LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey walked away from the practice fields behind Halas Hall impressed by what he had just witnessed. Temperatures soared during this early afternoon session on Aug. 5, 2025 as the Bears completed their 12th and final install of training camp. It was one of the most physical practices the team had conducted in years, the type of practice rife with live tackling and tempers flaring among players.
The intensity reminded McCaskey of the two-a-days era from the 1980s and early '90s, when his family's team was one of the toughest and most respected in the NFL. Those were the years where capturing the division and winning double-digit games over consecutive seasons were commonplace.
That afternoon, McCaskey carefully observed the man tasked with guiding the Bears toward relevancy and sustained success. He viewed how chippy things got as an indication of how hard players were working, the early result of the buy-in the team had with its new head coach, Ben Johnson.
"They know he knows ball, and they know that he can make them better," McCaskey said last August.
In Johnson's first season, the Bears more than doubled their win total from 2024 (when they finished 5-12) and won the NFC North with an 11-6 mark. Johnson is a finalist for the league's Coach of the Year award, which will be announced at NFL Honors on Thursday (9 p.m. ET, NBC).
The type of success Johnson achieved in 2025 is not all that dissimilar to the other nominees. Four of the five men named an AP Coach of the Year finalist were either first- or second-year coaches -- Johnson, New England's Mike Vrabel, Jacksonville's Liam Coen and Seattle's Mike McDonald. All four coaches took their teams to the playoffs.
Chicago's 31-27 win over the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round marked its first postseason victory in 15 years. It also fully reignited the NFL's oldest rivalry.
Johnson was the first to light that spark when he was hired from Detroit in January 2025. He claimed one of the reasons he chose to stay in the NFC North was because he enjoyed beating Packers coach Matt LaFleur twice a year.
Being able to back up that type of declaration with results had a profound effect on his players. The Bears beat the Packers twice in a season, including the playoffs, for the first time since 2007.
"His impact on this team has been great," safety Jaquan Brisker said. "The way he changed the culture, the way he has been a player's coach -- that's why you see the players go out and play for him every single time -- you're willing to die on the field for a coach like that and a staff like this. They're special guys."
From the very first team meeting in April, Johnson made clear to his players that the Bears could win now. There would be no slow-playing the 2025 season, especially after three long years of a rebuild.
Johnson never wavered from that message, even after the Bears started with back-to-back division losses -- including one of the worst defeats in years when Detroit beat Chicago 52-21 in Week 2.
"I honestly I feel like I learned from the first time he stepped into the building who he was and I learned who he wasn't," wide receiver Rome Odunze said. "He's been consistent throughout the entire season with his goals for us and with his determination and how he leads, where he wants this organization to go. He's been super consistent with that, so I think that's something that, honestly, is a great thing.
"It hasn't been something that you have to continue to like try and judge or feel out. From the day he stepped in, he wants this organization to be great and he leads by example and vocally and that essence."
McCaskey felt that, too, from the moment the Bears landed one of the most sought-after coaching candidates of the 2025 season. But he was careful to not jump the gun. Too many times in recent years had the Bears hired a new head coach with the promise of change -- from the results on the field to the culture in the building -- only to have to repeat the process. They went through that process four different times in 12 years, from Marc Trestman to John Fox to Matt Nagy to Matt Eberflus.
After that Week 2 loss in Detroit, the Bears won four straight games. They rebounded from a Week 8 loss in Baltimore with five consecutive victories and eventually earned the NFC's 2-seed in the postseason.
The Bears underwent an identity shift in Johnson's first year, not only culturally within team dynamics but how they were constructed to win. Chicago ranked first in the NFL in turnover margin for the first time since 1985, when they won the Super Bowl and allowed the fewest points and fewest yards that season.
Chicago has historically leaned on its defense to win games. Hiring Johnson signaled a significant shift in what the Bears were capable of.
Johnson took over an offense that ranked bottom five in total yards and scoring and turned both into top-9 units. He presided over quarterback Caleb Williams' development and saw the 24-year-old set the franchise's single-season passing record at 3,942 yards with a 27-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio that ranked fifth in the league.
The "Cardiac Bears" moniker is synonymous with the 2025 Bears as much as Johnson's "Good, better, best" victory chant that became a rallying cry for his team and took the city of Chicago by storm. The Bears pulled out seven wins in the regular season and playoffs when trailing in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
"He's been the catalyst for us," Williams said. "To be able to lead us, to be able to stand strong in tough moments and good moments, to be able to show emotion, be able to be who he is and be consistent with that and do what he said he was going to do. He's been everything that Chicago's needed as a coach.
"We're happy to have him. I'm happy to have him as my coach and what he's been able to do for me, it's been unparalleled. I'm excited about that. I'm excited that we're going to be together, I'm excited about our future, I'm excited about getting back here with him and growing more than I did this year and be able to have games and moments like this many times in our career."