The Ben Johnson brain-drain is already in motion with one assistant already poached hours after the Bears were eliminated from the playoffs
Ben Johnson just lost his first assistant coach with the Chicago Bears’ season now over.
The Chicago Bears had their exciting first season under head coach Ben Johnson come to an end with an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night.
It was an abrupt ending and Johnson is already facing the reality that comes with such a defeat as a head coach in this league. This team, frankly, will never be the same. Players come and go and the same can be said about Johnson’s first coaching staff he created in Chicago.
The latter is something Johnson is about to experience sooner than he might have anticipated.
Eric Bieniemy expected to become Kansas City Chiefs OC following Bears playoff loss
The eventual brain-drain is something Johnson was aware of and it’s the price that comes with being a great head coach in this league. When you have success, other teams want a part of that success and will try to pry coaches away from your staff.
Luckily, the Bears have Johnson leading the offense and security with Dennis Allen running the defense. But, several assistant coaches are up for grabs if other teams want to poach from this staff and that’s exactly what the Kansas City Chiefs are looking to do.
On Monday, hours after the Bears loss to the Rams, it was reported that the Chiefs are expected to hire Bears running backs coach Eric Bieniemy for their offensive coordinator position under head coach Andy Reid.
This was widely expected to happen once the Bears were eliminated from the playoffs. Bieniemy previously served as the Chiefs offensive coordinator from 2018-2022 and led a Top-5 scoring offense in four of those five seasons, with 2020 being the exception when the Chiefs finished sixth in scoring.
Bieniemy eventually wanted to spread his wings as a coach and get out of Reid’s shadow. In 2023, Bieniemy served as the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders before dipping down to the college ranks as the offensive coordinator and associate head coach at UCLA. With the Bears, Bieniemy was able to rebuild his reputation by helping lead one of the league’s top rushing attacks.
The Bears were the only team in the NFL to have two running backs total 750+ rushing yards this season in D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. Bieniemy helped reignite Swift’s career and found an absolute gem in Monangai, whom the Bears drafted in the seventh round.
“Eric Bieniemy’s doing a phenomenal job with all those backs,” Johnson said. “He takes a lot of pride in finishing, he takes a lot of pride in playing physical football, takes a lot of pride in pass protection, all the things that I think a good running back coach embodies, that’s what Eric Bieniemy’s about. That certainly augments the rest of those guys in that room.”
Former Bears head coach played a role in the Bears losing Bieniemy
After parting ways with Bieniemy, the Chiefs turned to former Bears head coach Matt Nagy to take over as the team’s offensive coordinator after he was fired in Chicago. Nagy previously served as the Chiefs offensive coordinator in 2017 before getting hired by the Bears.
In his second stint with Kansas City, Nagy signed a three-year deal that expired after this season. Nagy’s offense ranked 15th, 15th, and 21st during those three seasons and clearly the Chiefs missed Bieniemy running the offense.
Despite the inadequate results, Nagy is still received strong interest as a head coaching candidate and is the leading favorite to land the Tennessee Titans job, potentially as soon as early this week. With Nagy out of the picture, Reid now reunites with another former coordinator to help run his offense, which leaves Johnson looking for a new running backs coach.
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