Ben Johnson publicly embraces outside narrative about the Bears, using it as a team rallying cry heading into 2026 season
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson usually keeps his team motivations behind closed doors but it’s clear the national narrative about his team heading into 2026 has deeply rooted inside him.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has never been one to broadcast his team’s internal motivations openly to the media. He prefers to keep those messages in-house, shared only within the walls of the locker room. But every now and then, Johnson lets something slip.
Bears fans will remember how he openly talked about beating Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur twice a year and how he hates the Packers, or the times his emotions showed through regarding other matchups. That “us versus the world” mentality became a defining characteristic of Johnson’s first year in Chicago, and something the team bought in from the top down.
Now, heading into the 2026 season, Johnson is channeling that same energy around a new narrative: regression. After the success the Bears enjoyed in 2025, plenty of outside voices have pegged Chicago as a team poised to take a step back. Johnson isn’t pushing back on those predictions. He’s welcoming them.
“We’re the number one regression candidate,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “I think we got plenty of motivation ourselves.”
Chicago Bears are prime regression candidates, but what exactly does that mean?
Rather than deny the regression talk, Johnson is openly accepting it and using it as fuel for the 2026 campaign. The message inside Halas Hall is clear: the outside world thinks this is a step-back year for Chicago, and the Bears intend to prove them wrong.
Since the 2025 season ended, Johnson’s message of going back to square one has been clear. There’s no building off the success of last season. It’s a new team, with new players, and new expectations. So, what exactly does regression mean if everyone starts back at square one again every year?
For starters, the Bears are set to play one of the toughest schedules in the league (whatever that means) and the outside media believes many of Chicago’s 11 wins last season were unsustainable ways of winning (again, whatever that means).
There is also an idea that once you get to the top, you get comfortable and prone to fall if you’re not locked in to the process that go you there. It doesn’t sound like the Bears are that kind of team based on the message from the top down inside the organization.
Hunter’s mentality remains the same inside Halas Hall
“It’s important to have that mindset that you’re always hunting,” general manager Ryan Poles said Tuesday. “And that’s what we’re going to do. I’m sure Coach will talk about our mentality as we move forward. But we’re going to be hunting at all times.”
That same mindset Poles shared was echoed later in the week by veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, proving it’s a mentality that extends throughout the entire organization.
“It don’t really matter about what anybody else is doing. It’s about how we go about our process and what we do,” Jarrett explained. “We’re always the hunters. That’s the mindset we’re taking.”
Chicago had a successful 2025 campaign, and the doubt that followed has given this team exactly what Johnson wants to work with as fuel for 2026. For a coach who thrives on keeping his cards close to the vest, the fact that this particular motivation is starting to leak out during camp tells you just how deeply that narrative runs through this team.