The Chicago Bears spent months assembling their list of head coach candidates after firing Matt Eberflus last November. GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren wanted to make sure they did their due diligence. The search covered a wide variety of names: offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, special teams coordinators, former head coaches, and college head coaches. The list grew to nearly 20 names. However, Ben Johnson always seemed to remain at the top, even as rumors swirled of other teams hoping to swipe him.
The Bears would have you believe they didn’t make their decision until right around the time Johnson was hired following the divisional round of the playoffs. As always, the truth is far different. There were rumblings that Poles had been eyeing the young Detroit Lions coordinator as far back as 2023. It was then Warren dropped a mini bombshell during an interview with Mike Florio and Chris Simms on Pro Football Talk. He admitted that he knew Johnson was the guy just 10 minutes into his interview.
“Within 10 minutes of the interview, within 10 minutes of the interview starting for me, if you look at my notes that I took, I knew right then,” Warren said. “Because he was so passionate, he’s absolutely brilliant, he’s smart, he was tough, he was demanding and because I had never talked with him, you never know. And I had gone back and watched all of his media interviews and you know you’re watching a lot of candidates on the sideline, their demeanor, how they communicate with players, all of that. But in the first 10 minutes of the interview I just felt in my heart that he was the person to lead the Chicago Bears.”
It isn’t hard to imagine Ben Johnson making an immediate impression.
They say the good coaches don’t just enter a room. They fill it up with their presence. Johnson comes across that way when you hear him speak and interact with people. He has a certain charisma and natural self-confidence. He is intelligent and well-spoken but doesn’t lord it over people. The guy can connect with almost anybody. He is easy to like. No doubt his ability to communicate was on full display in the Bears interview. He had a plan for how to turn the franchise around and could articulate it without droning on. Remember that Warren is a sports version of a politician. He interacts with all sorts of people all the time.
For Ben Johnson to win him over in only ten minutes should tell you a lot. If the head coach can do that with a seasoned communicator like Warren, one can only imagine what he may accomplish with his players. Whispers out of Halas Hall suggest he’s already exceeding expectations. People are incredibly excited about what’s to come. If Johnson lives up to his potential, this team is about to become something much better.
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