Jeff Joniak has been at the heart of Chicago Bears football for nearly a quarter century. He took over as the team’s primary play-by-play announcer in 2001. Since then, he and Tom Thayer have called every Bears game together. Joniak has run the full spectrum of Bears head coaches since then. It started with Dick Jauron, then moved to Lovie Smith. He watched Marc Trestman oversee the collapse into the cellar, John Fox go on his retirement tour, Matt Nagy try his best Andy Reid impression, and Matt Eberflus look overwhelmed. If anybody is qualified to assess whether Ben Johnson has what it takes, it would be Joniak.
He appeared on Fox 32 News to talk about the Bears’ upcoming season. The subject of Johnson came up. It didn’t take long to get the sense that Joniak is already a big believer in the young head coach. He even went so far as to call it a “grand slam” hire by the organization. Johnson has the intensity, intelligence, and ability to communicate that head coaches need. You can hear it every time he steps on the practice field. For the first time in years, it feels like the Bears have the right guy.
Ben Johnson knows the first step is cleaning up the mistakes.
Plenty of talk out there suggests the Bears still suffer from a talent gap with other teams in the league. That may hold some truth, but the reality is that much of their misery over the past two seasons has stemmed from self-inflicted wounds. Ill-timed penalties, turnovers, busted coverages, and bad routes have led to stalled drives and brutal momentum swings. It was why the Bears could never seem to close out games when they had the lead late. Ben Johnson was a stickler in Detroit for avoiding mistakes. Players knew him to be unrelenting and vicious when they didn’t do the right thing. He never tolerated it. Bears players are already getting a taste of that. It figures only to intensify once training camp begins.