Even Bears jaded most by the past begin rallying around Ben Johnson

That skeptic would be cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who actually was the one who reportedly stood up to former coach Matt Eberflus.

"I've been through it too many times," Johnson said about his third coaching staff in Chicago. "I'm going to get excited when we win in November and December and we change some things and get to the playoffs, that's when I'll be excited.”

So would everyone. That's because they don't win late in seasons. They were 6-22 under Eberflus after Nov. 1 and 12-34 after Nov. 1 since 2020.

However, it was also Johnson who gave the most detailed explanation for why Ben Johnson's offense worked in Detroit, and it wasn't something the Bears should have trouble duplicating even if the personnel is different than the Lions.

"The biggest thing (for defenses) is eyes, just having good eye discipline, which is hard to do when you get smacked in the face almost every play and things like that," Jaylon Johnson said.

It's tougher for defenses to focus on all the movement going on within the Ben Johnson offense when they're being challenged physically by blockers.

"Then, their receivers blocked hard," Johnson said. "So, I mean, at times you try to anticipate certain blocking and then they run play-action pass and things like that off of it.

"I think that was probably the biggest thing, just pairing the run game and the pass game, challenging the defense's eyes."

The numbers show Ben Johnson's offensive approach to be hugely successful and they didn't need to change quarterbacks to accomplish it. With Jared Goff, they went from 25th in scoring and 22nd in yards to fifth in scoring his first two years and fourth and then third in yardage, before leading in scoring and finishing second in yards last year.

Those are the stats, and then they saw Johnson in person for the first time as their coach when they reported for conditioning. They heard his message. They felt a different energy with his message then they had before.

"Honestly, just the mindset," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "When you ask people about, let's just say Detroit and what he was able to do, just the mentality, I would say what their offense wanted to do to opponents. It was put up a lot of points. I think you can feel that."

The message made an impact.

"You feel that as players, I felt that," Edmunds said. "I'm like, OK, this guy is the real deal.

"We have the same type of mindset. That's the thing that you get most excited about. Even walking out of that room, it's like, 'OK, I feel the energy, let's put the work in as players now.' "

Even the skeptics will get in line if all happens according to plan.

"We went through a lot of stuff as an organization, as a football team, but none of that stuff is what we focus on right now," Edmunds said. "You take that stuff, you learn from, you learn from those experiences, but at the end of the day it's about what we're going to do this year."