One NFL team just put a massive target on its back by going after the Denver Broncos
One of the NFL’s most boisterous young head coaches just made one of the dumbest comments of the year, and it involves the Denver Broncos.
One of the NFL’s most boisterous young head coaches just made one of the dumbest comments of the year, and it involves the Denver Broncos.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson told The Athletic that he wants to have the highest-scoring offense ever, noting that the 2013 Denver Broncos currently hold that distinction.
“I want to have the highest-scoring offense ever, which happens to be the 2013 Denver Broncos,” said Johnson. “I know how many points per game they scored (37.9), and I want to surpass them. I want shutouts. I want blowouts.”
Look, I have nothing against Johnson as a head coach, but some things that coaches do are performative, and this falls squarely into that category.
One of the golden rules of coaching, and you hear it from the greats like Nick Saban, is process over outcomes. You have to compete in the moment to be your best. If you do that every day in preparation, when you get to Sunday, you’ll have a chance to do that for 60 minutes. And if you do that every play, you look up at the scoreboard at the end of the night and see what the result is.
You can’t think about results and outcomes ahead of time. If you do that, you’re putting pressure on yourself to attain certain outcomes that just might not be in the cards that day. There may be games where the Bears have to win 10-3 this year because, guess what, the other defenses in the NFL are pretty good too.
I don’t care what kind of scheme you run. As Tony Romo put it earlier this year, there are 11 guys on one side of the field, 11 on the other. You throw it to the side where there’s more space. Defenses are constantly coming up with ways to close that space. The game evolves, but it’s still the same game.
It’s a crazy statement for Johnson to make – this is the NFL, this isn’t college football where you can beat up on some lesser-thans – and it puts a target on his team’s back that is not necessary at all. We’ll see if he’s able to accomplish his goal, though his goal should be winning every day, as cliché as it sounds. I mean, you don’t know what the season holds. All you can do is try to put yourself in a position to accomplish something special by the end of the season.
No one’s guaranteed anything in the NFL. I think we all know that by now.
The only unfortunate part of this whole ordeal is that the Broncos don’t play the Bears in 2026. The only way the two teams can meet is if they both reach the Super Bowl.
Wouldn’t that be something?
