There are plenty of storylines in the NFC North this season, but one of the biggest is the battle between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears. The Bears poached offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be their new head coach last January and the two sides have exchanged barbs leading into their first season as division rivals.
The most recent quips came from two of Johnson’s former players as Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs commented that the Bears’ plays looked similar to theirs in a 38-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. But Johnson wasn’t one to let it slide, sending a message to his former team on Tuesday morning.
Ben Johnson reveals the biggest difference between his Bears offense vs. his Lions days 💥@heykayadams | @ChicagoBears #DaBears pic.twitter.com/FA09LQ5A77
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) August 19, 2025
Bears HC Ben Johnson Says ‘He’ll Have a Little More Fun’ When Regular Season Begins
One day after St. Brown and Gibbs made their remarks on FanDuel’s Up & Adams show, Johnson got his chance for a rebuttal. When host Kay Adams asked about the Lions’s stars comments, Johnson admitted that he used a gameplan similar to what the Lions use but that things will change when the regular season begins.
“This is the same gameplan in the preseason I’ve done for the past four years, so the plays should probably look the same,” Johnson said. “We just dusted off an old [playbook] and the guys are going out there and executing at a high level right now. …Once we get into the season, we’ll have a little bit more fun.”
Johnson’s comments make sense in the grand scheme of things. Most coaches go with “a vanilla scheme” so they don’t tip their hand in the preseason and it wouldn’t have made sense putting offensive linemen in danger to break out a trick play in a game that doesn’t count. But while Johnson is like many coaches, he could have similar principles in place.
The Lions became a juggernaut under Johnson, finishing first with 1,478 points in his three years as offensive coordinator. Detroit was also one of two teams (Buffalo Bills, 1,431) to score more than 1,400 points over the past three seasons while also ranking first in passing yards (13,156) and fifth in rushing yards (6,978).
With this in mind, any opposing team is going to look for similarities between what the Bears and Lions run. But it could also bring a false sense of security if a team scouts the offense Johnson ran in Detroit and runs into significant differences in the Chicago playbook.
As one of the most creative minds in football, Lions fans know Johnson has something up his sleeve. But it can also be to a detriment as it was when Jameson Williams threw an interception in the fourth quarter of last January’s playoff loss to the Washington Commanders.
Nobody will really know until the two teams square off in Detroit on Sept. 14. But the main thing is the Lions will probably be ready for it.