Tight end Sam Roush wasn’t sure what to expect when he entered the 2026 NFL draft. His production at Stanford hadn’t been anything special. His calling card had been blocking throughout most of that time. That meant he might have to wait a long time before hearing his name called. Imagine his surprise when the Chicago Bears pounced in the 3rd round, far earlier than many experts and fans expected. It was made doubly shocking since the team he was going to already had Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet. Why go for another tight end? The simple answer was that head coach Ben Johnson wanted him.
He felt Roush was a perfect fit for what the Bears wanted to do. His blocking would immediately benefit the running game and Caleb Williams’ protection. It would also open up more scheme variations with multiple tight ends on the field. For his part, the rookie didn’t need long to realize that Johnson was a different animal to any head coach he’s ever interacted with.
His first evidence came during the summer. The tight end was at Halas Hall working out when he encountered Johnson. He described what happened next to CHGO.
“He’s an incredible coach. Very intense. Loves his players. Extremely passionate for the game. I was here over the summer for a little bit, and I was lifting maybe eight in the morning, and he walks in, and he’s got like this bed head, and I look at him. I was like, ‘You slept in the facility last night, didn’t you?’ And he’s like, ‘Don’t ask those kinds of questions.’ It’s like the middle of June. Nobody even has to be here. And he’s like sleeping in his office, grinding away, getting ready for camp.”
Ben Johnson embodies the old school coaches.
You’ll often find that there is a correlation between highly successful coaches throughout NFL history. All of them tend to have obsessive work ethics. These were men who spent countless hours combing over film and crafting game plans. It often got so serious that they would spend nights at the team facility, never bothering to leave. Bill Belichick and Sean Payton admitted to doing that throughout their careers. Perhaps the most famous example of this approach was Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
Plenty of coaches had been famous for in-depth study, but few took it to the extremes as the three-time Super Bowl champion did. He even took a cot and put it in his office. Nobody had really done something like that before. He was so committed to giving his team every possible advantage on Sundays that he was willing to sacrifice his time, energy, and personal life to do it. Ben Johnson is built the same way. While he is a dedicated family man, he will not let it get in the way of his burning desire to win.
Johnson isn’t just doing it because he likes it.
You’d have to be a psychopath. This is also about living up to the standard that he himself set when he arrived. Johnson told the team that he expected everybody to put in the work common among champions. That meant arriving early, leaving late, and never wasting opportunities to make yourself a little bit better. It wasn’t just limited to the players, though. The same was expected of the coaches, including himself. Johnson is making it clear that nobody will outwork him in that facility. If he is willing to do that, the players have no reason to complain about what he asks of them.
The more you learn about Ben Johnson, the easier it becomes to understand why he’s successful. Being a genius is nice, but that alone won’t carry you far in this league. Most times, it’s the hustlers who claim the prize. The guys who outwork everybody else. Johnson is of the mindset that while he may not always be the smartest man on the sideline, he intends to always be the most well-prepared.
