The Chicago Bears once stood at the forefront of professional football.
Throughout the 1980s, household names like William “The Refrigerator” Perry and Michael Ditka transformed the Bears into an American icon. From Saturday Night Live skits to a Super Bowl, Chicago’s favorite franchise had it all.
In recent years, however, there hasn’t been much to celebrate at Soldier Field. Since 2013, the Bears have finished only one season with a winning record, with their best finish in that time frame being a Wild Card appearance.
However, the Bears have now won four straight games and are establishing themselves in the National Football Conference Playoffs race. For the first time in over a decade, Chicago football fans have something to be excited about, spearheaded by a dynamic offense led by second-year quarterback Caleb Williams and visionary rookie head coach Ben Johnson.
Johnson was brought on board this offseason from the Detroit Lions where he served as offensive coordinator for three seasons, leading a top five offense in each season. Throughout the league, Johnson is regarded as an offensive maven, celebrated alongside Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, who are two of the National Football League’s very best offensive minds. Included in Johnson’s diverse attacks are wide-zone runs (run plays to the outside instead of up the middle), bootlegs (play-action passes with a wide quarterback rollout), and layered route trees (initially similar route combinations that are intended to deceive defensive backs).
After walking onto the football team at the University of North Carolina as a reserve quarterback, Johnson graduated with degrees in mathematics and computer science. Johnson worked for a year in software development before returning to football, where he slowly worked his way up the coaching ladder at the college and professional level until landing his breakthrough offensive coordinator role with the Lions. Now, in his first season with the Bears, Johnson is trying to prove himself as a head coach.
After a shaky start, which included a close loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season and a beatdown at the hands of his former team in Week 2, Johnson strung together quality wins in four straight weeks. Now only one win away from equaling their season total in 2024, the Bears are looking much stronger than they have in recent memory.
So what’s been behind their resurgence?
For one, the Bears have fixed their turnover problem. They are leading the league in turnover differential, with 11 more takeaways than turnovers. The Bears are doing a better job of holding onto the ball. Thanks to a steady zone rush attack led by running back D’Andre Swift, the Bears are top 10 in time of possession and have been commanding the flow of their games.
Although their defense has been causing turnovers at a prolific rate, it has also been allowing 350 yards a game, near the bottom of the league, which is not sustainable if the Bears are to be a playoff team. The defense has been meager at best against the run, which does not project well with a few of the league’s most prolific running backs on the docket in the coming weeks. While the secondary has been solid against the pass in supporting that league-best turnover ratio, the run defense simply needs to be better.
Furthermore, the Bears’ offense has also shown signs of imbalance, displaying an overreliance on their rushing game. Caleb Williams has been a decent game manager so far, making plays when necessary, but he has been struggling to establish the passing game as a more substantial threat. If Williams is able to add a dynamic passing game as a complement to the Bears’ seventh-ranked rushing attack, their odds of beating real playoff contenders will drastically increase. Johnson’s offensive scheme has adapted to accommodate the Bears strengths, but if Williams can continue to improve as he has over his first few games, we will soon see more of the offensive firepower that brought us the Luther Burden flea-flicker in Week 3.
The Bears have been impressive this year. Caleb Williams has taken significant strides under Ben Johnson and D’Andre Swift is lighting up the stat sheet through the former’s dynamic zone-run scheme. The defense has been making game-changing plays, but needs to be more consistent against the run, an ability that will doubtless be put to the test in the coming weeks. While the Bears’ schedule will not be too taxing over the next few weeks, five of their last six games are against top-11 teams. Over that stretch, their run defense and passing game will need to rise to the occasion, and if they do, the Bears might just find themselves back in the playoffs.
