Ben Johnson is Matt Nagy 2.0

Stop the Cycle

Bears fans & organization leaders (I’m looking at you Poles, Warren, and George) let’s have a real conversation.

This franchise is caught in a never-ending loop of hiring, blaming, and firing. A new coach comes in, inherits decades of dysfunction, gets a couple of years to work with a broken roster, and before he can even implement a long-term vision, he’s out the door. Rinse. Repeat. Lose.

The problem isn’t just the coaching—it’s the entire organizational culture. The Bears don’t just have a losing record; they have a losing identity. The kind of identity where penalties, blown timeouts, and an offense allergic to touchdowns are just part of the experience. The kind of identity where we get laughed out of the NFC North, year after year.

And now we expect Ben Johnson to fix all of this in one season? Are we serious? That’s not how rebuilding works. It’s not how winning franchises operate.

Here’s a take that might piss some people off: Maybe we fired Matt Nagy too soon. Yeah, I said it. Nagy won more games than any Bears coach in the last decade. Maybe, just maybe, instead of running Johnson out of town the second something goes wrong, we should learn from our mistakes. If we don’t, we’ll be having this same conversation in three years.

Ben Johnson is Matt Nagy 2.0, And That’s a Good Thing

Say the name Matt Nagy in Chicago, and watch Bears fans react like they just bit into a deep dish full of glass. But let’s take a step back. Let’s forget about year three Nagy, where the offense looked like a malfunctioning Madden simulation.

Instead, let’s talk about year one Nagy.

The guy went 12-4, won the NFC North, and had Bears fans believing for the first time in years. That 2018 season wasn’t just about wins, it was about swagger. The Bears had an identity. They played aggressive. They played fast. For the first time in forever, they were fun.

Then, reality hit. The double doink happened. The offense stalled. Mitch Trubisky didn’t develop. And before you knew it, Nagy was public enemy No. 1.

Here’s the thing: the biggest mistake wasn’t hiring Nagy—it was firing him before he had a chance to grow. The man won 34 games in four years with a quarterback room that featured Mitch Trubisky, Nick Foles, Andy Dalton, and Justin Fields. What exactly did we expect?

Now, here we are again. Ben Johnson is coming into a very similar situation. He’s a young, offensive-minded coach with no head coaching experience, just like Nagy was. But this time, the Bears actually have a real quarterback in Caleb Williams and a front office that, hopefully, won’t sabotage the whole thing.

The difference? We can’t be impatient this time. We can’t run him out of town the second something doesn’t go right. If Johnson gets the time and support that Nagy never got, maybe we finally break the cycle. Maybe, just maybe, the Bears finally get it right.