Ben Johnson must avoid this Matt Eberflus mistake with new Chicago Bears coaching staff

Ben Johnson's initial coaching staff for the Chicago Bears is mostly complete with the latest addition of defensive line and linebackers coaches.

His hiring decisions have earned plenty of praise, with a variety of backgrounds and experience to draw on.

Johnson needs to be careful, though, not to fall into some of the same mistakes Matt Eberflus made with his Bears coaching staff.

When Eberflus was hired in 2022, he brought in an offensive staff full of coaches who had never worked with him or each other before. His defensive staff was almost all coaches he brought with from the Indianapolis Colts.

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy had only worked for the Green Bay Packers. QB coach Andrew Janocko spent his career with the Minnesota Vikings.

Offensive line coach Chris Morgan and wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert bounced around a number of teams but never crossed paths with the other Bears coaches.

On one hand, having coaches from different backgrounds means they can bring unique perspectives and not fall victim to stagnant groupthink.

On the other hand, no prior experience together can make it harder to get on the same page and prevent the team from developing a cohesive offensive identity.

Ben Johnson has to make sure he aligns his coaching staff to the same philosophy and approach to establish a strong culture.

He brought with him two assistants from his staff on the Detroit Lions: quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett and wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El.

They have intimate knowledge of how Johnson ran his offense in Detroit and can help ease the transition to Chicago.

Johnson also hired two coaches with whom he shared a connection to Dan Campbell and the New Orleans Saints, making Declan Doyle his offensive coordinator and Dan Roushar the offensive line coach.

The rest of his staff are coaches Johnson doesn't have a clear or obvious connection to. Passing game coordinator Press Taylor and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy have both been offensive coordinators on other NFL teams. Johnson retained Eberflus' tight ends coach Jim Dray.

He can't let there become a rift between coaches who were already "Ben Johnson's guys" and coaches who are newcomers trying to fit in.

Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen faces a similar challenge of brining new coaches together on Johnson's defense.

Defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett, linebackers coach Richard Smith and defensive backs coach Al Harris don't appear to have ever coached together or with Allen on any previous teams.

That's not to say that coaches need to have worked together in order to be successful on the Bears. Sometimes, sticking with only coaches you know can be a bad thing.

It just creates another important leadership test for Johnson (and Allen), to avoid the mistakes of the Bears' previous head coach.