One of the bigger surprises this season was the revelation from Albert Breer that Ben Johnson has had an eye on the Chicago Bears head coaching job since January. It was a revelation nobody saw coming. While the Bears job doesn’t lack prestige, it was surprising to hear arguably the hottest name on the coaching market has serious interest. That led to the inevitable question. Why? There had to be some sort of underlying motivation. Former Bears offensive coordinator John Shoop was the one who convinced Johnson to try coaching after he finished college. His first stint came at Boston College, which is Ryan Poles’ alma mater.
The truth is far simpler than that. Jeff Hughes of Da Bears Blog had gauged his contacts around the league to get a feel for the coaches involved. He learned one important factor in Johnson’s thinking. He really wants to work with Caleb Williams.
At first glance, he has no direct ties to USC or Oklahoma, where the quarterback went to school. However, he does have ties to the QB Collective, which is a developmental program meant to help young quarterbacks evolve their games in preparation for college and the NFL. The founder of the program is Richmond Flowers, who also happens to be Johnson’s agent. Williams has worked with the QB Collective since high school. It isn’t a stretch to think Flowers was feeding the coach all sorts of juicy details about the young quarterback.
When it became clear the Bears would be the team to land Williams in the 2024 draft, he made his interest known. Unfortunately, the team opted to retain Matt Eberflus. That obstacle is no longer present. Eberflus was fired midseason. The job will be wide open barring a magical turnaround by Thomas Brown over the final four weeks. It sounds like Ben Johnson aims to make a determined push for the job and the Bears have every intention of meeting with him.
