Coach Ben Johnson wants Bears to be unpredictable offensively — just like Bill Belichick’s teams

Ben Johnson crouched down next to Lions quarterback Jared Goff in the third quarter against the Bills last December. Their team trailed by 21 in a game they’d eventually lose 48-42 in one of the season’s most thrilling shootouts.

“I’m not going to run the ball anymore,” Johnson told Goff, as documented on the Net-flix “Quarterback” series. “It’s a waste of time.”

Only five teams ran the ball more frequently last year than the Lions did under Johnson, their offensive coordinator from 2022 to 2024. The year before, only seven teams ran more often than Johnson did.

Not that he’s a run-first coach. Or a pass-first coach. Johnson, the Bears’ new head coach, is a whatever-it-takes play-caller.

“Every game is its own entity,” Johnson said before practice Thursday. “That’s what I learned — I saw it for a number of years when I was in Miami.”

The Dolphins faced the Patriots twice a year when Johnson was an assistant from 2012 to 2018. Legendary coach Bill Belichick went 9-5 against the Dolphins.

“The Patriots were at the top of the league for so long, and each week, you just didn’t know,” Johnson said. “Offense and defense, they just continued to morph, and they had their opponents guessing. You didn’t know what Belichick was gonna pull out front-wise or coverage-wise on defense.

“You didn’t know what [then-offensive coordinator Josh] McDaniels was gonna do on offense. He might throw it 50 times; he might run it 50 times. Standing from afar, seeing how dominant that was, I think that’s a really good tactic to have. That’s something I would like to do here, as well.”

Tom Brady threw 56 passes in one game against Johnson’s Dolphins, 55 in another. But he also threw 22 passes in one game and 21 in another.

Goff threw 59 passes against the Bills last year. The next week against the Bears, he threw 32.

That’s what Johnson wants to be able to do with Caleb Williams, for a variety of reasons.

“The elements play a role,” Johnson said. “Our talent plays a role. Who we’re going against plays a role. It all plays a piece in the puzzle, and that’s what’s fun about each game week.”

Running back D’Andre Swift saw that play out when he and Johnson were in Detroit.

“It varied week to week,” he said.

Johnson, though, had his preferences. No one put a quarterback under center, rather than in shotgun, more often last year. No other team but the Lions had two running backs with at least 185 carries last season. Only two coordinators used a two-tight-end set more than Johnson did.

The Patriots were one of the teams that pioneered the modern two-tight-end set, where they were able to run against a nickel defense and throw against a base scheme without making a substitution. The Bears hope to be able to do the same with Cole Kmet and first-round pick Colston Loveland.

“Calling the game is, ‘What is the defense going to be in and how can you go after them and attack them?’ ’’ Johnson said. “I think [two tight ends] gives you a lot of options, particularly when you have athletic tight ends that can still block.”

When Johnson took the Bears job, he was quick to say that he wasn’t going to merely duplicate the Lions’ scheme. What the Bears’ offense will look like, though, is one of the things Johnson will try to figure out during training camp.

Earlier this week, he wasn’t even ready to say whether the Bears would run a wide zone rushing attack — where linemen move side to side as a unit — or a gap scheme, where blockers pull into holes.

He’ll figure it out as the Bears continue camp — and once they’re allowed to hit each other in practice starting Monday.

“We’ve got to find out who we are,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of things that have got to play out, and we won’t know until we get the pads on.”