Ben Johnson did not sound interested in a normal second act. After guiding the Chicago Bears to an NFC North title and a playoff win in his first season as coach, he set a far sharper target for 2026: not just contention, but the highest-scoring offense ever. That makes the Bears schedule feel less like a week-to-week grind and more like the runway for a record chase.
For most coaches, the stated goal is simple enough: win the Super Bowl, survive January, keep the season alive long enough to make a run. Johnson framed that as the baseline for 31 other teams and then pushed well past it. He pointed directly at the 2013 Denver Broncos, who hold the scoring record at 37.9 points per game, and said he wants the Bears to surpass it. “I want shutouts. I want blowouts,” he said, making clear that he is not aiming for narrow-margin survival.
A ceiling higher than the usual championship talk
That ambition matters because it changes the language around the Chicago Bears. A team coming off a division title and playoff victory could easily talk itself into steadier, safer goals. Johnson did the opposite. He described the Super Bowl as “the moon,” then said his team is shooting beyond that “for the stars.” In other words, the benchmark is not merely winning enough games. It is producing an offense that can overwhelm opponents often enough to rewrite a record that has stood since 2013.
His mention of the Broncos also gives the target some real shape. The record is not a vague best-case scenario. It is a specific historical standard, built on a season in which one offense averaged 37.9 points per game. Johnson knows the number, and he did not hide from it. He also referenced the unbeaten season mark, saying there has never been an undefeated season since teams have been playing more than 14 regular-season games. That was less a prediction than a reminder that even the tallest goals still live inside football’s limits.
Why this matters for 2026
Johnson’s comments also say something about how he views the job itself. He said he is completely happy with the thought that this is his last job, calling it the best job he has ever had and saying he will give everything he has to it. That kind of language usually comes from a coach who believes the organization can match his ambition, not merely tolerate it. For the Bears, that means the bar in 2026 is not just improved execution or another playoff appearance. It is whether Caleb Williams, D'Andre Swift and the rest of the offense can turn a successful foundation into something historically rare.
The challenge, of course, is that record-setting offenses are not built on slogans. They depend on health, efficiency, explosive plays and the ability to keep scoring deep into games. But Johnson did not speak like a coach worried about being realistic. He spoke like someone who thinks the Bears can aim at the biggest number in the sport and still have room to go higher. That is a striking place to start a season, and it makes the Bears schedule look a lot more ambitious than ordinary.
