Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson believes his new coaching staff has the right mix of talent

INDIANAPOLIS – New Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson spent his first month on the job building out his coaching staff.

In doing so, Johnson made a point not to limit his hiring pool. The NFL coaching profession can be a small world. Johnson wanted to keep an open mind.

“I didn’t hire a bunch of my friends,” Johnson said this week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. “I went outside of my circle on purpose because I wanted to collect a different mix of experience, of energy, ideas, and we’re all going to make it come together.”

The Bears finalized the coaching staff a week ago with more than two dozen new assistant coaches. Assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El and quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett were the only coaches Johnson brought with him from Detroit.

The staff included a defensive coordinator in Dennis Allen who has twice been an NFL head coach, and who had never previously worked with Johnson. It included a 28-year-old offensive coordinator in Declan Doyle who came highly recommended, but who also never worked with Johnson.

Johnson was intentional about not hiring his buddies. He also made a point to bring in coaches with varying levels of experience.

While his defensive coordinator is a former head coach, his offensive coordinator is the youngest offensive coordinator in the league. Doyle has been a right-hand man for Super Bowl-winning head coach Sean Payton in both New Orleans and Denver. Doyle most recently was the tight ends coach in Denver.

Doyle might be young, but he has spent the past 10 years working toward this point. Nobody who has worked with him is surprised by his quick rise through the coaching ranks.

“I don’t think anything surprises [me],” Payton said this week in Indianapolis. “Look, I’ve been with Declan for a while. He’s 28. I know he’s young. But they’re not asking him to be the primary caller. He’s a real, real sharp offensive mind. Great thinker.”

Johnson needed a knowledgeable offensive deputy who can handle things while he’s focusing on other head coaching duties during the week. That’s exactly what Doyle will be.

John Morton, who worked with Doyle in Denver and is replacing Johnson in Detroit, went so far as to call Doyle “another Ben Johnson” during his conversations with Johnson.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell noted that hiring friends is great, but it’s not always easy. At the end of the day, the head coach has to find the assistants who are most qualified for the job.

“[There’s] a number of guys over there that I think are really good coaches,” Campbell said of the new Bears staff. “So, look, it’ll be different to see [Johnson] over there on the other sideline since he’s been on ours the last four years. That’ll be different, but that’s the way this game works.”

Campbell knows a thing or two about hiring new staff members. He just had to replace both his offensive and defensive coordinators, not to mention a number of assistant coaches.

The Lions hired Morton, the former Broncos passing game coordinator, to be their offensive coordinator. Like Johnson did with Doyle in Chicago, Campbell is pulling from the Payton coaching tree. Campbell also promoted linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard to be defensive coordinator, replacing Aaron Glenn after Glenn left to become the head coach of the New York Jets.

The Lions learned an unfortunate reality about being a winning team in the NFL: Other teams come calling for top assistant coaches. Ultimately, it’s a good problem to have.

Campbell and the Lions will see Johnson and the Bears twice a year in the NFC North division. With Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur and Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell in the mix too, the NFC North might have the best collection of young head coaches in the NFL. At 48, Campbell is the oldest of that group.

He believes Johnson’s eye for talent will help the Bears front office immediately. That’s what Bears general manager Ryan Poles is hoping too. Johnson will be highly involved in front office decision-making.

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“He certainly didn’t lack input on players that he liked or what he saw or what he thought they could do,” Campbell said. “He was just like anybody else on our staff, and if they’ve got a vision for a guy and they believe in it, then speak up. And he was one of those guys that did it.”

Poles and Johnson are just beginning that process this week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. The Bears have an opportunity to meet with many of the 329 prospects in town for the event. Poles noted that Johnson knows what he wants at every position on the field.

“His ability to really give a clear vision of what he wants and needs to be successful has been really, really good,” Poles said.

The hard part will be finding the players who fit those molds.