Winning the Super Bowl is the goal of every NFL team. They all want to hoist that trophy. However, realistically, only a certain number have a real opportunity each season. Accomplishing such an objective requires specific circumstances to be met. You must have a good quarterback, quality play in the trenches, a clear identity on offense, a defense that can make plays, and a head coach with the leadership qualities to keep everybody focused on the objective. People have gone back and forth on whether the current Chicago Bears meet enough of those criteria.
Yes, their 2025 season was a success. They went 11-6, won the NFC North title, and beat the Green Bay Packers in the wild card round. They were an overtime away from the NFC Championship. One has to think this team is in the conversation. Yet some don’t think so. They believe the Bears are due for a regression, in part because of key offseason losses (Kevin Byard and D.J. Moore) and because they haven’t improved specific weaknesses that haunted them last year, like the pass rush. Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated disagrees. He has reasons to think the Bears are one of just 14 realistic teams that can win it all. Why?
The Chicago Bears have Ben Johnson.
“The Bears enter the 2026 season as everyone’s darling. Caleb Williams is on the cover of Madden. Chicago will star in this year’s NFL on Hallmark original holiday movie. The Bears thrived amid the largest question that, I felt, plagued the team going into Ben Johnson’s inaugural season: Could he create explosive plays as efficiently with the Bears as he could with a star-studded Lions’ offense? The answer was a resounding yes. Even when dependent on some rookies and a fleet of free agents, the Bears were sixth in yards per game and fifth in plays of 20 yards or more.
Chicago had a league-best plus-22 turnover margin, two one-point wins and one two-point win, in addition to four other one-score wins. Three of Chicago’s 11 wins last year were against teams that made the playoffs, including an overtime victory against the slumping Packers sans Micah Parsons. Given all of that, I still think Johnson is one of the league’s elite play-callers, who will be setting the pace for what is schematically possible this season. Because of that, sometimes one-score wins represent less of a fluke and more of a fact that Johnson is simply calling better plays in bigger moments than other offensive play-callers.”
The Chicago Bears have always contended when the coach was right.
George Halas was a Hall of Famer. That is why they won championships throughout his multiple runs. Mike Ditka was an understudy of Tom Landry. He’d gotten an elite education on how to coach a football team. Lovie Smith had been mentored by Tony Dungy. You don’t need the absolute best head coach to win championships. You just need one who knows what he’s doing. The Bears obviously accomplished that objective with Johnson. Not only is he an elite play caller on the offensive side, but he’s also demonstrated a clear ability to lead and form an identity for his players.
Many times throughout NFL history, coaches like that have found ways to overachieve. Even if their roster isn’t the most talented, they get the absolute most out of what they have. Teams like the 2015 Broncos, 2012 Ravens, and 2011 Giants are all such examples. They weren’t loaded compared to some of their opponents, but they had just the right mix of talent, QB play, and competent coaching to get hot at the right time. The Chicago Bears are looking at something similar with Johnson at the helm.
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Johnson’s ceiling hinges on two ongoing factors.
One is how well he and general manager Ryan Poles do at building the roster each offseason. If they can keep finding good players, the chances of winning a title go up. The other is the development of Williams. Chicago’s young quarterback flashed tons of promise last season, putting up big numbers and leading half a dozen 4th quarter comebacks. He showed himself to be a player who lives for crunch time. Johnson’s job is getting him to a point where he plays like that for entire games.
This upcoming season will reveal much about how close (or far) the Bears are. People still believe last season was a fluke. They were a team that caught some lucky breaks and maximized them to make the playoffs. In reality, the Bears are still at least a year away before they’re ready to actually compete. Based on what we know about Johnson, that is unacceptable. He expects to win and will put in whatever time is necessary to make that happen. If the players follow his lead, the results will speak for themselves.
