When the Bears hired Ben Johnson last offseason, we had a pretty clear idea of who he was. The young coach who had saved Jared Goff's career and lit the Lions' offense aflame by grafting much of the old Sean McVay offense into a new approach in Detroit. A ton of motion, play-action and intermediate in-breakers. All the classics... with some new wrinkles, thanks to unique players such as Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams in the fold.
So as Johnson took charge of second-year quarterback Caleb Williams, the burning questions were clear. How would Johnson reverse the arc for Williams, the 2024 No. 1 pick who had suffered as a rookie with late throws, missed targets, plenty of sacks and too many risks? How, if at all, could Williams play the pristine, timing-oriented ball that Goff had proved integral to Johnson's approach? Would Johnson lose patience with an oft-scrambling off-schedule playmaker?
It's easy to look at the improvement of the Bears' offense in 2025 and say that our questions were well-founded. Williams' sack rate dropped from 10.0% to 3.8% (good job, Johnson), but his completion percentage fell from 62.5% to 58.1% (still inaccurate). The Johnson-Williams partnership must still be a work in progress. One with promise, but in progress nonetheless. Right?
The scope here is too narrow. It commits the most frequent error of our modern NFL discourse and analysis. It looks at everything through the lens of the quarterback, believing that the entire offense will only go as he goes and that all innovation is meant to directly impact his life. The Johnson offense resurrected Goff and looks as if it might boost Williams to elite heights -- but that's not the only thing it's doing.
In fact, much of Johnson's first year in Chicago was not about Williams' game at all. The Bears' offense was stripped down to the studs and rebuilt anew, in a process Johnson knew would be painful and slowgoing. But it worked. It set up the Bears for total team success -- not only in 2025 with a revitalized quarterback but for years to come with a complete system. And it started not on the air but on the ground.
Getting the run game going
The Bears had the earliest possible bye week in 2025 -- Week 5 -- and were 2-2 entering it. There were big defensive issues to address (31st in success rate). On offense, they were about league average... but with a major imbalance, ranking 12th in EPA per dropback and 31st in EPA per rush.
"It was the running game," Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor told me. "We really needed to get the running game going."