Building great teams is never easy. It requires good player evaluation, excellent coaching, and more than a bit of luck. Ben Johnson is no stranger to this. He also knows something else: The best teams are often the ones most willing to change, not just from season to season but from game to game. On Thursday, Johnson explained to the media that you can’t treat every game on the schedule the same. Each one comes with totally different challenges, which require different solutions. This is a lesson many teams don’t learn.
However, one organization understood it better than probably any organization in NFL history: the New England Patriots. During the Bill Belichick era, they were masters of adjusting their plans and schemes to exploit every opponent’s biggest weakness, making them incredibly difficult to prepare for. Yes, Tom Brady was a central part of their success, but even he was elevated by the shapeshifting style New England perfected. Johnson hopes to create something similar in Chicago.
Ben Johnson already demonstrated this capability in Detroit.
His offense was highly skilled at adjusting its approach based on each opponent it faced. He could formulate a ground-oriented attack against softer defensive fronts or put it in the air to expose weaker secondaries. This was a key reason the Lions had a top five offense every year he was there, despite lacking a true star quarterback. Now he has a chance to infuse this philosophy across the entire organization, offense and defense. That is a big reason he hired Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator. He’s known for creativity and flexibility. The Bears have also quietly assembled a roster full of good athletes who can do multiple things well, including quarterback Caleb Williams. If Johnson’s vision comes to fruition, the Bears will be a team nobody wants to face.
