2025 Chicago Bears...I'm Ready To Be Hurt Again.

It's the eve of the 2025 Chicago Bears season as I write this and after the debacle that was the Matt Eberflus era I was ready to give up this team but as Bomani Jones has stated numerous times, this is a narcotic and your boy is fully on it. I am back and I am optimistic as hell! I am trying to be realistic in my expectations but this edition of the Bears feels different. Will the result be the same? Possible. But damn it try something new and that my friends is what they have done. So with that in mind here are the things that have me excited for this team.

Coaching Staff:

First things first, this coaching staff is leaps and bounds improved from last year. Let's look at last year's staff shall we? The offensive coordinator was Shane Waldron. A man who in the best light possible to him, gave a rookie quarterback the responsibility of setting protections, to go along with pre snap reads and not catering the offense to his skill set and worst case didn't even watch film with the guy. Matt Eberflus called the defensive plays and honestly he wasn't the worst in that role. He always has struck me as someone who wouldn't be a good head coach but a solid ass coordinator. Unfortunately as a head coach you can't just be a solid ass coordinator. He was such a milquetoast coach that he became the first coach to be fired in season by the Bears in their entire team history and that says a lot because we have had some coaches who are the literal definition of ass. Now we have Ben Johnson, and on his staff we have:

Dennis Allen: Proven head coach and defensive play caller. His Saints defenses ranked in the top 10 5 times during his time as a defensive coordinator and head coach.

Eric Bieniemy: Offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs, his first year as OC the Chiefs the Chiefs led the league in scoring, Patrick Mahomes threw 50 td passes and they won the Super Bowl. Over and over again Andy Reid has been effusive in his praise and shoots down the whole Andy did it all narrative.  

Antwan Randle El: Offensive assistant for the Buccaneers when they won the Super Bowl, Wide Receivers coach for the Lions as their offense rose to the top of the league.

Al Harris: Secondary Coach for the Dallas Cowboys who under his coaching cornerback Trevon Diggs tied a franchise record 11 interceptions one year, and he was named to the Pro Bowl and First-Team All Pro. In 2023, another cornerback, DaRon Bland, set the NFL record for most pick-sixes in a single season with 5, and he too was named a Pro Bowler and First-Team All Pro as he led the league in interceptions.

Ben Johnson:

This sociopath is mad...and they were winning by 38.

Speaking of coaches, after Matt Eberflus was fired the immediate thoughts went to who is going to be the next Bears coach. While everyone knew that Ben Johnson would be the pearl of the coaching at no point did I think the Bears had a legitimate chance of getting him to come to the windy city. I have seen people claim the Bears have made the splashy hires before and as a Bears fan let me tell you, the lie detector results are in and that's a fucking lie. 

Matt Eberflus: A surprise if not bland hire after the Colts had a good defense.

Matt Nagy: Basically coasted off being on the Chiefs, reasonable excitement but not the top candidate in the coaching cycle.

John Fox: Seen as an adult in the room, no one is amped but also not upset.

Marc Trestman: The mad scientist...no one had ever heard of him before. 

So since firing Lovie Smith the Bears gave literally not had anyone ever seen as the top available choice choose them. And since getting hired he has justified it. The man is a sociopath and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. This guy is intense, and from just the brief time he has been with the Bears he has shown a fire we haven't seen from a coach probably since Dave Wannstedt and that's 30 years ago.

Will it work? Who knows. But the Bears not doing the Bears thing and just saying fuck it get the guy everyone wants for once is refreshing as all hell.

Also apropos of nothing, before his welcome press conference I naturally assumed Ben Johnson was bald. He wears his hat like a bald man and no I will not expound on that point. 

Caleb Williams: 

The elephant in the room. Look we can all acknowledge that last season wasn't the greatest rookie season of all time, however we don't have to lie about it and proclaim it to be the worst and he's a bust. With 3 different play callers and his head coach getting fired in season Williams threw for 3,500 yards, had 20 touchdown passes and only six interceptions. Does he hold on to the ball too long? Absolutely, but I watched those games last year and that offensive line did him zero favors. He has things to work on but the narrative of him being awful is just very weird. I've seen people say that if he doesn't essentially get to an MVP level then he needs to be let go and that's insane because he is the only quarterback I'm seeing get this level of scrutiny. I'm looking at you Trevor Lawrence. I even saw someone complaining about how he wears his socks. Yeah. So given the improved coaching, proven play caller and the interior of the offensive line improving I think we will see a leap from Caleb. 

So there we have it, do I expect a division championship or Super Bowl run? No. I expect ups and downs, but I think there will be a level of competency not seen in a while here and something we may not have seen since the days of Hester...excitement.