It didn’t take long to realize what the Chicago Bears were doing when they drafted Sam Roush in the 3rd round last month. Taking the Stanford tight end when they already had Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet on the roster wasn’t some weird obsession with competition. This was a declaration from head coach Ben Johnson that the Bears planned to feature more “13” personnel schemes in the offense moving forward. That means sets with three tight ends on the field at once, which the NFL hasn’t done much of in recent years, aside from heavy run packages.

However, an evolution has been taking place. Tight ends are getting bigger and faster seemingly every year. Smart coaches have begun recognizing that “13” personnel has untapped potential because of this. Johnson and Rams head coach Sean McVay are among the leading minds who recognized this and have worked quickly to embrace it. Jumping on Roush was a crucial step in that process. Johnson immediately recognized his mixture of excellent blocking and pass-catching upside would add another layer to Chicago’s already evolving attack.

The Chicago Bears already see what “13” does to defenses.

Johnson understands that the fundamental goal of any offensive mind is to find ways to put a defense in conflict. When you force them to think instead of react, you’ve already won half the battle. Utilizing “13” personnel can be diabolical. Take the play below. As the Bears line up against Baltimore, they have two tight ends to the right with Colston Loveland and an eligible Ozzy Trapilo. Durham Smythe lines up at the fullback spot and is then shifted to the left end of the line.

Conventional wisdom says the Bears will run the ball to the right because that is where their heaviest blocking is concentrated. That is why Baltimore shifts their defensive alignment to counter it. There is one problem. Doing so automatically gives the Bears a numbers advantage on the left side because of the third tight end. As a result, the Bears control the flow of the play and give D’Andre Swift an easy 10 yards.

This reality bleeds into the passing game.

Defenses know this. They understand that having so many bodies along the line of scrimmage must force them to respect the run. Here is where things get really mean. Since tight ends today are more athletic than ever, it opens up significant opportunities in the passing game. Against Dallas, the Bears had all three tight ends line up to the left before putting Loveland in motion. It looks like they’re about to do the same thing as before, running it to the “weak” side. The Cowboys are forced to respond, only to have Caleb Williams run a play action fake, finding a streaking Loveland down the field for 31 yards.

Now think about this. Last season, defenses at least knew one thing. If the Bears did pass out of “13” personnel, the ball was either going to Loveland or Cole Kmet. Smythe was never known as a pass-catcher, even in college. All of that changes with Roush’s arrival. Suddenly, the Bears have three tight ends who can both block and catch passes. If knowing where the ball is going was difficult before, it is downright impossible now. Johnson could do almost anything.

This goes back to a classic golf reference. How many clubs do you have in your bag? In context for the Bears, it’s how many formations can they run without losing the ability to attack defenses. Rome Odunze, Luther Burden, and Kalif Raymond give them a credible trio of receivers to play “11” personnel. Loveland and Kmet give them “12” and now Roush adds “13.” Chicago can run any formation they want and be able to hit defenses hard. When was the last time you could ever say that?

You don’t have to ask about what Chicago Bears fans think of Ben Johnson. After what happened last season, you could say the head coach walks on water, and some might believe you. The truth is, Johnson delivered on everything that was promised in 2025. He turned around Caleb Williams, elevated the Bears’ offense, won 11 games, claimed the division crown, and won a playoff game. Oh, and he beat the Green Bay Packers twice in one season. That hadn’t happened since 2007. Johnson is the new king of Chicago right now, and justifiably so.

Still, one can imagine opinions on him are far more measured inside the NFL itself. It’s one season. While he had success, there is still a long way to go before he earns a big reputation, right? Nope. According to Robert Mays of The Athletic Football Show, several coaches in the league see Johnson not only as one of the best already, but also as destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One who worked with him went so far as to say that he’ll probably end up being one of the best of all time.

Ben Johnson himself believes this, too.

