Ben Johnson Is Rewiring The Bears’ Draft Strategy With ‘Silent Tape’ — Here’s How

The Chicago Bears knew they would have to put forward a strong offer if they wanted to lure Ben Johnson to become their next head coach. That ended up involving two key points. First was money. His $13 million per year deal was one of the highest for a first-time head coach in NFL history. Next, and perhaps most important, they granted Johnson significant say in every personnel decision moving forward. The easiest way to put it is that the head coach would have the final say on any roster additions moving forward.

That also means he would set the template for how he wanted players to be evaluated going into a draft. It was evident even last year that the Bears had changed their approach in several ways. They placed less emphasis on targeting needs, prioritized players with strong football passion, and sought younger players with good fundamentals. Perhaps what stood out the most was the drop in emphasis they put on pre-draft interviews and athletic testing. Johnson wanted everybody to be focused on the film. Assistant GM Jeff King revealed the name for it.

“It’s the silent tape,” King said. “When you put on tape, the guys we probably get excited about the most, you don’t have to read the character. You can see it. You can see how they compete, show up in big games, pick up their teammates, raise the level of their teammates’ games.

“We can read everything we want — articles and all this — but what players show on tape is usually the product that you’re going to get.”

Ben Johnson understands a fundamental truth.

Here’s the thing about interviews and athletic testing. You can prepare for those. Prospects spend weeks before the draft practicing what to say when they meet with a team and going through specific drills to improve their test numbers at the combine. That makes it difficult to get the truth from players. Their primary goal is to go as high as possible in the draft. Teams must be interested in taking the best player. Athletic tests and interviews don’t tell that story. Watching film does that.

Silent film is a perfect description. You can lie on tests and in interviews. You can’t lie on film. It showcases you at your purest. It shows how smart you are, how hard you play, and how much the game matters to you. The truth is, interviews probably do more harm than good in the evaluation process, which may explain why the Bears suddenly stopped using them to meet with prospects they want to draft. Instead, they save them for players they are less sure about. Ben Johnson deserves tons of credit for guiding this shift in approach.

There has been a persistent issue with past Bears general managers.

Something to remember about Poles and Ryan Pace is that they were very young when they took their respective jobs. Neither had been in their previous front office jobs for long before coming to Chicago. The thing about scouts is that they tend to become overly entranced by athletic capability. They often speak directly to the player or to teammates and coaches, all of whom feel obligated to talk him up as much as possible. That makes it dangerously easy to become obsessed with the wrong things. It is how the Bears ended up with Mitch Trubisky in 2017.

Ben Johnson has no intention of letting that happen. Interviews are important, sure. You want to at least get a feel for the kid’s personality and how he might mesh with a locker room. However, assessing the importance of a draft pick must be kept to watching the tape. If they don’t stand out there, no amount of words they speak will matter. Silent tape tells a story greater than any they or their agent can possibly spin. It is a sound strategy that has worked for decades.