PHOENIX – During a magical 2025 season, a resurgent offense led the Bears to the NFC North title and a thrilling playoff win over the rival Packers.
In coach Ben Johnson's first season working with talented young quarterback Caleb Williams, the Bears scored the third most points (441) in franchise history and ranked second in the NFL with 127 explosive plays.
Despite that success, there's no chance that Johnson will hurt his arm patting himself on the back. This week at the NFL owners meetings, the second-year coach detailed what aspects of the offense he's focused on improving.
"We ran the ball well, but our passing game still leaves something to be desired," Johnson said. "Coaching-wise, we need to do a better job getting the primary receiver open. Our route detail has to improve. And our ball location and simply catching the football has to improve there."
A major emphasis will be placed on getting the primary receiver open.
"I don't think it happened at a high enough clip, and so we have to do a better job in our game-planning process," Johnson said. "I put a lot of that on myself of making sure that we are doing that. And then that's where Caleb comes in handy is he can bail us out when we are wrong, which we're going to be wrong each and every game. I'm going to mistime some calls or they're going to throw something at us that we weren't prepared for.
"That's what I'm looking forward to is we're going to be able to have those conversations in the quarterback room of when can we hang in there and get this ball out to the primary or the No. 2 receiver, and when do we need to extend. We've got to get better when we extend plays, capitalizing on those as well. Our scramble tape was not very good, and I think that's something that Caleb can really sink into. Just with his accuracy, with our ability to catch the ball, with our ability to separate down the field, I think we can make a huge jump there as well."
Johnson is just as determined to eliminate the slow starts the Bears experienced, especially during the second half of the year. They rallied to win six regular-season games and one playoff contest after trailing in the final 2:00 of regulation. But many of those comebacks were necessitated by struggling early.
"In terms of when we need to be at our best in the fourth quarter, that has to stay the same," Johnson said. "Those guys came through. They had belief and it showed up. They played really well in the fourth quarter.
"Now I look back—I'm talking the last eight games, playoffs included—we scored more points fourth quarter on than we did quarters one to three. That wasn't the case the first half of the season, and so we've got to figure out why we started the second half of the season so slow on offense. That's a big mission of mine. We don't want to put ourselves behind the eight ball each and every week. That's not a formula for sustained success.
"We're better than that. We have too much talent on our offensive side of the ball for us to start off so slow and to dig ourselves in holes like that. We're going to find out what that is. A lot of times when you find areas to improve [and] you draw attention to it, that stuff gets corrected. Guys take a lot of pride in it."
Major progress
Johnson reflected on the huge strides that Williams and the offense made in 2025. He told reporters about recently showing two new assistants tape of last year's Family Fest practice at Soldier Field, which was held a week before the preseason opener.
"Both those coaches ended up turning around like, 'How did you guys wind up winning any games last year?' They couldn't believe it," Johnson said. "They saw what the actual plays in-season looked like and to see where we started was like, 'wow.' It's an eye opener.
"The hope is—not just for Caleb but for our entire offense—that we start a lot further along in the spring and in training camp than where we were a year ago, and I feel pretty confident that that is going to be the case. I know he got so much better over the course of the season of being able to take the game plan on a Wednesday, hearing these plays for the first time and going out on the field—whether it's walk-through or for actual speed reps—and being able to regurgitate that play, break the huddle, and us being able to execute it.
"So there were baby steps throughout the season. And yet when we see it from the start of camp there all the way until the end, [it's] like 'OK, we're cooking here.' The point is we've got to start there. We have to start there here in the springtime and I think if we do, we'll see another big step for the entire unit."
Man in the middle
Johnson acknowledged that the addition of veteran center Garrett Bradbury likely will result in some subtle scheme changes. Bradbury was acquired via a trade with the Patriots to replace Pro Bowler Drew Dalman, who unexpectedly retired.
"We will always take our time in the spring and during training camp to figure out what we do best, what our guys do best," Johnson said. "Does it tweak schematically what we ask them to do? Sure. I think that's what good coaches do and that's what [offensive line coach] Dan [Roushar] does a great job of coaching up. So we'll see what [Bradbury] does best and we'll look to emphasize that.
"I'm sure things will change a little bit. But what I am excited about is I only got to talk to him briefly when he came in after the trade and yet I could tell how bright he is and I think the chemistry in the room is really not going to miss a beat."
High praise for new OC
Johnson expects a smooth transition with Press Taylor being elevated from passing game coordinator in 2025 to offensive coordinator.
"The beautiful thing there is that Press was with us a year ago," Johnson said. "So he knows what to expect. He's not learning the offense. He's not learning how the playcaller's mind works or anything like that. He's able to really look and fill voids. And I think that's what the best assistant coaches do is they find blind spots and they go ahead and look to solve those issues themselves rather than allowing them to become big issues. He does that. He does that at a high level."
Johnson had high praise for Taylor, who joined the Bears after spending three seasons as Bengals offensive coordinator from 2022-24.
"He's extremely smart," Johnson said. "He's the most organized coach I've ever been around at this level. He's got libraries of plays. He knows when we're going against this defensive coordinator, we can go to this little section that he's already got labeled for that guy and that particular scheme and the things that have given them issues in the past. And that gives us a good starting point each and every week of where we can start with a game plan. And so I feel really good about the transition.
"He was natural in front of the room, the opportunities that he got last year. He's been a coordinator before, [so] that helps. That experience really helps. And he's got the respect of the coaching staff as well. So whenever I'm not in the room, he knows exactly how to drive the ship so that we're still being productive."
