Where Does Bears Coach Ben Johnson Rank Among NFL's Best Playcallers?
After transforming Chicago into an explosive, top-10 scoring unit, Ben Johnson cements his status as an elite offensive mastermind. Discover where NFL analysts rank the Chicago Bears' head coach among football's premier playcallers.
Video Transcript
What's going on everybody?
Nicholas Moriano here from Bears Roundtable Sports.
For today's video, we look into some play caller rankings that were done by Nate Tice and Robert Mays on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel, the Football 301 with Nate Tice.
And how they went about this, almost like a draft, if you were to draft your top NFL play callers, offense and defense included, where would you rank Ben Johnson, who, when you think about it, hasn't actually been calling plays for all that long.
It's, he's going into his sixth season now after his time in Detroit, and then obviously his past season with the Chicago Bears.
But if you had to give a spot for Ben Johnson, would you rank him in the top five?
Well, that's exactly where Nate Tice and Robert Mays had Ben Johnson.
At number four, he's just behind basically the NFC West with Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and then Mike McDonald.
And it's, it's hard to argue that those three shouldn't be, one, just regarded as some of the best play callers in the NFL.
But for Ben Johnson to be at number four from, you know, Robert Mays and Nate Tice, I think that speaks volumes to what Ben Johnson has done in Detroit and what he did in his lone season in Chicago after, you know, his first year being a head coach and what he transformed Chicago's offense to be, a unit that seeks explosives, that can run the football, that will maximize the talent that's around them.
And that's what is allowing Chicago to, one, I believe, be a competitive unit going into the 2026 season, but why it was such a difficult task for opposing defenses to play, play defense against, because you not only had to think about the run game, which was so prominent and consistent for Ben Johnson's unit, but those explosive plays down the field were also something that Ben Johnson loved to utilize.
And when you mix all that together, what Ben Johnson has done, what he will continue to do, and how he'll continue to adapt, I, it's hard to say that he isn't one of the top play callers in the NFL.
Number four seems right about where he should be when you consider who's right above him and the guys I named earlier.
So Ben Johnson, number four, with that, with having that type of person as not only the head coach, but the offensive play caller, the Bears go into most, most games that they're going to play with a schematic advantage.
And if that's the case, all these players need to do is continue to master his system, take his coaching, his strict detail-oriented coaching, and apply it to their game each and every season.
And there's no reason why this cannot be a consistent force, not in just the NFC, but the NFL.
Ben Johnson, number four play caller in the NFL.
Do you agree with that?
Let me know in the comments of this video, of this article, and we'll see where Ben Johnson finishes after the 2026 season.
