In their 14 months working together, Poles and Johnson have developed an especially close bond. Their cohesiveness was evident last month after Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman unexpectedly retired and they quickly found a replacement, acquiring veteran Garrett Bradbury in a trade with the Patriots.
"There are just so many times \[he'll\] come in with a topic or a solution and it's what I have on my notebook," Poles said. "It's like you're in two different offices thinking about the same thing as you're trying to find solutions. It's been incredible.
"I love his sense of urgency, his energy that he brings. At the same time, we both respect our work time, too. It's not like we're just meeting to meet. But when we do get together, it's pretty impactful and we're usually on the same page. It's a cool little connection that we have."
Nothing was more impactful for the Bears in 2025 than the arrival of Johnson, who led the franchise to its first NFC North title since 2018 and its first playoff victory since 2010. The memorable season was highlighted by seven games that the Bears rallied to win after trailing in the final 2:00 of regulation.
"He's intense," McCaskey said. "He's intelligent. He's innovative. He's passionate. He's got the players believing in him and more importantly believing in themselves. No matter what happens, this group of players figures, 'we're not out of it; we're going to have to find a way to win and we will find a way to win.'"
Johnson has enjoyed working for a family-run organization.
"It really trickles down to the employees as well," he said. "We're a little bit more traditional in some things that we do. We have whole-building meetings where everybody's involved, and I think it's pretty cool. I've never been a part of that before the two other places I've been, so it's unique. It takes all of us to find success on the field and everyone hopefully feels the ownership over that and it empowers them."
As soon as last season ended, Johnson vowed not to allow complacency to seep into Halas Hall and insisted that the Bears would have to start from scratch in 2026 rather than expecting to build off last year's success.
"It was a great run," McCaskey said. "It was a miraculous run. Surreal run. But ultimately, we fell short of our goal. The goal is to win the Super Bowl. So there's some more work to be done. I think we have a good core of players. They fight like hell for each other. They fight like hell for their coach. I think they're confident that he will find some way for them to win, and that's a great and elusive ingredient in our great game. He's already said that complacency is not going to be an issue. What do we have to be complacent about? We haven't achieved our goal."
Off the field, the Bears' goal is to build a new fixed roof stadium. They've narrowed their options to two sites in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Hammond, Ind. At the owners meetings, McCaskey lauded Warren for keeping him and the rest of the Bears board of directors abreast of the latest developments.
"Kevin's a pro," McCaskey said. "He's been Big Ten commissioner. He's been with other NFL teams. He knows the dynamics. The communication's outstanding and he's doing a great job."
Regardless of which site is ultimately selected, Warren told ChicagoBears.com that "our No. 1 focus is building a world-class stadium that creates a fan experience that's very unique and rare."
"We want to make sure we get this right," he said. "This is a decision that will impact this franchise for the next 30-40-50 years, so we need to be thoughtful and we need to be diligent. We want to create a world-class fan experience where they really enjoy not only Chicago Bears football games, but college football games, basketball games, Final Fours, soccer, wrestling, cricket. We want to do this the right way."