Ben Johnson went through a humbling time, and it led to his meteoric NFL rise

New York Times

5 days ago

Ben Johnson didn't have a job. After eight seasons with the Miami Dolphins, which included numerous roles, coaching positions and promotions, he was out of work and in NFL limbo.
It was an unwelcome feeling for a 33-year-old coach with big dreams.
'I kind of got the feeling that the cycle had already gone by,' Johnson said of his job status in 2019, 'and I would have to wait till the next cycle.'
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Johnson, though, couldn't stay away from football. He needed it. He had kept in contact with Butch Davis, his former head coach at North Carolina who took over at Florida International in 2019. Davis invited him to a spring practice. That visit soon turned into summer conversations about volunteering in the fall.
'We all have the itch,' Johnson told The Athletic. 'So I was much better scratching that itch, spending some time at FIU, than I was staying at home with my family for 24 hours. And I think my wife understood that. She got a better version of myself when I was home, knowing that I was able to actually be around the game.'
Johnson, now the head coach of the Chicago Bears, took Davis up on his volunteer offer. Johnson couldn't actively coach as part of his role, but he worked with the offensive coaching staff, particularly with offensive coordinator Rich Skrosky. Johnson watched film of practice and offered his thoughts. He was still working with FIU when the Panthers opened the 2019 season against Tulane on Aug. 29.
'As we got closer to the season, Rich trusted me enough to do some advance scouting for the opponent at hand,' Johnson said. 'So I certainly remember going into that Tulane week, watching some Tulane film from the year before and giving some third-down thoughts (or) things that he had put in during training camp (that) were … outside of the box that maybe he wanted to incorporate.'
Johnson, who once worked with Adam Gase, Clyde Christensen, Bill Lazor and Mike Sherman in Miami, also had ideas for Davis.
'I remember a few times there, I'd give Butch a piece of paper maybe at the end of the week, just a couple thoughts, like 'Hey, think about using a wet ball in practice for a couple periods, just in case we get a rain game during the season,'' he said.
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Johnson was prepared to help FIU for the rest of the season.
Then the Detroit Lions called.
They were scrambling for help. Johnson's life was about to change.
Johnson didn't start at quarterback for Davis at North Carolina. He joined the team as a walk-on in 2004. Davis arrived in 2007, and T.J. Yates soon became the No. 1 QB. Yates went on to get drafted by the Houston Texans in the fifth round in 2011 and spent eight seasons in the NFL.
'We had a couple of quarterbacks,' Davis said. 'Creatively and athletically, they were probably a little bit better than (Johnson), but not necessarily that much better mentally. He knew how the game plans worked and how to study and how to look into it.'
Johnson graduated from North Carolina in 2008 with computer science and mathematics degrees. His Tar Heels bio doesn't include any game stats. But it does say Johnson 'pretended to be Joe Montana as a kid' and 'is proficient in solving difficult math equations.'
Johnson loved studying film. He wanted to figure out how the opposition played. That's what Davis remembered. Johnson also leaned on offensive coordinator John Shoop as a resource. By then, Shoop had 12 years of NFL experience, including a three-season stint as the Bears' offensive coordinator under head coach Dick Jauron.
'It was great for him to have John around to kind of talk about all kinds of things, how to practice and the games,' Davis said.
When Johnson's NFL career was in limbo in 2019, he reconnected with Davis.
'Could I come down there?' Davis remembered Johnson asking. 'I said, 'Are you kidding me? Absolutely.' We would love to have had him.'
Davis wanted to help his former quarterback, the one who took his future wife, Jessica, to the team's Bible study during his final year at North Carolina and the one who scoured film looking for answers to everything. Davis had already done the same with Ken Dorsey, his former quarterback at the University of Miami. Dorsey worked for Davis after being fired by the Carolina Panthers.
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'As soon as (Dorsey) left, the very next guy that came was Ben Johnson,' Davis said. 'I was fortunate to just absolutely have him and create things to talk about with him and things that he'd learned.'
