Was Ben Johnson The Right Hire For The Bears?

On January 20, it was announced that the Chicago Bears would hire Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be the 19th head coach in franchise history. On the surface, Johnson is a great hire. He coordinated the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in 2024 and, according to CBS Sports, the Lions’ 175 offensive touchdowns from 2022 to 2024 is the second-most ever scored in a three-year span (the Greatest Show on Turf Rams had 176 between 1999 and 2001). Johnson was hired to work with sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams, whose enormous talent is a great match with Johnson's offensive cleverness.

However, was Johnson the right hire for the Bears? The other finalist for the job was Mike McCarthy, a veteran coach who has elevated every quarterback he's worked with, whether it's elite talents Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers or the average Dak Prescott. McCarthy even made backups like Cooper Rush and Matt Flynn look good. Let's dive into why the Bears might have been better off hiring McCarthy over Johnson.

Elite Coordinators Don’t Always Make For Elite HCs

There have been so many great coordinators who have failed as head coaches. Take Josh McDaniels for example. As the offensive coordinator for the Patriots, he helped Tom Brady become the GOAT quarterback and made Mac Jones an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate. As head coach of the Broncos and Raiders, he was an abject failure, often making questionable decisions about the quarterback position and coming off as arrogant to those he worked with in both organizations. On the defensive side of the ball, Vic Fangio as a coordinator turns his defenses into elite units and elevates the players he works with. As the Broncos head coach from 2019 to 2021, Fangio was a disaster and posted a record of 19-30.

Some people are just elite coordinators, and that's fine. As a coordinator, you are only responsible for your side of the ball and don’t have to handle all the tough tasks that come with being a head coach. To Johnson's credit, he is surrounding himself with experienced coaches, evidenced by his plan to hire former Saints head coach Dennis Allen as his defensive coordinator. For a franchise like the Bears, which is in desperate need of a revival, bringing in an experienced coach like McCarthy rather than a first-time head coach might have been a better decision. The presence of Williams makes this a high-pressure job, and a veteran coach like McCarthy could be better suited for that challenge.

Head Coaching Experience Wins In The Playoffs

Outside of 43-year-old Nick Sirianni, the final four head coaches are experienced veterans who have been around the league for a while. Andy Reid is 66, Dan Quinn is 54, and Sean McDermott is 50. Reid and Quinn had prior head coaching experience before landing at their current stops. The whiz kid coaches being hired as part of the Sean McVay effect are not in the final four, save for Sirianni who has a great roster in Philadelphia.

Adding to this, McVay is the only coach under 40 to win a Super Bowl in the past decade. Six of the past ten Super Bowls have been won by Reid and Bill Belichick, both in their 60s at the time of their wins. The other winners included McVay, a 54-year-old Gary Kubiak, a 49-year-old Doug Pederson, and a 68-year-old Bruce Arians. Outside of McVay and Pederson, all of those coaches were in their second head coaching stint.

The Whiz Kid Coaches Aren’t As Good As You Think

The success of McVay has led to the league hiring younger (and mostly offensive-minded) coaches, but his coaching tree isn't as good as it seems. Take two of his most prominent assistants, Matt LaFleur of the Packers and Kevin O’Connell of the Vikings, as a case study. Both win a lot of regular season games and are good at developing quarterbacks, but they have a combined 3-7 playoff record and haven't shown an ability to win meaningful big games against elite opponents. Though a defensive-minded coach, former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley is another branch off the McVay tree and was hailed as the “McVay of defense” upon his hiring. His head coaching tenure was a catastrophe; he posted a 24-25 record, blew a 27-0 lead in his only playoff game, became a national punchline, and was so bad that his players quit on him in his third season. While McVay protege Zac Taylor reached the Super Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals (and lost to McVay’s Rams), most of the credit is given to quarterback Joe Burrow, not Taylor.

Other young coaches who have disappointed include Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, former Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, and former Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett. McDaniel is a flashy coach who regularly fails to beat winning teams and can't win cold-weather games, Kingsbury is a tremendous coordinator as evidenced by his work in Washington but is a terrible head coach, and Hackett was nothing more than a product of prime Aaron Rodgers. Shane Steichen of the Colts is close to joining this list as well, having failed to develop Anthony Richardson into a franchise quarterback thus far while showing signs of losing the locker room this season.

Some young coaches have worked, such as DeMeco Ryans of the Texans and Mike Macdonald of the Seahawks, both of whom were hired in the past two years. However, it should be noted that both have found success largely due to their surroundings. Ryans is currently working with Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud and a solid roster in Houston, while Macdonald took over a young Seattle team that nearly made the playoffs this year despite some clear limitations at quarterback. It's worth noting that both coaches are defensive-minded, and that side of the ball has been experiencing a renaissance when it comes to coaching hires over the past few offseasons.

Given his offensive wizardry, it’s understandable why the Bears hired Johnson. For a team that’s never had a modern franchise quarterback, they will need to get the most out of Williams and Johnson might be the coach to do that. However, history does not favor young coaches when it comes to winning at the highest level. Rather, experienced coaches who have spent time in the league are the ones finding success, not the whiz kids being hired in the hopes of finding the next McVay. Although Johnson was the flashy choice, McCarthy might have been a better fit for the Bears given the high stakes and pressure to win now. Time will tell if Johnson can meet expectations, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he joins the recent trend of young coaching hires who ultimately fail.

Serafino Diaz is a writer at Chaotically Intolerant, Phoenix's finest Vikings, Bucks, and Cubs fan, traveling everywhere I can.