BEARS LURE BEN JOHNSON AND BEAT BRADY, BUT THEY NEED MORE THAN TRICK PLAYS
His resume is brilliant but Saturday was not, when he called an abysmal play for a receiver in a playoff loss of failed deception — something the Bears can’t afford as they stumble with Caleb Williams
The Bears didn’t draft Tom Brady when he was selected 199th. They were on his list when he left a New England dynasty and signed with Tampa Bay. Regularly and quite profoundly, no one has done a better job of mugging their lowly existence in the 21st century of football life.
But today, the Bears finally beat Brady. They hired Ben Johnson when the part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders clearly wanted him, to the point Brady wouldn’t mention his name as an analyst on Saturday night’s broadcast, perhaps fearing he’d make him mad after a Zoom interview last week.
No Mike McCarthy. No Kliff Kingsbury, who is off to the NFC title game and would have made more sense. Say hello to Johnson, who has a new name — not Matt, not John, not Marc — and it remains to be seen if he can succeed with one of the NFL’s uglier teams in recent memories. We thought Caleb Williams would instantly upgrade the quarterbacking drought, the league’s worst, and he suffered 68 sacks and dealt with a since-fired coach who couldn’t call a timeout. For what reason should we think Johnson, who never has been a head coach at the pro or college level, can take over the NFC North?
He can be a “leader of men” but not in the context of Ditka lunacy, which is what the Bears would have wanted if Mike Vrabel hadn’t signed a contract with the Patriots, or what they would have wanted if Mike Tomlin hadn’t refused a trade in Pittsburgh. He let Dan Campbell do all the yapping in Detroit, where he was the offensive coordinator for a record-breaking offense that scored 33.2 points a game. Six times, the Lions scored 40 or more points. They had four different players with at least 1,000 scrimmage yards.
Was he the next Bill Walsh, as Brady might have called him? Well, he is coming off the worst loss of his career, a crushing by Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders. Down 38-28 and needing a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Johnson tried a trick play. He wanted receiver Jameson Williams to throw the ball, a bad idea that turned into a game-ending interception. A Lions fan wrote on social media: “Season over. Fire Ben Johnson before you even get to the locker room.”
Amazing how Brady faded out on the Fox Sports telecast. Said play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt: “Ben Johnson dials up a trick play like no one else and they normally work, but that was a disaster.”
Brady said nothing.
“Back to the trick play that failed,” Burkhardt said.
Brady: “Tried to run something a little bit gimmicky … and at this point, Williams trying to make a decision, a non-quarterback, trying to throw the ball and read a defense and … not a great time for a trick play.”
He still wouldn’t mention Johnson’s name. Sunday, Brady did interview Commanders assistant GM Lance Newmark for the Raiders’ general manager position. Newmark spent 26 seasons in Detroit and has a sturdy relationship with Johnson. Would that be enough? It wasn’t, as chairman George McCaskey must have made an arrangement via his mother to pay Johnson with sufficient money — something the McCaskeys and Ted Phillips wouldn’t do when GM Jerry Angelo wanted Nick Saban.
More likely, Johnson loved watching Williams twice last season. “There’s no question this guy is talented. I remember standing on the sideline the last game, you can hear the ball whistle by you,” Johnson said. “He’s got quite a fastball. He has some creativity to him and can extend plays and is accurate down the field. He’s been impressive from afar.”
Williams, too, liked Johnson and said so. “Selfishly, I want an offensive-minded guy so I can build with him and be with that coach for the next 19, 17, 15 years. If it’s Ben …,” he said on a recent podcast. Monday, he liked an online story that reported Johnson’s signing. Oh, if only GM Ryan Poles had fired Matt Eberflus last offseason and tried to hire Johnson. That is — in the Bears’ scheme of life — a wasted season.
At this point, Johnson can plan his crazy trick plays at Soldier Field. While he’s at it, he can improve the offense and the generalship and maybe help build a new stadium. For now, he might want to simply start over with Williams. He looked much better as a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in 2022. What happened? Shane Waldron happened. Eberflus happened. Tyrique Stevenson happened. A 10-game losing streak happened.
Consider this to be their rookie seasons, together. At least they can say they beat Tom Brady off the field, which never matters until the season starts.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.