The Chicago Bears‘ offense has the potential to look dramatically different in 2025.
Not only did general manager Ryan Poles significantly upgrade along the interior of the offensive line, and quarterback Caleb Williams will be entering his second NFL season, but head coach Ben Johnson has the chance to import many of his similar concepts from a dominating stretch as Detroit Lions offensive coordinator.
Williams will certainly benefit from upgrades along an offensive line that allowed 68 sacks in 2024, but players such as tight end Cole Kmet and wide receiver D.J. Moore could see a significant uptick in production based on how Johnson deployed the likes of star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta in Detroit.
Ben Johnson’s key metrics to judge the success of Chicago Bears Offense
As Johnson takes the helm of a defense that finished dead last in the NFL, averaging 284.6 yards and 18.2 points per game, the 38-year-old first-time head coach reveals that he has several key metrics for which he’ll judge success in 2025, beyond wins and losses.
“How do we get a higher completion percentage?” Johnson told NFL Network during the NFL Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach. “As you saw with Jared [Goff] he had a career-high, in terms of completion percentage. And, also augmenting the run after the catch with our pass-catchers, it’s something we talked about, it’s something we drilled.”
Williams boosting his 62.5 completion percentage as a rookie could unlock significant explosiveness in the Bears’ passing game, especially given that Moore finished 17th in the league, averaging 6.1 yards after the catch per reception and Odunze checked in at just 3.8 yards after the catch per reception. Improving in those aspects could prove to be transformative for Chicago’s offense.
Those are two of Johnson’s vital goals.
“I want to say that we were pretty good a year ago, in Detroit,” Johnson explained. “It’s something I’d like to carry over to Chicago … It’s a completely different year, I know it didn’t go the way that they wanted to. We’re going to keep the standard high, we’re going to set that bar high, and we’re going to push toward it each and every day.”
