CHICAGO (WGN) -- While Caleb Williams' potential is an important reason any candidate would want to become the next head coach of the Chicago Bears, Chicago's hyper-fixation on Ben Johnson as their next savior is borderline comical given this organization's penchant for sabotaging success.
Last Week: The Chicago Bears have no fire in the trenches
Listen, before I go on a tirade listing a litany of reasons why Johnson shouldn't take Chicago seriously (unless they drastically change their behavior) or even care about the Bears right now, this is no shot at anyone on the Bears beat.
The Chicago Sun-Times' Jason Lieser wrote a poignant piece on the dueling interview opportunity that was Thomas Brown versus Johnson in the Lions-Bears game Sunday.
The Athletic's Adam Jahns wrote from the viewpoint of team chairman George McCaskey, who saw Soldier Field coated in Honolulu Blue this weekend and will have to hear Johnson (and others) tell him why his team sucks when they interview him this offseason. Jon Greenberg's recorder died (while talking to a former Bear, ironically enough) hunting anecdotes of why players on Detroit's roster love Johnson.
There's nothing wrong with taking that angle covering the Bears right now because, after all, what else is there to cover with this team, besides draft positioning and Williams climbing the franchise's single-season passing records ladder?
As Caleb Williams gains experience, Bears must find meaning in dismal 2024 season
I'm just here to stand in juxtaposition to the Chicago-based noise surrounding Johnson and ask, 'Outside of Caleb Williams, what have the Bears done to prove they are a destination someone of his caliber should want to come to?'"
Because right now -- outside of Williams -- this organization, from top to bottom, is the equivalent of a dumpster fire behind Giordano's on Michigan Avenue.
Since taking over as chairman in 2011, George McCaskey has orchestrated a cycle of front-office dysfunction that has affected the team's performance as much on the field, as it has off it -- specifically in their search for a new stadium.
His latest team President and CEO, Kevin Warren, was brought in to deliver the latter. Warren's resume suggests he's up to the job. His past successes include completing stadium deals and building venues in Minnesota and Texas.
But since Warren took over in January 2023, all he has done is spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bulldoze an old racetrack, while he and the organization continue to play a game of metaphorical hopscotch, pivoting back and forth from keeping the team in Chicago, to leaving for Arlington Heights, and back to staying along the lakefront.
The latest development on a new Bears stadium suggests the team is once more considering Arlington Heights as an option.
After being held in gridlock over property taxes with three local school districts in the northwest suburbs, one school district has approved a tentative property tax deal between them and the Bears, with the other two school districts yet to vote.
1 school board gives necessary approval on Arlington Park property tax deal with Bears; 2 more to go
When it comes to McCaskey's personnel decisions, he's never brought his team into alignment from general manager to head coach to starting quarterback. If you have slightly more than two minutes of free time, The Athletic's Kevin Fishbain explained it well in this video.
Ryan Poles, the team's current general manager, has presided over the two longest losing streaks in Bears history and is doing a better job of keeping opposing quarterbacks upright than his own.
Chicago is on a 9-game losing streak heading into their Thursday night game the day after Christmas against the Seattle Seahawks. The only losing streak longer than their current one was the 10-game losing streak the Bears went on in 2022 -- Poles' first year with the team.
Since Poles' maiden voyage as general manager, Chicago's offense has surrendered the second-most sacks in the NFL (168), trailing only the New York Giants (182), while also collecting the fewest sacks on defense (84), five fewer than the Atlanta Falcons (89).
That's two sacks on offense for every sack on defense from rosters assembled by Poles folks, and that doesn't even take into account the lack of mental focus and leadership on this team.
The Bears are the second-most penalized team in the NFL this season in addition to being the most abysmal team in the trenches over the last three years. According to Fishbain, the most penalized Chicago team over the last 20 years was in 2004 when the Bears were flagged 66 times.
Chicago has two games to get six penalties and exceed that mark.
When a team has an issue preventing pressure on one side of the ball, getting pressure on the other side, and can't properly execute on a week-in, week-out basis, they need leaders to step up and get them out of the muck.
Where are those leaders? If they existed, the players would have found a way to end the losing streak they're currently on weeks ago.
Just look at the Dallas Cowboys for what the Bears could be doing right now.
Since Dak Prescott went down with a torn hamstring in Week 9, the Cowboys are 4-3 in their last seven games and 4-1 over their last five with backup Cooper Rush as their quarterback. That's with guys like Zack Martin, DaRon Bland, Trevon Diggs, DeMarvion Overshown and more either missing time or being out for the season altogether, along with rumors previously swirling around the job security of Mike McCarthy.
With a chairman who has never gotten everyone on the same page, a president who can't figure out where the team will play in the near future, a general manager with a penchant for losing, and a roster devoid of mental focus and leadership, why should Johnson want to come to Chicago, regardless of Williams being his quarterback?
He already works for an organization in harmonious lockstep at all levels, from quarterback Jared Goff to him and head coach Dan Campbell, on up to General Manager Brad Holmes, President Rod Wood and team owner Sheila Ford Hamp.
The Bears stand in antithesis to everything the Lions already are.
A combination of Hamp, Wood, Holmes, Campbell and special adviser Chris Spielman have met weekly during each regular season over the last three years to make sure everyone is informed and up to date.
During that stretch, Holmes and Campbell have assembled one of the NFL's most talented rosters from the trenches out, featuring Pro Bowl-caliber talents like Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Frank Ragnow and Penei Sewell -- albeit Hutchinson and McNeill currently sit on the injured list.
It's players like Sewell and Ragnow -- who have five Pro Bowls and an All-Pro team selection between them -- that give Goff time to operate the league's highest scoring offense and fully unlock the talent of their Pro Bowl skill position players like Amon Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta.
Since 2022, Detroit has given up the third-fewest sacks in the NFL (84), trailing only the Green Bay Packers (78) and the Buffalo Bills (71).
When they're healthy, it's players like Hutchinson and McNeill who then help get opposing offenses off the field through their pass pressure.
Hutchinson, who hasn't played in two-and-a-half months due to a gruesome leg fracture he suffered against Dallas, still has 1.5 more sacks than Gervon Dexter Sr. this season, who leads the Bears with 5.0. McNeill, who often plays the same role as Dexter for Detroit as their three-tech defensive tackle, has five more quarterback hurries and only one less sack than Montez Sweat, Chicago's top edge rusher.
If the Bears want someone of Johnson's caliber to not only take them seriously, but also be successful in their colors, they are going to have to be serious about making changes not only to their roster, but their front office and how they go about their business as well.
A tall task they have yet to accomplish with George McCaskey at the top of the food chain.
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