Can the Bears take a hint?
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has been conducting a weekly virtual interview with every NFL team looking for a head coach all season, but has turned it up a notch in the four weeks since the Bears fired Matt Eberflus. Hmmm ….
Johnson has had the highest scoring offense in the NFL since Week 6, but he’s been in absolute show-off mode since getting shut out by the Bears in the fourth quarter in a 23-20 victory that ended with a clock-management debacle that cost Eberflus his job.
In four games after Eberflus was fired, the Lions have averaged 37.5 points — scoring 34, 42, 34 and 40 points. They’re the first team to score 34 or more points in four consecutive games in three seasons.
And he’s not picking on bottom-10 defenses, either. The Lions scored 34 points against the Packers (who were ninth in points allowed at the time), 42 against the Bills (eighth), 34 against the Bears (still 11th despite a second-half fade) and 40 against the 49ers (tied for 19th).
And in each game, Johnson has come up with some kind of wrinkle that says, “I’m more than just a hot coordinator. I play chess, not checkers.”:
Whether or not it’s by design, Johnson is not only been showing other NFL teams that he has a good offense, but why he has a good offense — versatility and depth.
In the last four games, Goff has thrown three touchdown passes to wide receiver Tim Patrick, who had not caught a touchdown pass this season (and had not caught a touchdown pass in the NFL since 2021 because of season-long injuries in 2022 and 2023). In two games without injured running back David Montgomery, the Lions have leaned on Gibbs to rush for 146 yards against the Bears and 152 against the 49ers.
And perhaps most significantly, Johnson has turned up his game when the Lions have needed it most — with their defense short-handed and struggling. Some teams talk about complementary football. Other teams actually practice it.
NFL teams probably need to dig deeper to know if Ben Johnson is the next Kyle Shanahan or the next Brian Daboll. But maybe the Bears need to keep it simple and just go off the tape. The last time they did their due diligence, they had a five-person committee that included the director of player engagement and the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion — and Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian — and ended up with Eberflus. Their list this time should probably be a very short one.
2. If the Bears target Johnson as their No. 1 candidate, they’ll have to be more assertive than they usually are, if the Lions reach the Super Bowl.
If the Lions beat the Vikings on Sunday at Ford Field and have a bye, the Bears will have a five-day window (Jan. 8-12) for an initial interview with Johnson. (And new rules limit the interview to three hours.) If the Lions make the Super Bowl, the Bears would not have an opportunity for a second interview until Jan. 27 — the start of the bye week before the Super Bowl.
But you probably have to have your mind made up by then — and be willing to bend a few rules to have a deal in place.
When the 49ers courted Shanahan in 2017 during his Super Bowl run as offensive coordinator of the Falcons, their first interview was on Jan. 6. By Jan. 19 — three days before the NFC Championship Game — Shanahan was the presumptive head coach, without having any official contact with the 49ers since the initial interview. The 49ers interviewed Shanahan a second time on Jan. 28 and officially announced his hiring the day after the Super Bowl.
3. For What It’s Worth Dept.: Ben Johnson’s agent is not Trace Armstrong. It’s Richmond Flowers, who coached under Mike Shanahan with the Redskins and Jim Harbaugh with the 49ers.
4. With rookie quarterback Caleb Williams an obvious x-factor, Johnson would have similar weapons to work with in Chicago. But the offensive line is a huge difference.
The Lions have an All-Pro anchor in right tackle Penei Sewell, but also benefit from continuity. Four linemen have started 15 or more games (Sewell, left guard Graham Glasgow, center Frank Ragnow and right guard Kevin Zeitler). The Bears have two linemen who has started 15 or more games (right tackle Darnell Wright and center Coleman Shelton.)
Additionally, the Bears struggle to stay healthy through an entire game. They have made 21 in-game changes on their offensive line this season (losing 393 total snaps). The Lions have made four (losing 19 total snaps).
The Lions’ Week 1 starters have played 90.7% of their offensive snaps this season. The Bears’ Week 1 starters (including Nate Davis) have played 67.4% of their offensive snaps (82.3% with Matt Pryor replacing Davis.)
5. Offensive line continuity makes a difference. The eight teams with four or more linemen starting 15 or more games this season are a combined 94-34 (.734) — the Bills (5), Packers (5), Chiefs (4), Lions (4), Ravens (4), Buccaneers (4), Eagles (4) and Falcons (4). All but either the Buccaneers or Falcons will make the playoffs.
6. Not-So-Fun Fact: The Bears (4-12, .250) have to beat the Packers on Sunday to avoid finishing with a worse winning percentage than the White Sox (41-121, .253), who lost more games than any team in baseball history last season.
7. Of the 20 quarterbacks drafted in the top 15 since 2017, the Bears’ Caleb Williams ranks 11th in passer rating (87.4), 11th in completion percentage (61.9%), 12th in yards per game (212.1) and 15th in yards per attempt (6.4) in their rookie season.
The Bears, in fact, have three quarterbacks who rank in the bottom half in three of the four categories — Williams, Justin Fields (73.2 rating) and Mitch Trubisky (77.5). Fields, who was sixth in yards per attempt in 2021 (6.9) is the lone exception.
8. Quick Hits: The Bears’ 14-36 record (.280) is the second worst three-season stretch in franchise history. They were 11-31 (.262) under Abe Gibron/Jack Pardee in 1973-75. … George Halas’ worst three-year stretch was 15-20-1 (.431) from 1951-53. … Peyton Manning went 3-13 as a rookie in 1998 with a 71.2 passer rating (23rd in the NFL, same as Williams) and 28 interceptions. But he was sacked only 22 times. … The Bears have the lowest-rated quarterback in the NFC North for the eighth time in the last nine seasons (Trubisky’s 95.4 was better than Matthew Stafford’s 89.9 in 2018).
9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Giants kick returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in a 45-33 victory over the Colts that dropped the Giants from No. 1 to No. 4 in the draft order.
10. Bear-ometer — 4-13: at Packers (L).
