that since 1956, when there were 12 teams in the NFL.

The Bears have had a top-10 offense once this millennium, when they finished eighth in 2013. Ironically, that was first-time head coach Marc Trestman’s first season. The only two times the Bears were top-10 in scoring since 2007 came in Trestman’s first year and Matt Nagy’s first year, another first-time, offensive-minded head coach. Both those tenures started to fall apart in year two.

While the Bears tend to be a team that lives in the past, they don’t want to live in the recent past of first-time head coaches who didn’t work out. Johnson’s prolific offenses in Detroit should provide more than enough excitement for a city that has a talented quarterback and has been starving for any kind of success on offense.

Johnson, who was a walk-on quarterback at North Carolina from 2004 to 2007 before beginning his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Boston College in 2009, first joined the NFL as a Miami Dolphins offensive assistant in 2012. He joined Detroit under Matt Patricia as an offensive quality control coach in 2019 and later served as tight ends coach before being promoted to passing game coordinator — and then offensive coordinator — under Dan Campbell.

Johnson received interest for head-coaching opportunities in the past, interviewing with the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders for openings last year. However, Johnson turned down those opportunities to remain with Detroit.

Johnson also interviewed virtually with the Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots and Las Vegas Raiders during this cycle.

One of Johnson’s biggest projects as offensive coordinator was developing quarterback Jared Goff, a cast-off from the Los Angeles Rams who reached a Super Bowl but was believed to be a product of Sean McVay’s offensive system. Under Johnson, Goff has become one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. Goff posted three straight years of at least 4,000 yards under Johnson, the longest such streak of his career. In 2024, he set career highs in passing yards (4,629), passing touchdowns (37), completion percentage (72.4 percent), success rate (54.7 percent), yards per attempt (8.6), and QBR (68.5).

Johnson also made the most of the talent around Goff, especially young talent. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, a fourth-round pick, finished the 2023 and 2024 seasons in the top five in the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. In 2023, tight end Sam LaPorta set a then-rookie record for tight-end receptions (86) while scoring the second-most receiving touchdowns for a tight end in NFL history. In 2024, Jahmyr Gibbs finished third in the league among running backs in yards per carry (5.6) and finished top-five in total rushing yards (1,412) on just 14.7 carries per game.

In Chicago, Johnson inherits an offense that counts Pro Bowl running back D’Andre Swift, tight end Cole Kmet and wide receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze as the main weapons under contract for Williams. Swift totaled over 1,250 yards of offense for the second straight season and Moore has grabbed 194 receptions in the past two years. Keenan Allen, last year’s No. 2 receiver, is set to be a free agent.

Johnson is heralded as one of the most aggressive and inventive play callers in the league. The Lions have attempted 110 fourth-down conversions since Johnson came aboard, the second-most in the league over that span. Since 2022, the Detroit Lions have had six non-skill-position players with receptions, including touchdown receptions by Goff and tackle Dan Skipper. No other team has more than three such players catching passes over those three years.

— Jeff Howe and Dianna Russini contributed reporting.

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)