1st-and-10: Can Ben Johnson make a GM out of Ryan Poles?

Asked about the Bears' curiously vacant left tackle position 13 days before the season opener, Bears general manager Ryan Poles deferred to coach Ben Johnson to figure it all out. At least that's what it sounded like he was doing.

"I think that's really part of Ben's process just talking next week," Poles said, whatever that means.

That exchange and Poles' take on that key x-factor seemed to perfectly illustrated the state of the Bears heading into the 2025 season. With so many unknowns and legitimate concerns with just about every one of Poles' on-paper upgrades — from Caleb Williams to the offensive line to Dayo Odeyingbo, Grady Jarrett and the pass rush — the Bears are counting on Johnson being as good as advertised to make Poles' moves look good.

The Ben Johnson Effect is the best thing Poles has going after a training camp and preseason that didn't confirm much of anything Poles did in the offseason, except hire Ben Johnson. Caleb Williams, the rebuilt offensive line and rookie tight end Colston Loveland did virtually all of their best work against back-ups. His biggest expenditure in free agency, defensive end Odeyingbo, made little impact against anybody in the preseason.

On Tuesday, Poles (or Johnson) cut two 2023 draft picks: defensive tackle Zacch Pickens, (third round, No. 64 overall — normally a second-round pick) and wide receiver Tyler Scott, a (fourth round). Poles doesn't have much to show for his first three drafts past the second round:

• Cornerback Terrell Smith (fifth round, 2023) is out for the season with a torn patellar tendon.

• Three-year starter Braxton Jones (fifth-round, 2022), coming off ankle surgery, might or might not be the starter in Week 1.

• Noah Sewell (fifth-round, 2023) might be the third linebacker — generally a part-time role in Dennis Allen's defense.

• Offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie (third round, 2024) failed to win a wide-open left tackle spot and might be moved to guard.

• Running back Roschon Johnson (fourth round, 2023) is injured and did little in the preseason.

• Defensive end Austin Booker (fifth round, 2024) had four preseason sacks against back-ups but is out "a few weeks" with an injury.

• Defensive end Dominique Robinson (fifth round, 2022) is on the fringe of the roster.

That leaves punter Tory Taylor (fourth round, 2024) as the "star" of the group. And Taylor has a long way to go to prove a punter was worth a fourth-round draft pick. It's not in the "win" column yet.

And until proven otherwise, the offensive line continues to be problematic for Poles. Five days before Week 1 begins on Monday, the Bears have no announced starting left tackle — a glaring red flag after a three-player (Jones, second-round rookie Ozzy Trapilo and Amegadjie) competition turned into a four-player competition (2024 undrafted free agent Theo Benedet) and still did not produce a winner.

Jones figures to start against the Vikings on Sept. 8 at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football. Trapilo was moved to right tackle. Benedet and Amegadjie look like inexperienced back-ups.

It was Trapilo's job to lose and he lost it. So as it stands today, Poles used the 56th overall pick in the draft (the same pick that netted cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, an immediate starter, in 2023) on a right tackle who is backing up a player who figures to be there for 10 years. What's the deal with that? Can the Bears move Darnell Wright to left tackle to allow Trapilo to play his best position? Does Poles regret not prioritizing a dedicated left tackle in the draft — perhaps trading up for Kelvin Banks (a rookie starter with the Saints) or trading down for Josh Simmons (a rookie starter with the Chiefs)? Because right now — right now — the Trapilo pick looks like another offensive-line miss for Poles, with Trapilo not even a back-up at left tackle, a position of need.

For the record, when Poles was asked if Trapilo would stay at right tackle, he said, "I'll leave that to the coaches." And he was steadfast in his confidence in the offensive line — it was the first position group he mentioned when addressing the roster in his opening remarks Tuesday.

"Feel really good about that position right now," Poles said. "The back-up group has versatility, upside. Guys can plug in right now and play and there's a couple of guys that, over the course of the year, should continue to get better to help us in the future this year or even down the road. We're in good shape there."