Recently, a story surfaced from former Miami Dolphins Leontee Carroo, who said Johnson once told Pro Bowl receiver Jarvis Landry he wasn’t striving hard enough for greatness. He was already a good player, but if he wanted to be great, he had to work harder. Doesn’t he want to be a Hall of Famer? After all, Johnson said openly that he expects to end up in Canton when his career is over. That should tell you how self-confident and driven the Bears’ head coach is. He doesn’t feel lucky to be where he is. He expected it, and now he is moving into the next phase of that mission.

Win lots of football games.

Johnson carries the same mentality as Michael Jordan did as a player. Basically, either match his level of commitment or get the hell out of his way. It made him a tough and demanding leader, which teammates sometimes resented. Jordan didn’t care. He knew the sacrifices needed to be a champion. Johnson is the same way. He warned players to get comfortable being uncomfortable. His job isn’t to make their lives easy. It is to win games, which means demanding a lot from them as well as from himself.

Johnson has two paths to this achievement.

He must either revolutionize the NFL in some fashion, changing the game in ways that force other teams to copy him. Don Coryell did that with his innovative passing offenses. George Allen invented the nickel defense of bringing in a fifth defensive back in passing situations. Or he must win. A lot. Historically, it takes at least one championship victory and a winning percentage above .600 to meet the minimum criteria. Hall of Fame coaches have averaged a .630 winning percentage across NFL history.

Only two men in Bears history have sustained a rate of success that high across a decade or longer in Chicago. One was George Halas, and the other was Mike Ditka. Halas was a founder of the league. Ditka coached one of the greatest teams in NFL history. That is the bar Ben Johnson must reach if he wants to fulfill the expectations of both himself and his peers. He’s off to a good start in the wins department. Time will tell if he can make headway on the rings or innovation fronts.

The Chicago Bears have floundered through the process of building a new stadium for five years now. Everything started fine. They purchased the property in Arlington Heights. All they had to do was work through negotiations with Illinois to figure out property taxes and infrastructure costs. Yet team president Kevin Warren has continued to demonstrate a remarkable inability to handle that process, as he’s made constant pivots, issued ill-timed public statements, and shown an appalling lack of understanding of his responsibilities.

Never was that clearer than during the battle happening in the Illinois Senate. There is significant opposition to the PILOT Bill, otherwise known as the Megaprojects bill, which would give the Bears tax certainty and infrastructure help they need to start building. There is one gigantic problem. The team still hasn’t delivered a traffic study as part of the infrastructure plan, so there is no idea how that money will be spent. This is the biggest sticking point, and according to Illinois Senator Bill Cunningham, via NBC 5 Chicago, a co-sponsor of the bill, this could ruin any hope of getting a deal done in 2026.

That is how bad the Chicago Bears have messed this up

The PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) bill would lock in property tax rates for the Bears at the Arlington Heights site. The team is also seeking hundreds of millions in infrastructure funding around the site as well, but Cunningham echoed the concerns of some suburban mayors who say the team has not yet delivered on a traffic study that would help determine where those funds would be spent.

“They have made a substantial request for a commitment to fund infrastructure improvements around Arlington Heights. We can’t do that without a traffic study…and the Bears don’t have one yet,” he said. “The Bears are asking for $850 million in capital expenditures from the state. We can’t line those things out unless we have a traffic study and we know what those dollars are going to be spent on.”

Cunningham went so far as to say that there is a chance that the May 31 end of the legislative session may not yield a final answer on the Bears question.

“May 31 may come and go without a final answer on all of this. That’s a possibility,” he said.

One would think Kevin Warren would’ve known this.

Remember, he inherited the Bears’ stadium project from Ted Phillips in 2022. The entire reason the team hired him was due to his experience in the Minnesota Vikings front office. He was said to have been a primary contributor to the effort to build U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Time has shown that Warren’s influence on that process may have been overblown. Not only has he shown a gross lack of preparation for how challenging negotiations would be, but his inability to stick to a plan has only complicated matters further.

