It was evident even in 2023 that Ben Johnson was interested in the Chicago Bears head coaching job. This stemmed from his growing love of the city after attending several Cubs games with his family, along with the chance to work with future #1 overall pick Caleb Williams. However, the Bears opted to give Matt Eberflus another year. That proved to be a mistake. Going into this off-season, Johnson still had an interest in the job. There was a problem, though. He wasn’t sure about GM Ryan Poles.
The buzzword coming out of the coach’s camp was seeking “alignment” with the general manager. Most took that as he’d prefer to work with his own guy. That meant the Bears would have to fire Poles to make a deal happen. Johnson’s agent, Rick Smith, revealed this wasn’t the case. He explained to Bill Zimmerman on the Bears Banter podcast that alignment was about vision. Johnson feared that Poles would be stubborn about keeping all the players he had drafted or signed, expecting the coach to make it work even if certain ones didn’t fit his vision for the team.
Poles wasted no time in the team’s interview with Johnson that there would be no such issue. He was committed to finding the right players for his head coach. Johnson was sold.
Poles’ lack of ego helped secure Ben Johnson.
That can’t be understated. Many general managers have big personalities and refuse to believe they’ve drafted bad players, regardless of scheme or system. Thus, they become stubborn about moving on from them even after a coaching change. Poles had already showcased his ability to adjust to what his coaches wanted with Matt Eberflus. He drafted two defensive backs to start his career in 2022 despite obvious needs on offense. He gave a huge contract to Tremaine Edmunds because it was who Eberflus wanted—giving D’Andre Swift a large contract because he’d make the running game more explosive? Fine.
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It was beyond evident that Poles was willing to work within the framework of what his head coach wanted. There was never any reason to doubt he wouldn’t do the same for Ben Johnson. All the coach needed was some assurances. Once he got them, things came together fast. This should be a partnership that functions well moving forward. Poles will get a feel for what Johnson wants in terms of personnel and craft a game plan from that. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