If that sounds familiar, it's virtually the same sentiment Poles expressed about the line last season.

"This is probably the best depth I've ever had," Poles said after the 53-man roster was established last season. "I actually let one of the guys go on cut-down and I was like, 'Man you did an excellent job. I wish we could keep you here.' He said, 'this is the deepest room I've ever been a part of.'

"So we have more versatility, more depth. Shoot, we have 10 guys, so I feel comfortable. Obviously you want your starting five to be healty and ready to go, but I feel more confident in the depth of our offensive line than I ever have before."

That turned out to be as prescient as President Herbert Hoover saying in 1928 that "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." — only to see the stock market crash a year later, leading to the Great Depression. The 2024 Bears offensive line was problematic all season — with a rookie quarterback and a shaky offensive system magnifying their issues. Of the 10 players that Poles felt so good about last August, only four are back — Wright, Jones, Amegadjie and Bates.

Poles tacitly acknowledged his misjudgment with on-paper upgrades in All-Pro Joe Thuney, center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson. But the big difference this year is Ben Johnson. If Johnson can coach Williams to consistently get the ball out quickly (and accurately), the offensive line is automatically better. If the offensive line is better, missing out on a running back before the seventh round isn't as big of an issue. If Loveland — a player who can get himself open in an offense that schemes players open — can become a breakout weapon, the decision to not draft a left tackle in the first round becomes less critical.

The Bears enter the 2025 season with issues and x-factors that would be a lot more problematic and feared as red flags under previous head coaches. Ben Johnson changes all that. For now. Whether he knows it or not, his greatest challenge is rising above the stigma of dysfunction at Halas Hall to be the best version of himself. It's a tall order for one man. But so far, so good.

2. As a player drafted for Ben Johnson's offense, Trapilo's disappointing training camp is an interesting test case for Poles and Johnson.

You can argue that this is another example of a Poles misjudgment — projecting Trapilo to make the transition to left tackle when he was clearly better at right tackle in college. But it's also an example of Johnson acknowleding a mistake earlier rather than later. He moved Trapilo to the right side three weeks into the competition for the left tackle spot — even though neither Jones nor Amegadjie had made a significant move to win the spot. We'll circle back to this later in the season for a better perspective.

Though Poles has upgraded the roster from the one he inherited in 2022, he hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt. So it's a little disconcerting when he said that Trapilo "hit the rookie wall" in the middle of training camp. What rookie hits the "rookie wall" in training camp? That usually happens in November.

"[In] the KC game, you could see things slow down a little bit for him, and his technique came back, because that was the best part of his game," Poles said. "I just think he got out of whack a little bit midway through camp.

If that were the case, shouldn't Trapilo be back at left tackle, especially with the position apparently still up for grabs? It sounds like they drafted a right tackle, and now have two.

3. Williams might be a work in progress as a second-year NFL quarterback in his first year in Johnson's offense (as opposed to Jared Goff, who was in his seventh NFL season in his first year in Johnson's offense in 2022). But if the offensive line is as good as Poles thinks it is, the Bears' offense should still hit the ground running on Sept. 8.

The Lions, in fact, averaged 164 yards rushing in their first four games in Johnson's offense, including 28 carries for 181 yards and three touchdowns against the Super Bowl bound Eagles in Week 1 — while Goff was throwing for 215 yards. D'Andre Swift had 15 carries for 144 yards and a touchdown in that game. Seems like a fair bar for this offense, with Swift, plus DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet, Loveland and Jahdae Walker, in the early going under Johnson.

4. Roster review: The Bears' 53-man roster (as of Wednesday afternoon) includes 20 players who were not with the team last year (37.7%), plus linebacker Carl Jones, who was on the Bears' practice squad last season.

Of the 74 players on the entire roster (53-man, practice squad, injured reserve), 34 were not with the Bears last season (45.9%).

5. For What It's Worth Dept.: Veteran defensive end Malik Herring was the only Chiefs defender on the field for Tyson Bagent's game-winning drive who made the Chiefs' 53-man roster. Bagent was one of three Bears players to make their 53-man roster — with rookie wide receiver Jahdae Walker and Amegadjie.

