Three (!) more games left. And some Wednesday notes while we wait for them …
• The evolution of the Chicago Bears’ year-long dance with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is pretty fascinating—because it led the two sides down different roads and then back to each other again.
I believe if the Bears’ job had opened a year ago, there’s a good chance we’d have gotten the same result. It was the one Johnson liked then, and Chicago was about to draft a quarterback.
It made sense then for a lot of the same reasons it makes sense now.
But in the interim, some pieces moved around that I think set Johnson and the Bears up to be better for waiting. Chicago, after firing Matt Eberflus, saw the need to prioritize leadership over getting one player coached up. Johnson, through some reflection, started to prioritize alignment with a general manager, and finding ownership that was willing to see its own mistakes and blind spots. Which led to both looking around.
Chicago interviewed everyone. Johnson narrowed his focus, then opened up to consider a job in Las Vegas that he initially had balked at—because of the nonquarterback factors. And in time the Bears were able to see Johnson beyond his potential to coach Caleb Williams, and Johnson was able to find common ground with sitting Bears GM Ryan Poles and president Kevin Warren.
In going through that, I think, the Bears and Johnson have joined up under the right circumstances.
After Detroit was eliminated Saturday night, Johnson took most of Sunday to dig out from the Lions’ loss, then huddled with agent Rick Smith that night to finish debriefing on the Bears, Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars. The two talked again Monday morning, and then Monday after Johnson directed Smith to make a deal with the Bears.
A few factors played into it.
First, in Poles, Johnson saw a guy who was exceptionally smart, and had made plenty of mistakes, as most folks do in a new job, over his first three years—and, as such, knew what not to do. The first part of Johnson’s Chicago interview was one-on-one with Poles, and Poles was sincere with Johnson about his early missteps, and his desire to have a coach with strong convictions and go find the right players for that coach.
Second, there was the presence of Warren, the team president, which turned some candidates off. Johnson went in with an open mind on Warren, and spent a good portion of the interview with Warren and owner George McCaskey (two-on-one, so to speak). He saw Warren as having a global perspective on what’s happening in the league and being able to apply that to being a resource for his football people. In McCaskey, he found a good listener who was, yes, willing to do what it takes to fix his prior mistakes.
And then, third, there was Johnson’s own research. It helped Smith and Johnson having Jeff King, the Bears’ senior director of player personnel, and the No. 3 guy in Poles’s scouting department (behind Ian Cunningham and Poles himself), as a sounding board. King was repped by Smith as a player, and gave the agent and his client perspective for the amount of change in the building—and the big steps being made to modernize the operation.
So that was weighed against the Raiders, where Tom Brady had established a very, very compelling vision for Johnson, had shown humility and had promised commitment; and the Jaguars, who were a little more committed to going through owner Shad Khan’s methodical process for finding a coach. And, again, the decision was made Monday.
After Johnson made the call, and the contract was being negotiated, the Bears put their expected new coach on a FaceTime with Williams—wasting no time in getting that relationship off the ground.
It’ll be an important one, for sure.
But based on how both sides got here, everyone understands there’s a whole lot more to the job Johnson’s undertaking than just that.
• There’s a cool backstory on how Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott got in the NFL, with the Philadelphia Eagles back in 1999, that I heard this week and I think is worth telling—mostly because it shows the intellectual agility he has that, in so many ways, set him up to become a head coach.
McDermott was actually initially brought aboard by ex-Eagles president Joe Banner, with Banner believing the young former William & Mary safety had potential to grow into a strong cap-side executive. Banner was explaining it to then GM Tom Modrak, and Modrak wanted to meet him. Modrak did, and was so impressed that he asked Banner if he’d mind if McDermott got his NFL career started on the scouting side as well.
As Banner and Modrak were working out a role for McDermott, Andy Reid was tabbed to be the team’s next coach, and the two, a little later on, told Reid how the whole thing was shaking out. Reid responded that, based on how Banner and Modrak were talking, he had to meet McDermott. And after meeting him, Reid joked that the way to solve the question of whether he’d go work for Banner or Modrak was to just put him on the coaching staff.
Over time, the joke became reality, as Banner and Modrak kept discussing it, and worked toward the conclusion that McDermott’s highest upside was in coaching.
By 2001, he was working with Reid, and the rest is history. But it’s definitely worth looking back at that now, as perhaps a great early sign that McDermott would have no problem transitioning into a role that, obviously, has a whole lot more to it than just coaching.
