Ben Johnson’s first year as head coach of the Chicago Bears ended in heartbreak, but what a ride it was.
The former Lions offensive coordinator led a transformation in Chicago in 2025 that will resonate with Bears fans well beyond the final whistle of their Divisional Round overtime defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams. Now, Chicago has a new goal: Build on the seemingly overnight success story that was the 2025 Bears.
“I am proud of the progress that we’ve made,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said Wednesday, via the team’s official site. “And knowing that, we can’t be complacent. We’ve got to keep pushing forward. (Johnson and I) both come from organizations (Detroit and Kansas City) that have stacked success in back-to-back years. We know the challenge that comes with having success and then trying to get back to that the following year.
“I can tell you right now, we’re all excited for that challenge in terms of building this team back up, making tweaks, tightening screws on the process, and the people that we need to continue to elevate for us to get back to where we were and exceed that, and win championships around here.”
From Poles’ perspective, tweaks are all the Bears need. Sure, their takeaway-reliant defense could use some reinforcements in order to graduate from average to reliably stifling, and he’ll likely need to find a new receiver to replace DJ Moore. Overall, though, Chicago is miles ahead of where it was when Poles was spending January pursuing Johnson’s coaching services a year ago.
After one season with Johnson at the helm, Poles knows he hired the right man. In fact, he knew it in late July.
“The buy-in was incredible,” Poles said. “I go back to training camp. He needed a physical day in the dog days of camp, and that was a really cool opportunity to see those guys buy into what he was saying, do something really hard. In the moment, does it feel good? No. But they believed, from his message, that it would help us down the road. And they went all out with it. And you saw that go through the entire season.”
