Chasing the Lions and impressing Ben Johnson requires changes from the Bears

If the Chicago Bears are going to woo Ben Johnson away from the Detroit Lions, then chairman George McCaskey and president/CEO Kevin Warren must learn where their rivals turnaround began.

They have to know why the Lions hired Chris Spielman.

Before Detroit hired general manager Brad Holmes or head coach Dan Campbell, principal owner/chair Sheila Ford Hamp and team president/CEO Rod Wood brought in Spielman, a former Lions All-Pro linebacker, a fan favorite and a longtime broadcaster for Fox at the time.

Advertisement Spielmans official title? Special assistant to the president/chairperson.

Hamp told Spielman this mission the fixing of the unfixable had become personal for her, The Athletic s Nick Baumgardner wrote in September 2023.

She asked him for help and told him that, with trust and communication, they could give Detroit its football team back for the first time in 75 years.

GO DEEPER Greenberg: Searching for Bears' next coach, we visit the Vikings locker room Spielman whose brother, Rick, was the Minnesota Vikings GM from 2012 to 2021 didnt want to be the Lions GM.

He just wanted to help the team that drafted him and that he loved.

I do know what works and what doesnt work by being 30 years in this business and traveling around to 32 teams, year in and year out, and having a brother in the business watching and learning, conversations with him about what works for him, what doesnt work, to be able to build what our goal is, Spielman told reporters after he was hired.

The Lions did what the Bears have never done under McCaskey.

They asked one of their beloved players for help in an official capacity.

Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders was also part of the Lions three-person search committee.

Under McCaskeys leadership, the Bears have had eight losing seasons and two playoff games in 13 years.

The Bears next coach will be McCaskeys sixth since firing Lovie Smith after the 2012 season.

Ryan Poles is McCaskeys third GM, and Warren is his second president.

Caleb Williams is the Bears third quarterback drafted in the first round since McCaskey has taken over.

If the Bears arent going to hire a president of football operations which McCaskey has long opposed adding someone like Spielman almost makes too much sense.

This isnt the same as hiring Ernie Accorsi or Bill Polian as consultants and allowing them to run the teams searches and have significant influence.

Advertisement The Bears need someone who knows what it means to be a Bear, what its like to play in this city when things are good or bad, has experience dealing with the media and more.

As Jon Greenberg wrote in a recent column , there are plenty of former Bears players to turn to for help.

Its easy to put together a list of options: Tom Waddle, Jim Miller, Olin Kreutz, Charles Tillman, Gary Fencik, Tom Thayer, etc.

But it would still be surprising if the Bears made such a move.

GO DEEPER Greenberg: Searching for Bears' next coach, we visit the Vikings locker room The Lions turned to their past in Spielman to move forward.

Similar to the Bears right now, the Lions were a mess when Spielman was hired on Dec.

15, 2020.

The Lions fired coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn earlier in November.

Detroit was 31-43-1 under Quinn, including 13-29-1 with Patricia.

Firing Poles would require McCaskeys approval.

He is the one who hired Poles in 2022.

If the Bears havent done so already, they will have to decide soon whether to extend Poles contract before they begin interviewing candidates to replace Matt Eberflus.

All of this matters when it comes to appealing to Johnson, who will be the most coveted offensive-minded candidate on the market.

Johnson was hired in 2019 by Patricia as the Lions offensive quality control coach.

He was later retained by Campbell in 2021 as the Lions tight ends coach before being promoted to passing game coordinator and taking over as the play caller after Anthony Lynn was fired.

In other words, Johnson knows what changed for things to work in Detroit.

He has gone from worst to first because of it.

Five days after defeating the Bears at Soldier Field with Stumble Bum and more, Johnson revealed that in addition to some assistant coaches, Spielman has provided ideas for trick plays.

Thats every week, Johnson told reporters on Dec.

27.

Chris Spielmans the same way.

Hes just all over the place.

And so weve got to dial them back a little bit.

Advertisement Johnson smiled when he said that.

The best part of what we do is the head coach (Campbell) knows no bounds, and so he wants to push the limits as much as anybody, Johnson said.

And when youve got a guy leading the charge like that, the rest of us are, Oh, really, you want to do that? All right, all right, well give it a try.

How does Johnson say no to Spielman? Very gently, Johnson said, smiling, then laughing.

That could be an example of the organizational alignment Johnson is seeking.

Do the Bears have that in place for him? Its the most important question McCaskey and Warren have to be asking themselves before their search begins.

In March this year, the Lions announced that Spielman received a multiyear extension.

In his current role, Spielman helps across the organization and has been an integral part of re-establishing a culture that he embodied on the field for the Lions, the team said in a statement.

Neither Accorsi nor Polian could do that for the Bears as consultants.

In 2016, Detroit hired Quinn after using Accorsi, the former GM of the New York Giants.

A year before helping the Lions, Accorsi led the Bears searches that led to GM Ryan Pace and coach John Fox.

Accorsi later helped the Giants in 2017 with their next GM search, which ended in the hiring of Dave Gettleman.

None of those GMs is still running an NFL team.

Having Spielman around full-time is different.

Johnson knows that.

Warren could learn about Spielmans value from Spielmans brother.

Rick Spielman and Warren worked together in Minnesota from 2006 to 2019.

Everything still starts and ends with McCaskey, though.

The onus is on McCaskey again to make the right changes at Halas Hall that can lead to different results on the field.

(Top photo: Junfu Han / USA Today Network).

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