• The secret is getting out on 28-year-old Minnesota Vikings assistant Grant Udinski.
The Vikings’ assistant offensive coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach is a finalist for the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator job, and interviewed Monday for the New England Patriots’ OC post. The first thing you may notice about Udinski is his title, which is unique. He started his coaching career under Matt Rhule, who hired him at Baylor and took him to the Carolina Panthers. On the advice of veteran assistant Brian Angelichio, Kevin O’Connell poached him in 2022.
From there, Udinki went from assistant to the head coach/special projects to assistant quarterbacks coach to his current title. And each little step was taken in an effort by O’Connell to keep Udinski on the staff as long as he could—even if that meant having to work around already having a very solid offensive coordinator (Wes Phillips) and quarterbacks coach (Josh McCown) on the payroll.
The head coach did it because the reality was Udinski had become his right-hand man, and enough folks around the NFL had come to know his value to a surging Vikings program.
So we know now he’s not getting the Patriots’ job. We’ll see what happens in Seattle—we’ll have more on that one in a minute. Regardless, Udinski’s time is coming. That much is clear.
• As I said Monday, I really like Patriots coach Mike Vrabel landing on Josh McDaniels as his first offensive coordinator in New England.
McDaniels’s track record with quarterbacks goes well beyond his two long stints with Tom Brady. He captained the development of young guys such as Matt Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett behind Brady, and led Mac Jones by the hand to a rookie year that still stands as, by far, Jones’s best as a pro (it happened, in part, with McDaniels on the headset reading coverages for Jones, the way Sean McVay did for Jared Goff early in Goff’s career).
To me, the question will be more outside the quarterback position. Over the years, that offense hasn’t exactly been the most user-friendly scheme. Young skill players, outside of the quarterback, have routinely struggled to adjust, which is one reason why so many of the most productive Patriot receivers over the years (Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Danny Amendola, etc.) were acquired as vets.
But I do know to that end, McDaniels spent much of the past year with NFL and college programs to try to evolve what he’s doing—and in particular really drilled down on what’s happening in the college game, spending considerable time with college coaches, to find tweaks and changes and maybe even simplifications for his scheme.
For my money, McDaniels is still one of the brightest offensive minds in football, and I think it’s fair to trust he got a lot out of that experience.
We’ll see what it means for the receivers the Patriots have, and will acquire over the next few months. But I do think you can bank on this being a good thing for Drake Maye—especially since McDaniels probably won’t be the flight risk that a young, rising offensive coordinator would be.
• The Seahawks’ OC situation is an interesting one, in that I do think they’ve considered the possibility of splitting up the job.
So here’s one thing to consider: Since they need a lot of help in the run game, I know they’re really intrigued with the idea of bringing Lions line coach Hank Fraley, a much respected assistant in Detroit, aboard as offensive coordinator, and then having Fraley bring a pass-game coordinator (Las Vegas’s Scott Turner is a name to watch) to collaborate with.
I don’t mind the idea based on the makeup of Seattle’s team going into Mike Macdonald’s second year as head coach.
• Notice how many Lions assistants we’ve mentioned? You could have Johnson going to Chicago as head coach, Aaron Glenn leaving for the New York Jets’ or New Orleans Saints’ jobs, Fraley going to Seattle, and Terrell Williams off to New England as DC (that one’s already happened).
That’s a lot of brainpower out the door, and a real challenge for Dan Campbell to rebuild his staff.
A champagne problem, sure. But a problem nonetheless.
• On the Raiders—one thing you hear is how much respect Brady has for Pete Carroll and Steve Spagnuolo, having competed against them. Now pivoting off Johnson, it’s fair to wonder how big a factor that’ll be.
• Lou Anarumo is a fantastic hire by Shane Steichen in Indianapolis, and fits what I believe the Colts were looking for in a defensive coordinator. After playing Gus Bradley’s simple, fast-moving scheme over Steichen’s first two years, the Colts wanted to become harder to play against for an offense (simple as that sounds). Anarumo will make them that.
• One of the more interesting questions to answer this offseason will be on the future of Matthew Stafford. In doing a deal last year, the Rams agreed to give him a raise, while eliminating guaranteed money after 2024. As part of it, they made a pact to revisit his future after the season—with no promises either way. So we’ll see where that goes now that the Rams’ ’24 season is over.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why the Timing Was Right for Ben Johnson and the Bears.