In a matter of weeks, Johnson's suggestions became a great resource for Davis, his assistants and the program. Davis considered hiring Johnson as his full-time offensive coordinator. But Davis knew the NFL would beckon Johnson back soon.
'And I just knew that he needed to be in the NFL,' Davis said.
The next opportunity just happened to come in the form of an entry-level position with the Lions. Johnson was overqualified. But it put him in a place to learn and grow. Davis knew how important that was to Johnson.
'He grew from Boston College and the Miami Dolphins, and that's what you love about these guys is that they don't just stay only doing one certain thing,' Davis said. 'It's like you've got to grow every three or four weeks during the season. And when the season's over with, it's like go back and take a look at everything that you've done and what needs to go, and how do you continue to grow? I mean, because if you stay the same, you're going to get beat, you're going to lose, especially in the NFL.'
When Kevin Rogers arrived at Boston College as the Eagles' offensive coordinator in 2011, Johnson was already there. He had started two years earlier as a graduate assistant on head coach Gary Tranquill's staff.
'He's all over things,' Rogers remembered thinking about Johnson. 'He was proactive in his own development. He's always ahead by a step.'
Rogers relied on Johnson early on.
'I'm in a room full of strangers and we're trying to get ready for spring football,' Rogers said. 'Well, Ben does the entire playbook, gets it on the computer, unbelievably detailed. I mean, all over it. And as soon as I got done, I thought to myself, 'Man, this guy's different.' I mean, he is a brilliant, brilliant guy.'
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Rogers and Johnson spent only one year together at Boston College. Johnson was Rogers' tight ends coach. Johnson joined the Dolphins the following year as an offensive assistant, while Rogers went to Temple, where he was the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach. But their relationship became the eventual link to the Lions eight years later.
Rogers recommended Johnson to Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who needed to find a quality control coach after a late dismissal on head coach Matt Patricia's staff. Rogers and Bevell worked together previously with the Minnesota Vikings. Bevell called Rogers for recommendations.
'They were looking for a guy they could get involved quite quickly,' said Rogers, who is now a senior offensive assistant/special projects for the Bengals.
'And of course, Ben was on the tip of my tongue.'
'Kev definitely said, 'Hey, it would be worth your time to talk to Ben,'' Bevell said.
Johnson would have to start all over after being the Dolphins' receivers coach in 2018. Grunt work would be back on the table. He would be back to breaking down tape for Bevell. And he would be typing up scripts and drawing up play cards for practice.
'You're basically making it easier on the position coaches,' Bevell said.
Johnson wanted to be back in the league he believed he belonged in. He also felt he instantly connected with Bevell. It didn't hurt that Johnson shared some mutual acquaintances with Sean Ryan, the Lions' quarterbacks coach at the time. He took the job in September 2019, making him a very late addition.
'Truthfully, it made sense for both Detroit and myself,' Johnson said. 'It was more a matter of making it make sense for my wife and my kids because we didn't want to keep them in Florida and then be separated for, call it, four months of the season. That, for her, didn't make sense. (I'm) still getting paid by Miami, so why would we willingly do this? So we were able to get to the compromise of getting them up there to Detroit, even though it wasn't necessarily guaranteed after that first season. So it was really a great move for our family.'
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It soon became a great move for the Lions.
'Fast forward a little bit as Ben started doing the work, and quickly I was like, 'This guy's way overqualified for this job,'' Bevell said. 'But it was the one, obviously, we had at that time.'
Three weeks in, and Bevell told Johnson exactly that, and gave him more to do.
'The stuff that he was doing was easy,' Bevell said. 'He could be a more integral part of presenting some stuff and suggesting plays.'
It soon expanded to include game-planning responsibilities, particularly in the passing game. Johnson became the Lions' tight ends coach in 2020.
