Bears HC Ben Johnson's recent ESPN 1000 interview is quite telling

USA Today

a day ago

Folks looking to listen to the Chicago Bears on the radio this year can find them on ESPN 1000. As the radio home of the Bears, the station and its shows enjoy special privileges throughout the year.
One of those special benefits is the availability of new head coach Ben Johnson. If everything goes well, Johnson will appear on the morning show 'Kap & J-Hood,' featuring David Kaplan and Jonathan Hood, once a week. On Thursday, Johnson was on the show for the first time. It's always interesting to see how new coaches handle this type of media, and he was exceptional. His personality and football knowledge stood out in every way.
Johnson went over a lot during the interview. He talked about his transition into becoming an NFL head coach with a charter franchise, after where he was at the beginning of his football career, his philosophies about the offense, a diagnosis of quarterback Caleb Williams, and even his love for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
If you want to know what Johnson is all about, you can look no further than his response to Kaplan when he asked about the dominant run that he had to begin his offensive coordinating career with the Lions and how it can take place in Chicago with this team.
"You never know. You never really know," Johnson said about how the Bears could look like that Lions team through the first four weeks. "I think our guys, they'll be feeling really good week one, week two, the best their bodies will feel all season long. I hope that we get off to that same fast start that we did a few years ago, but you neglected to say that games five and six, I think one of them was a shutout and the next one was only a seven point game. And so it fluctuates."
Although the Lions offense did have that fast start in 2022, they did go through its struggles quickly after as well. Nothing was perfect by any means. They also didn't win most of those games because their defense was so poor. Johnson could have just taken the compliment and run with it. Instead, his accountability showed, and he told the truth about that run. If that's how Johnson's going to be as a head coach, the Bears have a bright future.
'Kap & J-Hood' had Matt Eberflus on the day after every game last year until he was fired. It was so different than what you heard from Johnson in this one. The former Bears head coach danced around every tough question with the same tired 'they didn't execute' answer all year. He also never took accountability for anything.
That is not the case with Johnson. In his first interview on this station, he gave a thoughtful answer to every question. You can also hear that the human side to him makes him an incredibly fun person to talk to over a period of time.
By the time Eberflus was on the hot seat, his interviews were terrible to listen to. Right now, it seems like Johnson is going to be a strong leader for this franchise for a long time. The way he conducts himself in media availabilities like this is telling.