Good. Better. Best.
Never let it rest. Until your good gets better. And your better gets best.
Ben Johnson famously brought that mantra to the Bears in 2025—along with intensity, physicality and accountability. He instilled toughness, belief and trust in his players, coaches and throughout Halas Hall, turning a team that had finished in last place in 2024 with a 5-12 record into NFC North champions.
After leading the Bears to an 11-6 mark, their first division crown since 2018 and their first postseason victory since 2010, Johnson has been named one of five finalists for the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award.
"He's been a catalyst for us," quarterback Caleb Williams said recently. "To be able to lead us, to be able to stand strong in tough moments and good moments, to be able to show emotion, be able to be who he is and be consistent with that and do what he said he was going to do, he's been everything that Chicago's needed as a coach."
Johnson was hired by the Bears a year ago this week after spending the previous three seasons coordinating an explosive Lions offense. In his first campaign in Chicago, his team rallied to win seven games it trailed in the final 2:00, including regular season and playoff victories over rival Green Bay in which the Bears twice erased double digit fourth-quarter deficits.
"I loved watching him," said general manager Ryan Poles. "His messaging to the team, it moves the team, and they're locked in. They listen and they take it back to the locker room and to the field. The buy-in was incredible."
The buy-in was especially evident Aug. 5 when the Bears conducted their most physical training camp practice in years. The intensity level ratcheted up with live tackling drills, which resulted in hard hits, chirping between the offense and defense and multiple scuffles.
"He needed a physical day in the dog days of camp, and that was a really cool opportunity to see those guys buy into what he was saying, do something really hard," Poles said. "In the moment, does it feel good? No. But they believed, from his message, that it would help us down the road, and they went all out with it, and you saw that go through the entire season."
Under Johnson's unwavering direction, the Bears rebounded from an 0-2 start to win nine of their next 10 games. They followed a Week 2 loss in Detroit with four straight wins and a Week 8 defeat in Baltimore with five consecutive victories.
With Johnson calling plays for an offense he implemented, the Bears ranked sixth in the league in total yards and ninth in scoring after finishing in the bottom five in both categories in 2024. They became the first NFL team to finish in the top six in total yards one year after ranking last since the 1971 Jets.
In Johnson's first year, the Bears scored 441 points, the third most in a season in franchise history, and ranked third in the league with 127 explosive plays, which are runs of at least 10 yards and passes of at least 20 yards.
The Bears became the first NFL team to generate the most takeaways (33) and commit the fewest giveaways (11) in the same season since the 49ers in 2011, a feat the Bears last accomplished in 1963 when they won the league championship.
Johnson was instrumental in Williams' development in 2025. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft set a Bears single season passing record with 3,942 yards and had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 27-to-7 that was fifth best in the NFL.
"I'm happy to have him as my coach, and what he's been able to do for me, it's been unparalleled," Williams said. "I'm excited about that. I'm excited that we're going to be together. I'm excited about our future. I'm excited about getting back here with him and growing more than I did this year and being able to have games and moments like this many times in our career."
Johnson is seeking to become the sixth Bears coach to win NFL Coach of the Year honors, joining George Halas (1963 and 1965), Mike Ditka (1985 and 1988), Dick Jauron (2001), Lovie Smith (2005) and Matt Nagy (2018)—with only Nagy winning it in his first year on the job.