'He always brought really good ideas, very sound ideas,' Bevell said. 'You know that he knows what he's doing, just from how he presented things, how detailed he was. The attention to detail was important to me. And he's very detailed in what he presents and very detailed in how he coaches.'
Bevell became Detroit's interim head coach during the 2020 season, and he later interviewed for the full-time job. He had a job in mind for Johnson.
'Ben Johnson was the coordinator that I put down,' Bevell said.
Instead, the Lions hired Dan Campbell. The NFL's coaching carousel was spinning again. Bevell soon became the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Johnson, though, remained connected to Campbell because of their time together in Miami. Campbell retained Johnson as tight ends coach, trusting him to coach the position Campbell played in the NFL. Johnson was in a vital position. He was in the middle of everything.
'That's what the tight end position will do, it lets you stay connected to both parts of the game,' Bevell said. 'You're heavily involved in the runs, but depending on who your guys are, you can be heavily involved in the pass game. … And you're learning techniques and scheme from the (offensive) line group, and then you're also learning the pass game. And he was bringing ideas from the pass game from a wide receiver perspective, so to speak. But not only could he speak it from the wide receiver, but he could speak it from the quarterback position as well, being an ex-quarterback himself.'
Joe Philbin's first coaching staff with the Dolphins in 2012 was full of future head coaches. Campbell coached tight ends. Zac Taylor was the team's assistant quarterbacks coach. And Johnson was an offensive assistant. Charlie Bullen, now the outside linebackers coach for the New York Giants, was Johnson's roommate at the time.
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'No. 1, I just was really impressed with his intelligence,' Bullen said. 'He is naturally a very smart person. He walked on at North Carolina, so he was able to get in there on his own accord. And just his work ethic. I mean, the guy works harder than anybody I know.
'So you apply intelligence, plus the willingness to work, and that's what has led him to his success. The guy just really, really dedicates himself to becoming a great coach, and he did from day one and still does now.'
Bullen also remembers being in the weight room with Johnson as two young coaches.
'He is super competitive,' Bullen said. 'He's fit, very physically fit, and he kind of has a natural metabolism. It's (BS). He can eat whatever he wants, and he stays fit. But he was an animal in the weight room. … A consistent lifting routine and he could still throw some good weight around even as a coach on minimal sleep.'
Johnson and Bullen broke into the NFL together. Their interviews with the Dolphins overlapped. Johnson was hired to aid the offensive staff; Bullen, the defense. Adam Gase retained both of them when he became Miami's head coach in 2016. When Gase's era ended, Bullen joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2019; Johnson had to wait.
'His path stalled out for a minute,' Bullen said. 'When we got let go in Miami from '18 to '19, you know, most of us caught on elsewhere and kept our coaching careers moving. Ben was out for a little bit.'
Johnson had to start over. The late nights and minimal sleep were back.
'And he did it,' Bullen said. 'He did it willingly on a staff that he didn't know anybody and had to prove himself all over again from step one and and doing a bunch of tasks that he had done years ago and thought he probably graduated from.
'But he just started there, kept working, and was himself throughout the process and worked his way up. He hit a little moment where there was some coaching adversity, and he just fought through it the way that he does, and he rose to the top from there.'
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In a way, this is when Ben Johnson became Ben Johnson.
'Anytime you get fired, you get humbled a little bit,' Johnson said. 'Here's what it did for me: it gave me a fresh perspective. I walked into that building up in Detroit at the end of training camp in 2019, and I was all smiles. I loved every second of it. Was it the job that I had always envisioned? No. But I was forever grateful for those people to give me a chance to be in that building.
'I would have never envisioned it going the direction it did, to where I was able to climb from quality control to position coach to coordinator to now a head coach. I didn't see that coming. I was just taking it one step at a time and trying to be the best quality control I could be in that position. And then when I got the tight ends job, just trying to be the best tight ends coach that I could be. So it kind of escalated quickly from there.'
All the way to the Chicago Bears.