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Courtney Cronin
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — While conducting 17 interviews over the past two weeks to find the franchise’s next head coach, Chicago Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren found time for a brief respite in one of his favorite places.
While dining at “Old Pueblo Cantina” in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, Warren was sent a drink with a note that served as a directive that many Bears fans expected the team to execute.
“Please hire Ben [Johnson]”the note said.
Warren laughed and held up the piece of paper. On Wednesday, as the Bears prepared to introduce Johnson (former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator as their next head coach), Warren pulled the note out of a drawer and read it again.
“I’m going to give it to Ben and hopefully, if we do what we’re supposed to do, one day that note will be framed in [a] wall, someone’s wall,” Warren said.
Johnson, 38, was named the 19th head coach in the Bears’ 105-year history and arrives in Chicago after engineering a top-five scoring offense in each of his three seasons as the Bears’ OC. Lions.
It was my girlfriend and I, and he was nice enough to send us two shots. pic.twitter.com/RVuuWp8N7Z
-Jerry (@steiner1111) January 22, 2025
That, along with quarterback Jared Goff’s success with Johnson as his playmaker and Detroit’s prominence as the NFC’s No. 1 seed, made Johnson a leading candidate to land his first coaching job in boss.
Johnson interviewed with the Bears, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars and Las Vegas Raiders. He accepted the Chicago job less than 48 hours after Detroit lost in the divisional round of the playoffs last Saturday.
Getting the team’s best option for its next head coach was vitally important to general manager Ryan Poles and Warren, who knew the Bears would need to make a big swing to land one of the league’s most sought-after candidates.
“I’m fiscally conservative, but I’m also aggressive and I believe in being creative,” Warren said. “I also believe that you get what you pay for. This is a situation where we needed to make sure we had the number one candidate.
“And it’s not about the No. 1 candidate. It’s about the Chicago Bears’ No. 1 candidate. All the other financial issues, those are things where we have to be smart with our money and make good decisions. When things go right “No one ever talks about finances. It’s up to us to hire good assistant coaches. “We have a world-class head coach.”
Johnson had a virtual interview with the Bears on Jan. 11 during Detroit’s first-round bye.
Although the Bears intended to strengthen their case for hiring Johnson, the former offensive coordinator also made it known how much he expected to be hired in Chicago.
“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘I want this job,'” said President George McCaskey. “The last thing he said before we turned off the camera was, ‘Did I tell you I want this job?’ It especially caught my attention, and he mentioned it in his comments, that this is the toughest division in football and he wants to be here. He wants to face it. [Lions coach Dan] Campbell, [Packers coach Matt] LaFleur and [Vikings coach Kevin] O’Connell and wants to succeed in the most difficult environment possible. “That impressed me a lot.”
