From the moment Bears coach Ben Johnson got to Halas Hall and began writing up a shopping list for general manager Ryan Poles and the personnel department, his plan was to fortify the roster with so many offensive weapons that nothing could stop them.
For every move an opposing defense could make, he’d have a countermove. There’d be seemingly no end to the wrinkles of his scheme and the chess pieces at his disposal.
And finally, the Bears are there.
Even after unloading wide receiver DJ Moore to save salary-cap space and even with some high-potential, unproven talent, this is the most dangerous array of threats the Bears have put together in over a decade. In some cases it might be overkill, though Johnson surely would disagree.
The last time they were this loaded, arguably, was in 2013 with Jay Cutler at quarterback. Running back Matt Forte was still in his prime as an excellent runner and receiver. Wide receivers Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall each topped 1,200 yards, and Martellus Bennett was a top-10 tight end.
Those Bears were a disaster defensively and finished 8-8 under Marc Trestman, but they sure were fun to watch when they had the ball. They still stand as the second-highest scoring Bears team in the Super Bowl era at 27.8 points per game.
Johnson would like to blow all the Bears’ records out of the water this season, and that will hinge primarily on quarterback Caleb Williams’ ability to sharpen the finer points of his position to become a passer who can play both efficiently and spectacularly. There certainly is an abundance of options, though, when he drops back to throw.
The Bears have former 2024 No. 9 overall pick Rome Odunze as their go-to wide receiver, but Johnson has high expectations for second-year Luther Burden as well. He also brought in an ideal No. 3 at the position by reconnecting with 10-year veteran Kalif Raymond, whom he coached for four seasons with the Lions.
Johnson stacked the tight end room with Colston Loveland (a popular pick to be an All-Pro this season), Cole Kmet and third-round pick Sam Roush, and the Bears have reliable running backs in D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai.
Not only does all of that open new chapters of the playbook for Johnson, but it shields the Bears against injuries on that side of the ball. No one player going down would sink the whole thing.
The first hit to that group came Saturday when Burden left practice with a groin injury, and Johnson told the Sun-Times on Monday that he’ll be out the rest of the preseason, but is expected to be ready for the Sept. 13 season opener at the Panthers.
That’s certainly a downer, but hardly devastating, even if he ends up missing a regular-season game or two.
The roster has been developed to a point where that’s true of basically any wide receiver, tight end or running back. The Bears went without Odunze for a while last season and were fine. When Swift was out, Monangai shined. Loveland is the focal point at tight end, but Kmet has a lot of big games on his résumé.
At the end of the Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy run in 2021, the Bears had little outside of Kmet and wide receiver Darnell Mooney, and running back David Montgomery was good, but not much of a homerun threat. It didn’t get much better until 2024 when Swift came aboard and the Bears drafted Odunze and traded for Keenan Allen to join Moore at receiver.
That talent, however, was in shaky hands with coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, and Williams was hardly ready to run a thriving offense.
It started to turn last year when Johnson pushed for the Bears to draft Loveland (No. 10 overall) and Burden (No. 39) and developed Monangai (a seventh-rounder) into one of the best runners of his draft class. Those were long-term investments, though they paid off early as Loveland led the team in yards receiving and Monangai rushed for 783 yards and five touchdowns.
Burden is the key to putting the offense over the top this season, and it’ll be a challenge for him to stay dialed in while hurt. He played just 35% of the snaps last season as he acclimated to Johnson’s offense and the league at large.
His role is going to depend on how well he knows the playbook, and that seems to be going well. It’s difficult to imagine Johnson touting him as the next big thing all offseason if he wasn’t sure about that part of it.
“I’m way more confident,” Burden said last week. “I’m able to play faster than I was. I feel good about the playbook — where I need to be and how I need to get there.”
With such a diversified offense, it likely will be difficult for any one player to hit statistical milestones this season, but it’s hard to get caught up in that if the Bears are scoring and winning. It gives Johnson a chance to showcase the full extent of his creativity.
