Ben Johnson named a finalist for AP Assistant Coach of the Year

New Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has been named a finalist for AP Assistant Coach of the Year following his 2024 season as the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator.

Johnson will be battling the likes of Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.

Johnson, who served as the Lions OC for the past three seasons, led Detroit to its best offense in franchise history. They were the top scoring offense in the league, averaging 33.2 points per game, while also averaging 409.5 yards per game (2nd), 6.2 yards per play (3rd), 263.2 passing yards per game (2nd) and 146.4 rushing yards per game (6th).

Detroit's' offensive success is also a big reason why Johnson was so highly-sought during this coaching cycle, where the Bears fended off the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars for Johnson.

Johnson also helped coach quarterback Jared Goff to an AP Most Valuable Player finalist nod, where he's up against the likes of Buffalo's Josh Allen, Philadelphia's Saquon Barkley, Cincinnati's Joe Burrow and Baltimore's Lamar Jackson.

Now, Johnson will build an offense around quarterback Caleb Williams and Chicago's personnel. As for what we can expect from his offense, don't expect a replica of the Lions.

“Philosophically, what I believe in is similar to a blast from the past (former NFL coach) John Shoop - that is to make same things look different and different things look the same," Johnson said at his introductory press conference. "We want the defense on their heels. We're always going to be attacking on offense. We believe in multiplicity, that's both formationally and conceptually. We're going to make things very challenging on the defense each and every week. We want the ability to morph – whether it's 50 runs in a game or 50 passes in a game, it does not matter. Balance to me is throughout the entire season, not necessarily within the game.

“With that being said, those are, those are broad strokes of what this will look like. It's not going to look like it did in Detroit. We have a completely different personnel group than what we did in Detroit. This entire offense is going to be predicated on, on the guys that we have available. That's going to take the springtime as well as training camp to hone in to what that's going to look like.”

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Ben Johnson named a finalist for AP Assistant Coach of the Year