The Detroit Lions should be a Super Bowl favorite going into this season. They were 15-2 in 2024. If not for a myriad of injuries on defense, there is a strong probability they would’ve at least made the NFC Championship game. Their roster remains stacked with talent. It should be a year of excitement. Yet underneath the optimism is a sense of dread. Much of this comes from the significant brain drain suffered by their coaching staff, headlined by the loss of coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

Most fear the former could hurt the team. Johnson’s offensive aptitude drove the Lions’ success for three years. He resurrected quarterback Jared Goff’s career while turning Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Jameson Williams into stars. Detroit brought in veteran coach John Morton to replace Johnson after he left for Chicago. Players have worked to put a positive spin on this development, but their comments have instead begun raising serious red flags about where things are trending.

The loss of Ben Johnson is already being felt.

Morton has plenty of experience in the NFL, but little as a coordinator. He only did it for one year at this level, in 2017 with the New York Jets, where his unit finished 28th in the league overall. He also spent two years at USC, where they finished 65th and 37th in the country. These comments about his system are spun as a great way to showcase the team’s talents. Others see it as evidence of somebody who lacks creativity. What Williams said in that video sounds dangerously similar to what Shane Waldron had planned for the Bears last year. Though Detroit has more talent, it’s still hard to ignore. The best offenses in the NFL are often the ones that utilize lots of scheming through motion.

See Miami, San Francisco, Minnesota, and Los Angeles for prominent examples. Ben Johnson was in that same group. Not only has he left the Lions, but he’s bringing that style to one of their biggest rivals. Maybe it’ll all work out, but there is a creeping dread in the minds of many up there.

Kurt Warner knows a thing or two about playing quarterback in the NFL. He made countless sacrifices even to make the league and went from undrafted to the Hall of Fame. During that unforgettable run, he played in several different offensive systems. Some were cutting-edge for their time. Others made him question whether he could play in the league anymore. After watching Caleb Williams last year, it didn’t take Warner long to realize that the scheme he played in under Shane Waldron was all wrong for him.

The primary issue was that it was a full-progression system. That meant Williams had to stay in the pocket and read the entire field. Warner’s problem was that Waldron asked the quarterback to do things he’d never done in college. It shouldn’t have been surprising that Williams took so many sacks from holding the ball too long. Things have changed under Ben Johnson. Warner believes his system is much better at giving quarterbacks more advantageous reads, which should lead to faster decision-making.

Warner is basically saying Caleb Williams holds the cards now.

Any quarterback worth his salt should be able to run the system Johnson deploys. Jared Goff used it to put forward the best seasons of his NFL career. He admitted the scheme made football easy for him. Warner made it clear. If Caleb Williams displays the same issues from last year in this offense, it might be time to have the hard discussion about whether he can make it in this league. There is no reason to think that will be the case. There are already signs that Williams is picking the system up quickly. His practices have shown steady improvement. Johnson has praised how much better he’s handling the pre-snap procedures. With some time and patience, this can work out as many hope.

The Chicago Bears knew what they needed after firing Matt Eberflus last November. Some ugly moments had made it apparent that there was a serious lack of accountability in the locker room. Eberflus was at the heart of that. Not only did he let players slide on little things too often, but he never took responsibility for the team’s struggles, even when it was clearly his fault. Regardless of the next head coach’s background, it needed to be somebody who wouldn’t shy away from holding players to the highest standard. That is how they came around to Ben Johnson.

His renowned offensive genius was a great selling point for GM Ryan Poles, but there was more to the decision than that. Johnson had a reputation for intensity and a maniacal obsession with details. If anybody could shake up Halas Hall, it would be him. Now, after experiencing the new head coach for the past few months, team insider Adam Hoge of CHGO reached a sudden realization. Johnson’s style is the spitting image of a former Bears legend fans miss to this day.

Ben Johnson being the offensive Vic Fangio is rather poetic.

Most people agree that Fangio’s departure in 2019 is what sank the Bears’ Super Bowl hopes. His defense was among the league’s best after that 12-4 run the year before. Losing him right as things were starting to take off was a gut punch. It was hard watching him win the Super Bowl this past season with the Philadelphia Eagles, knowing that it could’ve been the Bears if fate hadn’t intervened.

Some will laugh at the comparison, pointing out Fangio was a terrible head coach in Denver. That isn’t entirely true. He went 19-30 across three seasons. While that isn’t great, it isn’t because of his coaching. The Broncos were always competitive. They just couldn’t solve the quarterback problem. Across three years, they had three different starters. Ben Johnson doesn’t have that issue. If he brings the same magic to Chicago that Fangio did, this team is in an ideal spot.

The Chicago Bears are making several changes on the defensive side of the ball under Dennis Allen. That should’ve been expected. His approach as defensive coordinator was always going to differ from Matt Eberflus. There will be more blitzing, man coverage, and dime packages. There would also be new roles for players on the roster. One player who seemed stuck in limbo as the offseason unfolded was Gervon Dexter. He’d put together a strong 2024 as a three-technique with five sacks. However, the arrival of Grady Jarrett meant that spot was no longer available.

Some wondered if he would shift outside to defensive end or serve as Jarrett’s backup. In truth, it’s neither. Allen has a simpler plan in mind. According to Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic, it involves moving Dexter to a position he’s already familiar with.

In Year 3, Gervon Dexter expects to move around the defensive line, but he has mainly been the nose tackle, a position he prefers.

“I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but that’s, like, my true position,” he told The Athletic after practice. “I started out in college; I played at nose. Came here, I started at the nose and then kind of switched to the three(-technique) toward camp my rookie year. One-on-one with the center, personally, that’s a good matchup for me. I like my odds one-on-one with the center. Just being able to physically impose over the center, it’s something I like doing.”

Draft experts felt in 2023 that Dextter had the build of a perfect nose tackle. At 6’6, he had the length to control almost any interior blocker and the power to command double teams. Despite a questionable first step, Eberflus wanted to mold him into more of an interior pass rusher. Allen doesn’t see it the same way.

Gervon Dexter moving to nose tackle is probably for the best.

This is not because he can’t play three-technique. He’s already proven he can. The issue for the Bears is they have no long-term option at nose tackle. Andrew Billings is returning from a torn pectoral, which ended his season last year. He is also 30 years old. The Bears can’t be sure he will be the same force he was before the injury, and even if he is, his time still runs short. Gervon Dexter is much younger and perfectly suited for the role. He also has tons of experience playing it. He is the ideal solution to their problem. Better still, he sounds plenty excited for the switch, almost like he never felt comfortable with what Eberflus asked him to do.