The Chicago Bears are 10-4, which is a terrific achievement for the organization after years of struggling. It hasn’t come from good luck, though, far from it. The Bears have been one of the most injured teams in the NFL this season. According to stat trackers, they have lost a total of 240 games due to various player injuries. Previous Bears teams would’ve seen the season spiral out of control. Instead, they’ve kept the train on the tracks thanks in large part to the excellent coaching of Ben Johnson and his staff.
Oddly enough, the head coach almost avoided this disaster. SM has been informed by people close to the situation that Johnson initially planned to make a change in the training staff. He made a strong push to lure Shaun Barnhouse, the head athletic trainer at Ohio State, to Chicago. Barnhouse has held his current position since 2016. In that time, the Buckeyes have reached two national championship games and won the title in 2024. The program has been putting out a wealth of high draft choices, and Barnhouse has done great work preparing them for the NFL.
It is easy to see why Johnson wanted him. Unfortunately, Ohio State gave the trainer a significant pay raise to keep him in Columbus. Once that happened, Chicago opted to keep Andre Tucker as head trainer.
Ben Johnson likely regrets his decision.
Rather than opting to keep the current staff, he probably should’ve looked elsewhere for options. After all, it’s not like this training crew and strength staff had done anything to show they were good at injury prevention. The Bears suffered from nagging soft tissue problems for years. It just reached epidemic levels this season because Ben Johnson pushed players harder in practices. Their bodies were not conditioned properly, and the team has been paying for it ever since. Changes are needed.
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This is something the team has seen before. Lovie Smith ran into the same problem in 2004. Injuries were rampant. Something had to be done, so he brought in someone with more credibility, named Rusty Jones. He immediately cut down on the injuries and toughened up the players. Johnson must look to do the same. It shouldn’t be difficult to find someone with the expertise to get players prepared for the grind. It would certainly be hard to do any worse.
