Bear Digest

Ben Johnson's first message gave Bears two key thoughts about winning

New Chicago Bears coach and coordinators have players convinced the same old thing is in the past and the goals won't simply be scraping out a few victories.

Gene Chamberlain

Tremaine Edmunds chases Jahmyr Gibbs in a game at Soldier Field. Facing Ben Johnson's offense in the past has the Bear convinced their new coach can change things right away.
Tremaine Edmunds chases Jahmyr Gibbs in a game at Soldier Field. Facing Ben Johnson's offense in the past has the Bear convinced their new coach can change things right away. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The Bears heard coach Ben Johnson and coordinators address the team for the first time Monday, and while they were talks with multiple messages a few in particular caught the attention of veteran players.

The two messages they really enjoyed were how the winning needs to come right away, and when it does it's going to be domination and not simply scratching out lucky wins.

"Belief that we can win now, belief that we could be special right now," is how linebacker Tremaine Edmunds put it.

There's more to it than just believing. Johnson sought to set a tone with his talk and cornerback Jaylon Johnson saw the process making the goals possible.

"Not just waiting and going through a process and figuring out what we're going to do, but establishing who we are right now and then working towards that goal," Johnson said.

Bears fans starved for sustained success would take it any way they can get it, but the players realize being good enough to dominate allows for sustained success.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen repeated Johnson's opening press conference message a bit by saying they're not planning a rebuilding process.

"Obviously, the message is the message, like, we wanna win, we wanna win now," Edmunds said. "I think saying that and being blunt with it is what we needed to hear, because that’s our mindset going into it, especially the guys that's been here.

"We wanna win and we got the pieces to win."

The bulk of the roster experienced a taste of it with a 4-2 start last year before everything collapsed in an end zone at the nation's capital.

By facing Ben Johnson's offenses in the past, the Bears defense has a good idea how it's actually possible.

"I would say what their offense wanted to do to opponents, it was put up a lot of points," Edmunds said. "I think you can feel that. This guy doesn’t just want to win, he wants to win by a lot. He wants to dominate. I think that's important.

"That just talks about his mentality, it talks about his mindset. We are going to be the best, we want to dominate and we want our opponent to feel that for sure.”

It sounds a bit absurd to think of the Bears dominating teams after they were losing 10 straight games last year and 14 straight starting in 2022 and carrying over into 2023. Jaylon Johnson sees the possibility and called it a desired outcome.

"Would you rather win by seven points or 70?" he said. "To me you get in a fight, you just don't want to barely win the fight. You want to whoop the guy in front of you. That's what the mentality is for us. It's not just about barely winning or barely getting by but dominating.

"I think for us that's the mindset that we need to have and it's not just about trying to just get better and take the next step and just win more games than we won last year. No, it's about changing your mentality and how you go about attacking things. I feel like as a unit, if we can go in with that confidence, that mentality that we're going to go and blow the team out in front of us and that they can't mess with us, then I feel like a lot of times that willpower will get you there."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.