The Ben Johnson Show starts now at Bears camp. All eyes and ears are on him

For the first time reporters could remember, the Bears’ general manager appeared at a training-camp-opening news conference and didn’t take questions.

Typically, it’s one of our few chances to hear from him during the season, and it’s the rare time he can be optimistic before things go to you-know-where.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ryan Poles gave some updates on injuries and signings — he wouldn’t detail his own contract extension but he acknowledged it — but that was it. He spoke for about 3½ minutes, said he’d be around to talk to reporters during camp, and quickly exited to the side to cede the lectern to head coach Ben Johnson.

Most GMs whose teams go 15-36 over three years — and whose third season is a catastrophe even by Bears standards — get their security card revoked, but Poles got a longer contract to match Johnson’s deal, so he’ll be around for a while. Poles was allowed to spend the kind of money it takes to land a promising young coach like Johnson and get a fresh start in Year 4.

But once Johnson knotted up his orange tie and signed his massive contract, there was no question he was in charge at Halas Hall.

No offense to Poles, Kevin Warren or George McCaskey, but it’s Johnson’s show here. And don’t just limit his power to Lake Forest. As he prepares to start his first season in charge, you could say Johnson is the most important coach, player or sports executive in Chicago.

All eyes and ears are on him.

Every NFL head coach is a leading man, but the Bears’ casting process doesn’t exactly bring to mind the glory days of the Hollywood studios.

At this time last year, Johnson’s predecessor, Matt Eberflus, was in full glow-up mode as the “Hard Knocks” cameras documented his season-opening party at his local mansion.

Johnson looks the part with a winsome smile and a quick wit, but can he take the Bears offense into the 20th century? (Baby steps.)

He was brought in from Detroit to see what the Bears have in Caleb Williams, the erstwhile No. 1 pick and the crown jewel of the team’s latest rebuild, and to get the Bears back to the playoffs, a destination they’ve reached just three times in the last 18 seasons. He needs to make Williams better than the three would-be quarterback saviors who came before him.

Having a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards in a season and making the playoffs are achievable goals for many NFL franchises, but not this one. Here, it’s a summit that hasn’t been reached.

With all of that prologue in mind, Johnson offered some encouraging words to the people who are sick of losing seasons and perpetual disorder in Lake Forest and Soldier Field.

“This is a race now,” Johnson said. “Everything is a race.”

And he doesn’t mean it in a “put your track shoes on” kind of way like Eberflus. While it’s my firm belief that the NFL starts too early — football practices should start on Aug. 1 — I can see why Johnson is in a hurry. Yes, he’s had offseason workouts to install his offense, but the Bears’ opener is Monday night, Sept. 8, and there’s a lot of work to do between now and that national spotlight home game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Training camp is hot, mundane drudgery, but for a coach like Johnson, it’s heaven. He seems most excited about getting into the dog days of practice and seeing that zone where his offensive players are reacting instead of thinking. We saw a lot of thinking last season during Williams’ rookie year and a lot of losing.

“It’s how you get good at anything,” Johnson said. “It’s repetition, over and over and over again. You watch tape. You put yourself in that mindset: ‘If I was here now in this situation, what would I do?’ That’s why the situations we practice over the course of camp are going to be huge, not only for me but the rest of the staff and the players to figure out how my mind works, so that they can play off of that accordingly. I just hope we can, in six weeks, get enough reps to feel good going into Week 1. That’s the challenge.”

Every coach has these zen-like goals before camp starts and then reality gets in the way. Guys go down, the quarterback’s throws go wide. We’ve seen it year after year.

Too many offensive coaches overcomplicate the process. Remember Matt Nagy? This shouldn’t be brain surgery. It’s just football. For all the adulation heaped on Johnson’s creative offense, I appreciate that he seems to have a workmanlike attitude to his job.

Training camp should be interesting this year. Or as interesting as watching football practice in the hot summer sun gets.

If environmental reporters covered climate change with the fervor that we’re about to cover Johnson’s offense with, the world would be a better place. We should be plenty busy, from the three-man competition for the starting left tackle job to analyzing every Williams throw, Rome Odunze pass route and DJ Moore facial expression.

“Going into camp, it’s going to be a lot here early on,” Johnson said. “These first two weeks, we’re still going to do a lot. And it’s not so much to attack the defense or anything like that. We’ve got to find out who we are, and I’m going beyond just the quarterback here. I don’t know if we’re going to be a wide-zone team up front. I don’t know if we’re going to be a gap team yet. There’s a lot of things that got to play out, and we won’t know until we get the pads on.”

It’s late July and there is much to learn about this Bears team. But one thing we know is who’s in charge.

Halas Hall is officially Ben Johnson’s world.

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