Ben Johnson Blasts Bears’ Practice Habits: ‘Not Championship Caliber Right Now’

The cliché is that you play the way you practice. So, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson's comments about how his team practices will leave you saying, "Yeah, that makes sense…"

Johnson was one of the hottest commodities on the market this offseason after serving as the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator from 2022 to 2024 and building one of the league's most potent offenses.

He took the job with Chicago, which made a lot of sense given the offensive potential the Bears have on paper, but through two games (and most of last season), it just hasn't been there.

So, obviously, there's a ton of work to do before the Bears become a playoff-contending team, let alone a Super Bowl-contending team, and Johnson himself said that his team doesn't exactly practice much like the latter.

"Our practice habits are yet to reflect a championship caliber team," Johnson said.

Welp. That's about as blunt as you'll ever hear a coach get.

So, then what exactly is lacking in the team's practices?

"We should be going to the football, finishing hard," Johnson said, per ESPN's Courtney Cronin. "We talk about it all the time with the offensive players that our fundamentals, our finish, and our technique they need to show up in walk-through, they need to show up on the practice field. That's how it shows up on game day. 

"Simple things of how do we properly block? How do we catch the ball? How do we block after the catch? Ball security and things like that. It's the little things that you learn in youth league football that even at this level, they make a huge difference."

Johnson has proven himself to be a great offensive mind, but it makes you wonder if he was aware of how much needed to be fixed in Chicago before they could even start focusing on developing an effective offense.

The Bears are back in action on Sunday when they host the Dallas Cowboys.