This season, the Chicago Bears have exceeded expectations. After years of frustration, they finally look like serious contenders again. Under new head coach Ben Johnson, a season that began 0-2 has turned into an 11-win campaign and one of the most surprising turnarounds in the NFL.
Ben Johnson deserves credit for a significant portion of the Bears’ success this season. He stepped in after many rough seasons under Matt Eberflus and is rebuilding the team into a contender again. Before being hired by the Bears, Johnson was the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. The majority of Bears players, along with their fan base, have positive feelings about making the playoffs with him. On Bears Den, Bears legend Charles Tillman said, “The culture is changing,” and that, “What really makes me believe that, Caleb [Williams] mentioned something last night when he was at the podium, he said, ‘This team loves each other. I’m super blessed and happy and excited to wake up every day and be coached by Ben Johnson.’ All the players on that team will run through a brick wall for Coach Johnson.” The players are responding very well to Johnson’s understandably demanding and inspiring leadership, buying into his vision for the team.
Johnson brought a chant to the locker room that says, “Good, better, best. Never let it rest till your good gets better and your better gets best.” After the Bears got their first preseason win, 38-0, against the Bills, Johnson gathered his team and started with, “Good, better, best.” “When he first did it, we were kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’” Safety Kevin Byard said during ‘Club Dub’. “He’s just like, ‘Just repeat after me,’ and we’re just like, ‘Uh,’ just looking around like, ‘OK?’” But Johnson delivered this with full confidence and enthusiasm, fully energetic after their win. “They kind of looked at me like I was crazy the first time or two,” Johnson said. “Particularly some of the guys — you know, not everyone played in that game, so they’re kind of like, ‘What is going on here?’” Confusion doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, now that the chant is taking over the city of Chicago. The chant is now associated with their wins, like how tight end Cole Kmet told The Athletic, “The more you win and the more you feed into it, it becomes part of your culture and your identity of the team.” What started as an awkward preseason moment is now a tradition for the team, becoming a city-wide chant after they win, linked with the era of Ben Johnson.
After adapting to his coaching style, the players have put their trust in him to lead the team. “I see a sense of leadership and a confidence in him, honestly, that exudes into all of us,” safety Kevin Byard said. “I think that’s his best quality when it comes to that sense, or in a head coaching sense — that confidence and that demand of excellence from everyone in the building and from himself. So he holds everybody to that standard and holds himself to that standard on a consistent basis. I think he’s doing a great job at it.”
Nonetheless, the real question is whether this surge will be enough for the Bears to go all the way this year. With the playoffs now firmly in sight and Chicago emerging as one of the hottest teams in the league, a Super Bowl run will likely come down to how they finish the regular season. Whether Johnson can bring the Bears “all the way” will depend on his ability to keep this high-energy culture alive, make the right in-game adjustments, and keep the team focused as the pressure of a potential deep playoff run continues to build. Whether the Bears make it this year or not, one thing is already clear: Ben Johnson has changed the direction of the franchise. He has turned a locker room that was once expected to lose into a group that expects to win, and that kind of culture shift doesn’t disappear after one season. Even if Chicago falls short this year, the foundation Johnson is building suggests that the Bears will be in the mix for years to come.
