He is unhinged and undeniable in equal measure, imposing his own quirky nuisance to traditional offensive convention and with it inciting a new chapter of Super Bowl contention for the Chicago Bears. Spiky rivalries are relished, and feuds willingly fuelled. He does not care for tame.
He lets opposing teams know he does not like them, and lets head coaches know he is coming for them. In doing so he has become the most influential figure in flipping the Bears narrative from bruised to buoyant. "You guys know what next week is?
Enough said." Johnson had been referring to Chicago's upcoming matchup with their fierce divisional rival Green Bay Packers after just masterminding his side's latest win over the New York Jets. I f****** hate those guys!" said an animated Johnson in the Bears locker room. Again, he does not care, nor does he care for those Packers.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player By modern standards he is something of an obscurity. In an era when half of NFL sidelines tend to include a disciple of Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, he comes from a different branch with his own interpretation of the motion-fuelled play-action zone-run Shanahan system. Pre-snap motion and subterfuge remain paramount like any good Shanahan offense, but Johnson is creating a new kind of horizontal and diagnosis stress for defenses, whose coverage plans have no place to hide against him.
He sees and induces moves on the chess board before they even happen. Through four weeks Johnson's offense ranks first in yards with an average of 429 per game, as well as topping the rushing charts with an average of 196.3 yards on the ground. The Bears are meanwhile third in dropback success rate and eighth in EPA/play despite spending the last two weeks without starting quarterback Caleb Williams.
Johnson lost Williams to a hamstring injury late in Chicago's 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week Two. It would be easy to look back on that game with some question marks around the Bears buzz, but this was a Brian Flores blitz-centric defense we are talking about. It happens to the best of the league from time to time.
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