#ben-johnson

#ben-johnson

Eric Studesville was most recently the Miami Dolphins running backs coach on Mike McDaniel's staff. He has been with the Dolphins since 2017, with titles including run game coordinator (2017-20), co-offensive coordinator (2021), and associate head coach (2022-25). Considering how much the Bears head coach respects what McDaniel did as a run-game designer, I can understand why Studesville is someone who might make sense as Chicago's next running backs coach. Plus, Johnson and Studesville worked together in Miami. I imagine that familiarity could be handy.

As the architect of the "Greatest Show on Turf" offense that fueled the St. Louis Rams' Super Bowl title 26 years ago, Mike Martz was an in-demand speaker when he retired from the NFL in 2011. For years he worked the lecturing circuit, but there was one visit that made a lasting impression. It was 2018, and Martz had been invited to the Miami Dolphins training camp by former head coach Adam Gase. Dolphins' wide receivers coach, Ben Johnson, made sure not to waste the opportunity.

One of his assistant coaches retrieved the weighty directory from Poss' office, and players gathered around their head coach, confused but intrigued. "I looked at them, I go, 'I don't think you really want to play hard,'" Poss recalled. "'I don't think you want to go out in the second half and play like you did in the first half. I think you all are ready to just chill.' I said, 'We're not going to chill out.'"

In practice, it's a yearly argument about expectations and whether we're rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise. But this year's race is a little different. The pool of candidates is unusually deep. It's been the season of turnarounds. The league has been messy, with recent division winners falling away and recent also-rans all rising together. In an ordinary year, Sean Payton guiding the Broncos to the top

"On these benchmarks alone, Johnson has been a smashing success," Solak wrote. "Chicago could be 2-8 right now, had all those winning drives not gone its way, and I'd still be saying it. Johnson's status as a top-five playcaller in the league has been clearly cemented in his first season outside Detroit. The Bears' offense works. And it is significantly ahead of schedule."

With the franchise's brutal decision to fire Jerod Mayo at the conclusion of his first season came an opportunity for owner Robert Kraft to change course. While Vrabel was an obvious top choice (and probably should have been during the 2024 hiring cycle), it was hard not to feel the allure of a young, offensive-minded guru like Ben Johnson, who wound up choosing QB Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.