Ben Johnson, born in 1986, grew up at the height of the Very angry age Johnson’s signature style of play calling has always seemed indebted to the way one plays video game football, with aggressive fourth down calls, intricate passing designs, and a love of mobile quarterbacks. The Chicago Bears head coach couldn’t hide a smile when a reporter asked if he had played Madden when he was younger last season.
“I’ve always liked taking bad teams in franchise mode and trying to build them up from there,” Johnson said.
Johnson is now living the dream of thousands of kids who learned about football in part from playing Madden. I am one of those people. I’m a year younger than Johnson, and spent way too much time as a teenager emulating Madden dynasties, making trades, managing the salary cap, and throwing darts in the draft when I should have been, I don’t know, talking to girls or whatever. I even wrote a cool 500,000-word series during the pandemic about taking Western Illinois from worst to first in College Hoops 2K8a game released when Johnson was a senior at North Carolina.
Johnson rose to prominence as the NFL’s next great offensive mind during his time as coordinator of the Detroit Lions. He could have had a head coaching offer from the Washington Commanders in the 2024 offseason, but he took his name out of the running to return to Detroit for a year. That decision paved the way for Chicago to pick him up a year later following a disastrous season from Matt Eberflus that highlighted all the ways the Bears mismanaged Caleb Williams’ rookie season.
Johnson has been nothing for Chicago since taking the job, and on Monday night, he cemented himself as one of the game’s best head coaches by leading the Bears to a surprising 27-7 win over the Philadelphia Eagles as his third-string quarterback.
One of the talking points coming into the night was how Johnson never called plays for a QB who wasn’t picked No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft. The Bears coach was humbled by Brian Flores’ stellar defense in last week’s rain-soaked, 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and now he’s set to be sidelined with Williams for several weeks as he recovers from a Grade 2 hamstring strain. With backup Tyson Bagent concussed on the final play of the Vikings’ loss, Johnson turned to Case Keenum, a man just 21 months his junior, and someone who hadn’t started a game since 2023.
The whole world expected the Bears to come out trying to establish the run. Instead, Johnson fired Keenum off the opening snap, with pass attempts on the first two plays of the game followed by a strong fourth down call that saw the veteran QB connect with rookie Sam Roush to keep the chains moving. The Bears eventually punted on their first drive with a slick pass to Luther Burden. It set the stage for an incredible night that saw Keenum finish with 247 yards and two touchdowns through the air, along with another rushing touchdown.
Keenum deserves every bit of credit he’s getting Tuesday morning for turning back the clock in such dramatic fashion — but even he knows who really deserves the credit.
“Ben Johnson is cooking tonight,” Keenum said in his post-game interview. “It’s in his bag.”
The key for Keenum is getting the ball out quickly. His average throw time was 2.28 secondsbelow league average, against an Eagles defense generally known for chasing the quarterback. After looking unprepared for the onslaught of Vikings pass rushers a week ago, the Bears’ protection up front was on point all game, and Keenum never hesitated to hit a throw when he thought there was an opening there.
Keenum’s rushing touchdown was the latest example of Johnson having it in the bag. The coach brought up a play used by Mike Martz in the 2002 Super Bowl called the “sucker sneak” where two guards pull wide and the QB drops into the end zone. Pulling it off with any QB seems like a tall order — but doing it with a 38-year-old feels like a magic trick.
In hiring Johnson, the Bears not only found their first great head coach since Mike Ditka was fired in 1993, they also got the rare type of leader who can stabilize an entire franchise. The Bears are still a family-owned operation with the grandsons of founder George Halas controlling the team, but they’ve never had the football acumen of their patriarch. For years, the franchise literally ran its accountant, and the dysfunction at the top of the organization permeated every level. The Bears can never get the GM, head coach, and QB on the same timeline, resulting in a vicious cycle of turnover at the most important level of the team.
Johnson took the Bears job because Caleb Williams was on board. The Bears should thank their lucky stars for that. While Johnson and Williams have turned the on-field product around, the franchise remains completely clueless off the field, trying and failing for years to land a new stadium defined by empty threats of moving to Indiana and multiple botched self-imposed deadlines. Team president Kevin Warren is a running punchline. The only person in the organization with any power who really knew what they were doing was Johnson.
Without Johnson, the Bears would likely still be lost in the wilderness. With him, they dream of setting NFL scoring records, winning Super Bowls, and reimagining what offensive football looks like in this city. Johnson is on record saying he is comfortable with this being his last job. In a best-case scenario, he could be here for decades, enjoying the kind of longevity that only true legends of the game can afford.
Johnson proved that he was really good by taking the Bears to the playoffs in the first year. On Monday, he showed that his genius isn’t limited to having an awesome quarterback. Johnson really feels like he’s taking the Bears from worst to first, just like he dreamed on his PlayStation more than 20 years ago. The Bears are very lucky to be the team chosen to run his most important franchise mode sim.