'Go get him': How Ben Johnson's hiring came together for the Chicago Bears

One recent evening, Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren went out to a restaurant for dinner.

He was enjoying his evening for as long as he could. Still, even as far removed as he wanted to be from the Bears' head coaching search, Warren couldn't completely get away from the gravity of the impending decision.

The waiter came by and dropped off a gift from a nearby Bears fan.

"Someone sent me over a drink with a note," Warren said. "I saved it, and I have it in my drawer. I looked at it this morning, it says: ‘Please hire Ben Johnson.’"

Mission accomplished.

Ben Johnson took to the podium on Wednesday and said his salutations as the Chicago Bears' next head coach.

It officially concluded a coaching search that spanned 17 candidates and took two weeks since Bears General Manager Ryan Poles began his search on January 7 when he outlined what he was looking for in the Bears' next head coach.

"We were prepared," Poles said Wednesday. "There was no like panic to it at all. But, obviously, it sped up pretty quick and we had some really good conversations."

The Lions' loss to Washington in the NFC Divisional round changed an entire coaching search.

The candidate the Bears zeroed in on, and were expecting to have to wait much longer for, was available now. The Bears were up against the Las Vegas Raiders and minority owner Tom Brady for Johnson's services as head coach.

Everything stood the same as it was the week prior: The Bears had done their Zoom with Johnson and had their chances to talk to him. What he said then hung in the Bears' minds, from Poles all the way up to the franchise's ownership.

"I was especially struck, and he referenced it in his comments, that this is the toughest division in football and he wants to be here," McCaskey said. "He wants to go up against Campbell, LaFleur and O'Connell, and wants to succeed in the toughest environment possible."

From there, the decision makers were aligned. They turned to Poles, who was heading the search.

After so much discourse about who was leading the search and how much input everyone above Poles would have, Poles identified to the President and Chairman that Johnson was his choice.

Poles' decision was the final decision. 

"Ryan says, ‘this is the guy we want,’" McCaskey said. "And I said, 'go get him.'"

First things first, the Bears made sure they were Rooney Rule compliant. They needed to interview two minority head coaching candidates in-person, and did so with former Commanders head coach Ron Rivera and Tennessee State head coach Eddie George.

Then, the Bears could pursue their guy. On Monday, the parameters were in place. On Tuesday, Johnson was officially hired.

Johnson didn't just earn the job with a single Zoom interview. The Bears did their due diligence.

What helped is how Poles and Johnson have some shared connections. In fact, when Johnson was a graduate assistant at Boston College he used the same cubicle that Poles used when he was a graduate assistant just before Johnson.

Of course, it all came full circle with how he produced on the field as a play caller.

"We did a lot of research; Matt Feinstein in our group put some data together," Poles said. "He's done some things that are like special in terms of getting the offense to operate at a high level, and that stood out. So he was always the top candidate."

Johnson's had the top offense in the NFL from almost the moment he became the offensive coordinator in Detroit. That led to plenty of head coaching inquiries, but those previous moments weren't right.

He wasn't ready. Johnson said after the loss to San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game last season he wasn't emotionally available in the head coaching interviews he took.

Part of that was the sting of the title-game loss. Another part was how he wasn't ready to command an entire team with a firm hold of the offense, defense and special teams. A big part was he wanted to come back and try and finish what he started with the Lions.

Now, he's ready. He also knows the Lions have an offense that will work and produce. He was comfortable leaving Detroit because he knows they can succeed with others calling plays. The Lions' offense is not something that's apologetically his.

He explained all of this to the Bears in his interview, and what sold the Bears' leadership was his journey.

"Ben is one of one. He talks about Dan Campbell being a unicorn. He's a unicorn," Warren said. "Just look back his whole career. But also the beautiful thing about him is that it hasn't been a smooth road. He's gone through different issues to go on and walk-on in North Carolina and then get fired in Miami and then take the quality control job in Detroit to work his way up."

Now, Johnson has worked his way to leading the Bears.

He's taking over a team that had playoff aspirations in 2024. He doesn't see why those aspirations should change in 2025.

"There's no question it can happen in 2025," Johnson said. "It depends on how hard we're willing to work and how much we're willing to sacrifice."

BearsSports