Ben Johnson isn’t shy about his intentions entering his second season as head coach of the Chicago Bears. A profile of Dan Pompey’s season in athleticsJohnson has made it clear that he wants more than winning a Super Bowl — he wants to have the highest scoring offense in NFL history.
“31 other teams come to training camp. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,” he said. “I want more than that. I want to have the Denver Broncos’ highest-scoring offense since 2013. I know how many points they’ve scored per game (37.9) and I want to outplay them. I want to be shutout. I want to explode.”
This level of boldness would shock anyone in the polite world of NFL head coaches, but it was especially impressive to hear from a head coach. Bears. For almost their entire 100+ years of existence, Bears football has been defined by dominant defenses crippled by the worst quarterbacks ever to see a professional helmet on. Say the name Sid Luckman to any Bears fan of any age and watch them actively recover, because he’s still somehow considered the best QB in franchise history despite throwing his first NFL pass the month World War II began. Post-Luckman, the Bears have tried anything and everything to fix the QB position, all to one degree or another only to be atrocious in the passing game.
You can imagine the shock and awe when the Bears’ offense put up 59 points in a season-opening win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 1.
If you’re an under-46 fan, this is the highest-scoring game of your lifetime, as the team has only had three high-scoring games in its history, the most recent being in 1980. Their eight touchdowns were the most by any NFL team over the past three years.. Their 552 yards are the fourth most in Bears history, but you don’t have to go all that far back to find precedent, as Johnson led them to 576 yards last season against the Cincinnati Bengals.
All the Bears could talk about after the game was how they should have scored more points. Swift In the middle of the game, they pointed out that there are penalties that stop their attacking speed. Williams said this offense has to be the worst he’s seen all year.
During Williams’ rookie season, The Bears didn’t score their 59th point until Week 4.. It’s easy to think back to his debut as a Bear and wonder how we got here. In the year In his first game with the Titans in 2024, Williams finished with 93 yards passing and zero touchdowns. The Bears won that game the only way they knew how, with a special teams blocked punt, a pick-six and several touchdowns. It was the kind of badass-victory that the Bears were so special about, the kind that made you wonder if anything could change even after poverty. A miracle of circumstances landed Chicago at No. 1 overall. In the 2024 draft.
Of course, if the Bears hadn’t hired Johnson before his second season, they could have ruined Williams’ career. It took the combine half of last season to find their footing, but the Bears eventually pulled off seven comeback wins in wild fashion thanks to Williams making big strides. By the end of the year, he was consistently making some of the greatest QB plays in franchise history. A bombshell to beat the Packers in Week 16his “Jumpman” threw a crucial fourth down conversion Come back to beat Green Bay in the game, and his A mind-blowing retreat-then-heaven to find Cole Kmet in the back of the end zone. forcing overtime against the Rams in the divisional round.
To most outsiders, the Bears seemed ready to make a clear move this offseason. “Turnover regression” was the buzzword of the offseason, with Even Johnson brought it as a public initiative. Another promising theme concerns Williams’ accuracy: He shot just 58% of his free throws last season, ranking 34th in the league. While some see a QB who constantly misses easy throws, Johnson knows he has a quarterback who doesn’t get intercepted, cuts a path for a sack and creates an explosive play with his feet or hands.
Completion percentage has always been an overrated metric to evaluate a QB’s play. Drake Maye completed 70% of his passes in the Patriots’ Week 1 loss to New England. And it was still scary. That’s not to dissuade Williams from his career woes last season, but it was relatively small potatoes for an offseason shocker. Williams has obvious superstar talent, and he was jumping off the screens with every start during his stretch run last year. If he puts it all together this season, there’s no ceiling on what he or the Bears’ offense can accomplish.
In Week 1, Williams looked to have the character of a franchise quarterback. It was accuracy (72.4% completion percentage!), quick decision-making, incredible elusiveness, superior speed, and his usual preternatural ability to make big plays when everything else went wrong. Williams should rank in the top-3 in the league in both arm strength and foot speed. He’s getting better at the little things, and when he comes full circle, he’ll be a master in complete control of his domain.
After all, the Bears look like they have a dominant running back that racked up 291 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in Week 1. The right offensive line has two freshmen in Darnell Wright and Jonas Jackson, and left guard Joe Tunney is perhaps the team’s best overall player. Swift and Monangay complement each other as a running back tandem that can grind out short yardage situations and still hit the big play. Johnson’s “no block, no rock” mantra helped develop a culture of pride in blocking downfield from the wide receiver core.
Johnson again He said he wants to be the top scorer in the league. After the victory and Williams He said the same thing in his post-game interview.. The Bears need the points, because their defense can always be bad, allowing 37 points to the Panthers in the opener, which was hammered home. Bears games won’t feel safe until they score 50 points this season, and with this defense behind them, it may not be enough some weeks.
There will be other weeks to worry about the defense and the front seven pass rush. As long as you can stop the run, the offense will keep getting the ball back and you feel like they could be one of the league’s elite units.
It’s hard to believe this is real life for Bears fans, but you’re going to get used to it. The days of struggling 13-6 games are over. These Bears spend a lot of time going into the shootout when they can’t guarantee a full swing because they want every point they can get.
The Bears have a lot of questions to answer before they can be called a true Super Bowl contender this year, but it seems fair to believe Johnson and Williams are a Super Bowl-caliber pairing between head coach and quarterback, and that’s all that matters.
In Week 1, the Bears showed Chicago everything they always wanted but couldn’t have. For once, it’s not too good to be true.