6. I think it'll turn out that Ben Johnson should have coached Caleb Williams as if he were Jared Goff and then let Williams ability and aptitude for the position take him to the elite level Williams aspires to be at. Williams hasn't shown the instinct for the position to get the "full-plate" treatment in learning Johnson's offense.

While Shane Waldron received much of the blame for the Bears' offensive issues in 2024 after the Fail Mary loss, I don't think Waldron suddenly forgot how to coach after his offense turned Geno Smith into a Pro Bowl quarterback in Seattle. And the response is always, "Shane Waldron didn't know how to coach a young quarterback."

Well, Ben Johnson's only success as an offensive coordinator has been with a veteran quarterback. And already we're seeing indications he's given a young quarterback too much too soon, with Johnson sounding more like Luke Getsy with his emphasis on the developmental process, the long haul and being better at the end of the season than the beginning. Johnson might be learning some of the same lessons Waldron did in developing Williams. He might just have a better Plan B in dealing with something he's never dealt with before. That ability to adjust mid-stream — which Johnson takes great pride in — usually is the secret sauce that gives coaches like Johnson staying power.

7. With the evolution — or de-evolution — of the preseason and increased emphasis on joint practices vs. preseason opponents, it's tougher than ever to find anything defining in training camp and the preseason. The Bears are a bigger unknown heading into Johnson's first season than Matt Nagy in 2018 or Marc Trestman in 2013.

Johnson, for instance, did a masterful job preparing the Bears for a physical joint practice against the Dolphins by holding a virtual live-scrimmage practice two days before. It provided a false-positive in the joint practice, with the Bears going virtually full-throttle against a team that wasn't prepared for that kind of fight and winning the day handily.

But it's the planning and forward thinking that bodes well for Johnson and the Bears. The notion that a first-time head coach has been preparing for the job all the way up the ladder is a coaching cliche. But with Johnson, that's real.

8. I will miss wide receiver Tyler Scott more than Poles will. Scott, a 2023 fourth-round draft pick, was lost in the shuffle last year after having 17 receptions for 168 yards as a rookie in Getsy's offense. He's a nice kid whose father instilled him with a great sense of football and Bears history. He was the one player I could go to for a meaningful quote the night Dick Butkus died.

"I was watching highlights of him when I was eight years old," Scott told me. "That was one of the first guys he showed me highlights of. It was, 'Dick Butkus — he's the greatest linebacker to ever live.' He was so old-school. So angry. He's just so mean and nasty. You don't see that type of mentality in today's game. He's definitely one of my favorite players even though I didn't see him play."

Scott apparently lost out on his bid for the final wide receiver spot on the 53-man roster, which went to Jahde Walker, the impressive undrafted free agent from Texas A&M via Grand Valley State.

"Letting Tyler Scott go is difficult," Poles said Tuesday. It couldn't have been that difficult. Scott didn't even make the Bears' practice squad. The wide receiver spots went to veterans — Maurice Alexander, who played for Johnson with the Lions; and Miles Boykin, the former Ravens and Steelers receiver who spent last season on the Seahawks practice squad.

9. Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Bills quarterback Mitch Trubisky won the No. 2 job behind Josh Allen, when the Bills cut Mike White and Shane Buechele on Tuesday. Trubisky completed 16-of-26 passes for 193 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions for a 97.1 passer rating. Trubisky, who made the Pro Bowl as an alternate with the Bears in 2018 was a back-up to Allen last season and also in 2021. Between those stints, he started seven games for the Steelers in 2022-23.

Allen has started 118 consecutive games, including 105 straight in the regular season.

10. Bear-ometer — 9-8: vs. Vikings (W); at Lions (L); vs. Cowboys (W); at Raiders (W); at Commanders (L); vs. Saints (W); at Ravens (L); at Bengals (L); vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L); vs. Steelers (W); at Eagles (L); at Packers (L); vs. Browns (W); vs. Packers (W); at 49ers (L); vs. Lions (W).

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