Caleb Williams continues to subtly strengthen Ben Johnson’s award-worthy resume for the remarkable turnaround he’s sparked with the Bears
Ben Johnson should be one of the top candidates to win Coach of the Year.
All season long the Chicago Bears have been considered the team of destiny for the way they continue to pull through in close games and the way they continue to exceed outside expectations.
The 2025 season is starting to look eerily similar to the 2018 Bears season when a first-year head coach in Matt Nagy helped lead a second-year QB in Mitch Trubisky to the playoffs and an NFC North title with a 12-4 record. Through 16 weeks, the Bears under first-year head coach Ben Johnson have a 11-4 record and are atop the NFC North standings with a second-year QB in Caleb Williams.
Another thing happened in that 2018 season that likely can come true again in 2025. Based on the turnaround Nagy had in his first season, he was rewarded with the AP Coach of the Year award, an honor that Johnson continues to build a strong case for.
Caleb Williams subtly strengthens Ben Johnson’s case for Coach of the Year
“I got the best coach in the world, let’s put it that way,” Williams said after Saturday’s comeback win. “We have the best coaching staff in the world. So, you put the talent with the coaches and the people that care, you can strive for anything, you can reach anything, you can go after any goal. And when you go out there on that football field, your belief is at an all-time high between players, between coaches, and you have outcomes like this.”
The Bears win last Saturday over the Green Bay Packers was the monumental win of the season for the organization and all but clinched a division title with two weeks left in the regular season. Once the Bears fully secure the NFC North, Chicago will go from worst to first and there’s no question the coaching staff is the reason why.
Johnson was easily the most sought after head coach candidate over the previous three cycles but waited out his ideal opportunity, turning down other teams, until making the decision to join the Bears. Many wondered what kind of head coach the young offensive wiz would actually be and whether or not he’d have the necessary personality to lead an organization on his own, something he quickly put to bed as soon as he arrived in Chicago.
“When you get off the field, he’s one of the guys,” Williams told reporters on Tuesday. “He’s a players’ coach. He laughs and jokes with us. He’s bumping us around, so it’s fun, it’s enjoyable when we’re off the field. It’s fun and enjoyable when we’re on the field, but it did take a little bit.”
It certainly wasn’t smooth out of the gate as Williams alluded to. Johnson had a high standard he wanted to put in place in order to establish a new culture in Chicago and to do so you have to ruffle some feathers early on until you get full buy-in from the players.
“It was like, ‘Gee, this dude doesn’t seem like he likes me,’ ” Williams said. “But you start figuring out that that’s just him and he cares so much about the sport, he cares so much about us, he cares so much about winning.”
With some ridiculously tough coaching and commitment to uphold that high standard, wins started finally coming for Chicago after an 0-2 start to the season, and coming in bunches. Since that start, the Bears are 11-2 this season and have a lot of momentum heading into the postseason.
For an organization and city deprived of a winning-mentality, Johnson single-handedly brought the Bears back. Not only to relevancy but into a legitimate contender in the NFC and it only took one season to do it.
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