One thing that is unquestioned about Ben Johnson since he became head coach of the Chicago Bears is his honesty. Some may call it bluntness. The bottom line is that Johnson doesn’t believe anybody gets better at what they’re trying to do unless they’re told the truth. That is one vow he made to his players from the moment he took over last year. He would never lie to them. The first and probably most memorable instance of this came after the Bears’ ugly 52-21 loss to the Lions in Detroit last September.
He didn’t mince words, stating that he felt the team’s practice habits did not “reflect a championship-caliber team.” That is a polite way of saying the players didn’t want it enough. If they really wished to win and chase rings, then they’d better learn how to make sacrifices. Nothing can substitute for hard work. Fast forward almost a full year, and Johnson was asked why he seemed so optimistic about the team’s chances this season. After all, most experts have the Bears taking a step backward in 2026.
Johnson summed it up by returning to that quote from a year ago.
“Here’s what I’m excited about —how hard they are working. Last year, I said we were not practicing at a championship level. I am not saying that now.”
Ben Johnson doesn’t hand out compliments like that willingly.
The Bears’ head coach has the highest possible standard for this team. He will not praise you unless he feels you’re rising to meet it, both in practice and games. Everything coming out of Halas Hall over the past month and a half suggests the players arrived with a far more focused mindset. It felt like a team that knows it should’ve advanced further into the playoffs than it did. They let a winnable game get away. Now they’re focused on finishing what they started. To get there, it starts in training camp. If you don’t put in the work, you’ll never reach the mountaintop.
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It isn’t just Ben Johnson making those demands anymore. Several veteran leaders stepped up at various points throughout camp to push teammates to go harder. First, it was Cole Kmet and Kalif Raymond. Then it was Jaylon Johnson and Grady Jarrett. The message was the same.
Not good enough. They needed to do better, go harder. Nobody complained. Everybody put their heads down and kept grinding. It’s little wonder Johnson is so encouraged. The last time he saw a team reach that level of focus, it came a quarter away from the Super Bowl in 2023.
The talking is over now.
Chicago needs to see if that hard work will pay off. Many people remain skeptical that the Bears can take a step forward this year. They lost a lot of key contributors on defense from last season. D.J. Moore, their big offensive hero, was traded. When things like that happen, teams tend to backslide. Johnson doesn’t seem concerned about that. He has an ascending quarterback in Caleb Williams and several exciting weapons on offense. Scoring shouldn’t be a big issue for this team if everybody stays healthy.
The defense doesn’t have to be great. All it has to do is not be terrible. If that objective gets accomplished, this team is very much a threat in the NFC. The Bears have been insisting for weeks that they feel they’re good enough. Opening day in Carolina will be their first chance to prove it. If they take care of business convincingly, skeptics may have no choice but to take them seriously.
