After the Detroit Lions secured their second consecutive division title and locked in the NFC’s No. 1 seed, one NFL team quickly moved to target one of their coordinators to take charge of their own locker room.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Chicago Bears have requested interviews with Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn for their vacant head coaching position.
Both Johnson and Glenn are expected to attract considerable attention during this coaching cycle, given their instrumental roles in Detroit’s offense and defense over the past few seasons, particularly this year.
Under Johnson’s leadership, the Lions’ offense amassed 564 points, marking the fourth-highest total in a single season in NFL history. Known for his creative plays and offensive ingenuity, Johnson—who served as the team’s primary play-caller—helped Detroit achieve the second-most yards per game in the league (409.5) and the top-scoring offense, averaging 33.2 points per game.
On the defensive side, Glenn faced a significant challenge as the Lions worked with a patched-together defense for much of the season, often missing as many as 16 players, including key starters like Aidan Hutchinson, Derrick Barnes, Alim McNeill, Alex Anzalone, and Carlton Davis III, as well as rotational contributors such as Malcolm Rodriguez and Marcus Davenport.
Despite these obstacles, Detroit’s defense finished the season allowing just 20.1 points per game, ranking as the seventh-lowest in the NFL.
With the Lions earning a bye after their 31-9 victory over the Vikings on Sunday night to secure the NFC’s top seed, both Johnson and Glenn are available to conduct interviews this week without major distractions ahead of the divisional round.
If either coordinator were to land the Bears’ head coaching position, they would be working alongside quarterback Caleb Williams, who is widely regarded as a promising young talent with immense potential to lead Chicago to future success.
Last month, Glenn defended Williams against the unfair criticism he had received from media outlets at various points during the season.
“He’s very resilient. There’s no quit in that player,” Glenn told reporters in December. “It’s funny that the narrative that so many people want to put on someone when they really don’t know who they are, that it’s funny to me, and that happens to a lot of these young quarterbacks that’s in this League. They get beat down so much that people really don’t see the things that they go through to be a top player, especially a number one pick. You can go through the years of some of these guys – think of the quarterback that Minnesota has right now. (Sam Darnold) was beat down so much with the Jets and now he’s having success, and now these so-called guys that think they know what they’re talking about have no idea.
“Now, when I see the same thing with this player, I’m not saying that his career’s going to end up the same way, but I think that he’s a damn good player. He has a lot of talent, he has talent around him, he’s going to have to continue to learn and grow to understand that.”
