Obviously, there’s always risk with a first time HC, especially a younger guy, but this is the best outcome we could have hoped for based on the available information.
The first question will be how he builds his staff, and at least based on rumors, Johnson seems to have a plan and a lot of people eager to join him. Dennis Allen as DC would be awesome, not just because he’s a stud defensive coach, but because he’s got HC experience and can help Ben get his operation up and running and to provide experienced guidance when needed. There’s a suggestion that the other Saints (interim) HC could be coming too as the ST coordinator. Rizzi being promoted to interim HC after Allen left is a reasonably good sign, though I don’t know his game that well. Again, another experienced leader and veteran coach to balance out Johnson’s youth. Seems like a good idea on paper.
It’s still mostly under the radar, but there’s been a lot of whispers that Lions OL coach Hank Fraley might be coming along for the ride as the new Bears OC. Johnson and Fraley are supposedly close and Fraley has connections to the Bears FO. I suspect the Lions will work to retain him, possibly as OC there, but him taking an OC job with Johnson still calling plays seems like a safe move for him. Whether Fraley has the chops to scheme and call plays is unknown, but he can build and coach an OL…which is what the Bears desperately need.
Whether any of these rumors pan out aside, this is a huge win for Chicago. The top candidate, a guy who literally could write his own check, chose the Bears. And there’s circumstantial evidence that he wanted this job last year knowing that Caleb was coming in. So this isn’t a snap decision, and we seem to have an enthusiastic pairing of a Coach and QB. That’s a good place to start. We also will likely have our brain trust in place early this offseason so we should hit free agency and the draft at full speed.
Edit: One more thought. One of the most exciting things I’ve seen so far is a comparison between how much Ben Johnson uses Pre-snap Motion and Play Action versus the Bears in 2024. The Lions were like 3rd in both categories and the Bears were last or close to it. I can’t find the graphic I saw, but this is a change that I’ve been pounding the table for. This is how a modern offense needs to operate to create matchups and big plays and seeing the Bears move into the 21st century would be incredible. Caleb needs to work in the offseason to get good at play action, Goff is one of the best, but that should be a learnable thing. Effective pre-snap motion should help Caleb get into a position where he can deliver the ball on schedule.
Obviously, I don’t know what his long-term aspirations are, but coming to the Bears seems like the wise career move to me. He’s only ever been an OL coach so far, and not for very long. He’s never called plays and he’s never built an entire offense. If he goes to Seattle or New York, or even if he takes a promotion to stay in Detroit, he’ll be taking on all the OC responsibilities. That’s a lot of risk. In Chicago he gets the OC title and an opportunity to grow into the role while still having Ben Johnson there as training wheels.
If he goes to one of those other jobs and is asked to run the whole offense and he fails, he’ll probably be relegated to being an OL coach for the rest of his career. He’s probably not getting a second shot any time soon. In Chicago he can get seasoned as an OC and if successful go on to be a play-caller somewhere else. In fact, he could even jump straight from non-play calling OC to Head Coach after a few years of success. That just seems like the pragmatic approach to me. I imagine that Seatle interview is his way of getting paid by the Bears like a full-fledged OC.
Patriots have hired (for the third time) Josh McDaniels as their OC. Not sure how I feel about that. There are some obvious pluses, but also some downsides. The system under which Brady thrived with McDaniels is complicated. Will it work well without the GOAT? On the plus side, McDaniels has shown he can get a lot out of mediocre QBs like Matt Cassell, Mac Jones, and Jimmy G.
Well, I’m sure the almost instantaneous drop in the 49ers fortunes after he won his power struggle with Harbaugh and their almost instantaneous improvement after he was fired combined with the years of futility in Jacksonville are no reflection on his true ability, and he’ll bounce right back into another GM role with another team.
…and I can’t believe I kept a straight face the entire time I typed that.
Raiders apparently have a GM. Seems like they were holding off on filling that position until Ben Johnson made a decision. I suppose that they were giving him the option to select his own GM, but he was apparently not that interested in that. Or else he and Poles really clicked.
This is so hilarious. Shad Khan was apparently the only person who didn’t know that Baalke was a massive liability. And now they are basically starting over on hiring a coach. What a clown show.
Baalke must be absolutely elite when it comes to managing up to billionaires. What a great skill to have. First winning a power struggle against a Super Bowl HC in Harbaugh and then initially surviving Pederson era in Jacksonville in spite of EVERYONE saying it was a terrible idea. Quite an achievement. Dude must have a reality distortion filter.
I feel somewhat for Shad Khan (not really, dude made his own bed and can lie in it) that it likely took several HC candidates turning down interviews because they didn’t want to work for (not with) Trent Baalke for it to finally sink in.
Raiders might be making the classic mistake of letting Brady make too many calls though. New GM was with him in Tampa and was his roommate back at Michigan? Then again, with their recent history, maybe that’s still an upgrade.
The sequence of events that I’ve parsed from Reddit:
Coen interviews with the Jags. Says he’ll take the job if he can replace Baalke with Buc’s Asst. GM Spytek. Jags say no.
Bucs offer Coen a huge OC contract contigient on him not taking another interview with the Jags.
Jags fire Baalke.
Raiders hire Spytek.
Coen tries to sneak back to the Jags, telling the Buc he couldn’t come in to sign his new contract because his kid was sick. Of course, the NFL is as watertight as a sieve so word gets out immediately.
Jags offer Coen a massive contract along with letting him pick the GM.
Coen lets the Bucs know about half an hour before signing a contract with the Jags.
That fits what I heard earlier, that they wanted an experienced HC to work with the rookie GM. Pete’s name was the biggest rumor and that turned out to be true.
There’s going to be a lot of rebuilding in Vegas, hopefully Pete has as much luck as he did in Seattle turning things around.
With Coen to the Jaguars, and Carroll to the Raiders, that leaves two head coach openings: New Orleans and Dallas.
The Saints’ interviewing process was apparently slowed somewhat by this week’s snowstorm, but it also appears that Saints GM Mickey Loomis doesn’t feel like he needs to rush a decision, given that the Cowboys appear to be focused on Brian Schottenheimer or Deion Sanders.
Schotty makes some sense. He wasn’t awful in Seattle, at least in my opinion, during his time as OC. (Not great but not terrible.) He’s already in Dallas so it would be an internal promotion. He knows the team and the players and the system and the coaches. I don’t think he’d be an exciting prospect for HC in Dallas, but he’d be a sane one.
So my theory is that he will only be the fallback choice if they can’t make a deal with Sanders.
