REPORT: New Front-Runner Emerges To Land Detroit Lions OC Ben Johnson As Their Next Head Coach

After overseeing an offense that finished fifth in points for in back-to-back seasons, Ben Johnson’s group enters Week 18 with a league-leading 533 points for. At 14-2, the Lions would clinch the NFC’s top seed and first-round bye with a Week 18 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

According to Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the NFC North rival Chicago Bears are a strong candidate to hire Johnson as their next head coach. Fowler reports that there appears to be “at least some interest” on Johnson’s end:

“Yes, the whispers about him struggling in certain interview settings in the past are there, but Johnson says he has learned from the experience. Fit will be important, but the Bears could appeal to Johnson because he can help quarterback Caleb Williams, streamline the porous offensive line play and give a talented but strained offense some layups and easy yards. It’s a good job, with its tradition, talent on the roster and cap space to go along with Williams. And it appears that Johnson has at least some interest in the Bears gig.”

Here’s what Graziano wrote about a potential Johnson-Bears partnership:

“These are good points, Jeremy. The Bears job has allure because of Williams and how amazing it would be to be the coach who finally won there after nearly 40 years of disappointment. But the job comes with an extensive history of organizational dysfunction that has doomed pretty much every coach the Bears have had since Mike Ditka.”

#Lions OC Ben Johnson was the Dolphins’ WR Coach when Brian Flores was hired as the team’s new Head Coach in 2018.

One of Flores’s first moves was to fire Johnson, who would eventually get hired by the Lions as an Offensive QC Coach, working his way to OC in 2022.

The two face… pic.twitter.com/uu3bE7Ex2D

— 𝔻𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕚𝕥 (@Devoted2DET) January 2, 2025

Ben Johnson’s NFL coaching career began in 2012 as the tight ends coach under Joe Philbin with the Miami Dolphins. He stayed with the organization until 2018, before then-Lions HC Matt Patricia hired him as an assistant in 2019.

Johnson has been with the Lions ever since, receiving a promotion to passing game coordinator in the midst of the 2021 season. Dan Campbell promoted him to the offensive coordinator role in 2022, and the Lions have been a juggernaut ever since.

Ben Johnson Will Be An NFL HC If He Wants To

The trend in today’s NFL is for teams to hire young and offensive-minded coaches, and no active NFL assistant has a better resume than Johnson. If he wants to be a head coach in 2025, he will be. The only way Johnson won’t get a position is if he decides to stay with the Lions.