Finding a “leader of men” was stressed as a priority when the Bears front office started their head coaching search. After the whelming defensive minded coaching of Eberflus (but hey, what a hip haircut he got last offseason surely the players will respect him this season)(https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10145381-bears-rumors-jaylon-johnson-used-colorful-language-in-matt-eberflus-exchange) it should not come as a shock that Vrabel, McCarthy, and Ben Johnson were top of the leaderboard for head coaching candidates.
How do you find a “leader of men”? Thinking more and more about the phrase, much like saying the same word repetitiously yields a vague notion more than an example. What the hell is a “leader of men”? Someone you’d follow into battle? Someone who is bold, brash, and unapologetic? A guy who knows when to tell someone to “fuck off” so that they can do what they need to do? Is a leader someone wise? Somone with a wealth of knowledge and a keen insight into what needs to be done at exactly the right moment? A “leader of men”. Judging by the aforementioned candidates I take it to mean the Bears want confidence. Vrabel – an absolute tower of a man by all accounts – can lay down the law because he is confident in his system. Mike McCarthy (and I know this one might be a stretch) must have some level of confidence. The man won a Super Bowl while putting up with a diva QB and then dealt with Jerry Jones’ shenanigans. But then we arrive at Johnson.
Ben Johnson, lauded as a wunderkind for the Detroit Lions appears to certainly have the brains for head coaching but he’s also never been a head coach. We are really riding on potential and that scares the hell out of me. I can imagine saying this out loud to a group of people in a bar right now and having trash and other debris flying at me. Maybe a beer poured on me.
All I ask is how can the Bears trust that Ben Johnson is a true “leader of men”. How do we know that Ben Johnson is confident enough in his offensive scheme (even though we don’t know that he’ll be calling the offense as HC) to be a HEAD coach? I’m sorry (not really) its just... I’ve been down this road before with Nagy. I’m not comparing Nagy to Johnson in terms of offensive play calling (I think I hear boos behind me), but I am comparing them in terms of “revolutionary OC’s under a good HC who are destined to lead a team to multiple Super Bowls”. Again, I LIKE THE HIRE. I just find it a little funny that to be honest – Ben Johnson (on the surface) doesn’t exactly fit what the Bears were originally looking for.
Listening to Pardon My Take and reading various Chicago sports opinion pieces you would have thought Mike McCarthy would be the end of the Bears as we know it. The man has been a head coach for a long time, won a Super Bowl, and put up with a lot of BS from a front office. Hiring Ben Johnson is a gamble. A really expensive gamble - so much so that the front office shocked the Bears fanbase with the highest coaching salary ever paid to a Bears coach.
I like Ben Johnson. I think he was one hell of an OC in Detroit. I think that he’s passionate, driven, and uncompromising. He forwent HC jobs last year because there were no openings that fit what HE wanted. How rare is that in today’s NFL when everyone is chomping at the bit to be a HC. He’s sat under the tutelage of Dan Campbell and my God if he isn’t a “leader of men” I don’t know who is. Ben Johnson believes in Caleb Williams and this offense so much so that he turned down the Raiders and Tom Brady. Hell, he could have had a incredible career just staying in Detroit next season. Ben Johnson is a man of conviction and he seems to follow his own set of values and principles. Goddamnit, he just might be what we need…
Credit to Bears official social media for the graphic.
Why not Deon?