After leading the Bears to the 2025 NFC North title and becoming the franchise's first coach to win a postseason game in his first year, Ben Johnson has already moved onto 2026.

That was crystal clear in the first sentence he uttered at Wednesday's end-of-season press conference when he described the magical 2025 campaign as "last season."

"In regards to last season, I really appreciate our guys," Johnson said. "They came in in the springtime and they dedicated a large amount of trust to what we were doing. Buy in, work ethic, they sacrificed a lot. That's what gave us a chance there at the end. We won games, put ourselves in a good position, but ultimately we came up short and so our guys are going to learn from this.

"I can't say enough good things about this particular group of coaches, of players, of support staff. I thought they were special, and I said that at the end of the year. They believe that and I'll forever be grateful for what they were able to do this season. But we're one of the 31 other teams that fell short. If anything, that just rejuvenates me and makes me want to push harder and longer than what we did this past season. I'm already looking ahead to 2026 myself."

In 2025, the Bears enraptured their fan base by winning seven games they trailed in the final 2:00, the most by an NFL team since at least 1970. That included thrilling regular-season and playoff victories over rival Green Bay in which they twice rallied from double digit fourth-quarter deficits.

While the Bears greatly exceeded outside expectations in 2025, it doesn't appear that complacency will be a problem under Johnson, who told players during a final team meeting Monday that they must "start from scratch" in 2026.

"There is no building off of this," he said. "We go back to square one. We're back at the bottom again. That's really all 32 teams. If you feel otherwise, you're probably missing the big picture. We're back at it. We've got to start from scratch.

"You can look at 2025 and say, 'Hey, it's a great start.' Well, the truth is it was really hard to accomplish what we accomplished, and it wasn't good enough and it's going to be that much harder to put ourselves in that position again next season. There's a lot of work coming up. I know our players, when they come back, they'll be ready to go."

While the clock resets every season, there are some sustainable elements that the Bears exhibited in 2025 that they can carry into 2026. At the top of that list are physicality, playing fundamental football and displaying poise. Johnson instilled those as cornerstones from Day 1 and was pleased that they all came to fruition.

"Our identity that we outlined, that we wanted to show on tape, I thought that came through," he said. "We have it up in the team room. The words on a wall are one thing. But bringing it to life is another thing, and I thought those guys did that.

"The No 1 thing was physicality. I thought we were a physical unit on tape. That always starts in the trenches with your big guys, but I really think your little guys on the perimeter, they really helped define that. We had receivers that were selfless. They were willing to block for their buddies. I thought we had DBs that were willing to tackle. That showed up these last two games in particular. Really proud of that. Physicality was the No. 1 thing that we hang our hat on.

"No. 2 is being fundamentally sound and being schematically sound, and I thought that showed up week-in and week-out. We still can get better in some areas, like when I think about being fundamentally sound, we've got to do a better job catching the football next year, and I can tell you right now that'll be a good point of emphasis for us when they come back in the springtime."

Last but not least was demonstrating poise, a characteristic that enabled the Bears to routinely register dramatic comeback victories.

"This is the one I'm most proud of," Johnson said. "That ended up being our identity there for most of the season and it showed up in the playoffs as well. We handle pressure better than most, and that's a credit to Ryan [Poles] and the type of guys that he brought in. They're wired the right way. They thrive in those circumstances and that showed up for us in a big way.

"Our coaching staff tried to apply pressure on them early on, in the springtime and throughout training camp. And I'm not saying they grew numb to it, but it's almost like they embraced it and that they were at their best in those moments."

Quarterback Caleb Williams certainly was at his best in the biggest moments, engineering scoring drives that resulted in the seven comeback wins. He set a franchise single season passing record with 3,942 yards and ranked fifth in the NFL with a 27-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio while starting all 17 games for the second straight year.

"We had a good exit interview," Johnson said. "My main message to him was he needs to get out of football a little bit. He's done a phenomenal job in terms of staying focused all year long. He put a lot of time, a lot of effort. I thought he grew up as a professional. I thought his communication to his teammates grew.

"We will certainly have a number of points of emphasis that he can dive into when he comes back this springtime. It's important for really all of us—coaches, players, support—that we get away for a little bit, that we hit the reset button. I think everyone needs that here at this point."

Johnson saw Williams continue to grow throughout their first year together.

"The things we highlighted for Caleb to start the season, I do think they improved as the season went on," Johnson said. "We revamped the footwork a little bit last spring. I think the comfort level grew from that. He certainly got more comfortable with the concepts we were running over the course of the season.

"That's something we can build upon, and yet there's still a lot more that we can push through in that regard. I'm really encouraged about the steps he took this year. I'm Caleb Williams' No. 1 believer. I have a lot of faith in him and what he's capable of doing and the player that he's still striving to become."

When Williams and his teammates reconvene in April, an emphasis will be placed on honing basic skills and setting the bar even higher than it was in 2025.

"We've got to start from the fundamentals," Johnson said. "A lot of guys talked about how difficult this training camp was. I didn't feel like it was anything out of my ordinary. They know what the expectation is. They know what the process is that we believe in as a coaching staff. More than anything else, they're going to know what they're getting themselves into.

"We've got to dig a little bit deeper. We've got to work a little bit harder. We've got to give a little bit more if we want to take this thing over the top. It's no different than if you're trying to lose 50 pounds. The first 30 is the easiest 30; the last 20 is the hard part. We did a nice job this year, but it's not enough. We've got to do more."