The Chicago Bears are on the clock. It's official now, especially after Matt Eberflus’s final meltdown against the Lions on Thanksgiving. They simply can’t afford another bad hire given the erratic coaching Caleb Williams has had this season. Making the kind of switch the Bears just executed is a worst-case scenario, but Eberflus basically forced Chicago’s hand by botching clock management in a way that’s tough to imagine, much less pull off in real time.
The list of head coaching candidates is already surfacing, but there’s only one real choice here. The Bears need to throw a boatload of money at Ben Johnson of Detroit as soon as the Lions offensive coordinator becomes available, even if Chicago has to wait until the end of a Super Bowl run.
Selling Johnson on Caleb Williams won’t be that hard
Selling Ben Johnson on the Bears job as a whole won’t be easy. Johnson turned down the Seahawks and Commanders back in the offseason, making it clear that he preferred to finish the job of getting the Lions over the top.
But getting Detroit’s OC to buy in on Caleb Williams is a very different story. Williams has flashed the kind of talent that has coordinators around the league drooling when it comes to the possibility of working with him, and Johnson has already rehabilitated Jared Goff, who is basically a statue in the pocket.
Developing Caleb Williams will be very different, and in the best way possible. His athleticism is one of his biggest strengths, which plays into many of the motion concepts Johnson has already designed in Detroit. He’ll have even more options with Williams, but he’ll have to do it initially without the big-strike running game that has made Detroit so dangerous.
GM Ryan Poles and the Chicago roster will be a tougher sell
Going into the season, the supposed strength of the Bears roster was one of the reasons Caleb Williams had a good chance to succeed. The defense was considered solid enough to win, and the Bears had some veteran receivers who would be able to help Williams acclimate to the speed of the NFL game.
Those strengths vanished once those games started due to the ghastly coaching Williams received, but this is still an attractive job. Johnson’s decision will likely rest on how well he meshes with GM Ryan Poles, who has survived the coaching carnage so far.
The fly in the ointment is Chicago’s ownership situation. George McCaskey runs through GMs and coaches as if he was redoing his wardrobe on an annual basis. He’s gone through four GMs and five head coaches since he took over in 2011, and that kind of instability represents a very tough sell.
Ben Johnson’s side of the story
Johnson’s reputation as an offensive talent is still pristine, but he took some heat last year for turning down jobs. Jayden Daniels may have been something of an unknown due to his meteoric rise as a college QB, but he’s turned out to be the real deal and then some. And Geno Smith may be older, but he still has the Seahawks in playoff contention.
The Lions OC is just 38, so his relative youth is still an asset, but Johnson also knows that the carousel spins both ways, quickly discarding candidates who miss their window of opportunity. Ben Johnson’s is here right now, and he needs to jump on it. He won’t get to walk into a perfect situation no matter how long he waits, and talents like Williams come along once every 5-10 years.
Other contenders are being mentioned, of course. The list of names includes Joe Brady of Buffalo, current college wunderkind Lincoln Riley and Frank Smith of Miami. They all have attributes, but this is clearly Ben Johnson’s moment, and both he and the Bears need to recognize that and get this hire done.