His lone tactic to this point has been constantly threatening to move the team elsewhere. Hammond, Indiana, has been the only threat that has worked to this point. Yet instead of capitalizing on the little momentum it brought by getting the bill across the finish line, his inability to do simple things, like a traffic study, has seen him resort to spamming the threat to move over and over, like a petulant child throwing a tantrum. Now, after promising shovels in the ground by the end of 2025, there is a real possibility it doesn’t happen in 2026 either.

The Bears have ten days left.

As of writing this, it is May 21st. There are ten days remaining before the end of the spring session of the Illinois state legislature. That is how long the Chicago Bears have to fix this problem. Here’s the issue. Traffic studies typically take 3 to 6 months to complete when building a new stadium. There is data collection, analysis, modeling, review, and revision. That is how detailed it is, and this is before its submission. More time is required for public scrutiny. We have no idea whether the Bears have even started a traffic study.

If not, there is no chance they can start one, finish it, and get it past the Illinois Senate in 10 days. Translation: they’re pretty much screwed. Their only hope is that they can somehow convince voters on the bill that the money will be handled with proper care once the stadium construction begins. The political equivalent of “Trust me, bro.” The cold reality is starting to sink in.

Either the Bears will wait another year to get the bill passed, or they will finally decide to move to Hammond.

If fans weren’t sure before, the 2026 offseason left no doubts. The Chicago Bears have become an offense-first organization. That is not something people have ever considered a possibility. Defensive has been the primary identity of this organization dating back to the days of George Halas himself. Probably not, since the 1940s, when the offense was considered the franchise’s primary identity, led by Sid Luckman and the iconic T-formation. After that, it was era after era of great defenses paired with rudimentary but physical offenses. Not anymore.

Since Ben Johnson arrived as head coach last season, the Bears have invested eleven draft picks (three in trades) on the offensive side of the ball. That includes a 1st round pick, three 2nd round picks, and two 3rd round picks. By contrast, the defense has only gotten seven total picks with one in the 1st, one in the 2nd, and none in the 3rd. There is no getting around reality. The Bears are becoming an offense-first organization, and it’s about time. While some may feel this departure is destined for failure, the numbers say otherwise.

The Chicago Bears haven’t been following the NFL trend.

Thanks to constant rule changes, the league has heavily favored strong offensive teams. Since 2000, teams with a top 10 offense but no top 10 defense have made the playoffs 74 times. On the other side, teams with a top 10 defense but no top 10 offense, otherwise known as the Bears Special, have made the playoffs 67 times. That gulf doesn’t sound overly significant. However, here is where it becomes stark. In the past 25 years, four of those teams with top 10 defenses won a Super Bowl. The top 10 offenses won 12. Triple the amount.

If you want a more direct comparison, we have that as well. If there is one organization you can call the direct opposite of the Bears historically, it is the Indianapolis Colts. In the Super Bowl era, the Bears have had 21 defenses ranked in the top 10 and only eight offenses. The Colts had only nine top 10 defenses, but 23 offenses. As of writing this, Indianapolis has made the playoffs 24 times compared to Chicago’s 18. They have two Super Bowl titles to the Bears’ one.

It all goes back to bites the apple.

Great offense alone doesn’t guarantee championships. You need both sides of the ball to be good for the best possible chance to win a Super Bowl. Of the 58 champions so far, 30 have fielded top-10 offenses and defenses. The issue is that getting a team to that point is difficult and can take time. Until then, the goal must be to maximize your opportunities by getting to the playoffs as often as possible. Based on the data collected above, the odds are far better of doing that with a top offense than a top defense.

Johnson has been living proof of that. In his four years as a play caller since 2022, he has reached the playoffs every season. Three of those four years did not involve a top 10 defense. Four bites at the apple. Care to recall how many years it took the Chicago Bears to get four bites before Johnson arrived? That was 14 years, from 2006 to 2020. The Bears had a top-10 offense three times during that span, and they were involved in two of those playoff runs. Are you starting to see the point?

Prioritizing offense doesn’t guarantee a Super Bowl, but it certainly nudges you in the right direction.