Robert Mays: For Bears, Ben Johnson is a high-ceiling bet worth taking

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00:00Now on Ben Johnson, do you believe that he has the leadership skills and the abilities?

00:06It's still a projection as a leader, or do you feel like you know a little bit more about him

00:11from that perspective? I think it absolutely is still a projection. I think that I'm fascinated

00:18by this idea, this season especially, as you look at what's happened around the league.

00:23I think a lot of people are going to talk about culture and about how you change culture.

00:28I think that people believe in order to do that, you have to find one of these

00:32hard-o football dudes that is a Dan Campbell or a Jim Harbaugh.

00:37But I've started to ask a lot of people about this just because I'm interested in the idea

00:41of what culture means in an NFL building. I was in LA a couple of weeks ago talking to a bunch

00:45of guys in the Chargers about this. When I was asking them about what football culture meant,

00:51none of them mentioned being somebody who can give a rousing speech at the front of a locker room.

00:56No one talked about how hard practices were. One of the words that came out of everybody's mouth

01:01was honesty. Are you going to be honest with me about expectations? Are you going to be clear

01:07about what you want this to be? I said this yesterday. Being able to set those expectations,

01:13being somebody who lays things out clearly to players, being somebody who can communicate

01:17to players, I'm going to make the game easier on you in x, y, and z way. That to me is culture in

01:23the same way that Mike Vrabel being a big, strong man at the front of the room is culture.

01:27I think in a lot of those ways, Ben Johnson has shown an ability to have those things be a part

01:33of his offense and do it over a series of years with a quarterback that has distinct limitations.

01:40These are all bets. Every single one of these choices you are going to make has risks,

01:45it has downsides. You are making bets at the poker table on all of these. Ben Johnson and

01:50what he has done in Detroit feels like the bet that's worth making for the exact same thing that

01:54Lawrence said. No more half measures. Let's swing for the fence. Is there a lower floor with Ben

02:00Johnson than there is with Mike Vrabel? Absolutely there is. But the ceiling is high enough, and the

02:06ceiling is considerably higher than with some of these other guys, that I think it ultimately would

02:10be a risk worth taking.