It’s okay Bears‘ fans, he’s our coach now…
Ben Johnson’s genius as a playcaller has been well documented. The Detroit Lions improved every year he was their offensive coordinator, and most impressive was in the first year he officially took over (2022), the Lions saw an improvement of more than a touchdown per game. This was achieved with nearly the same offensive personnel as in 2021.
Part of being a successful playcaller is keeping a defense on its toes, and nothing does that more than some trickeration.
Johnson’s offenses have always sprinkled in some trick plays, not only to give the defense something to think about, but also because it’s fun for his team.
Bobby Peters, whom you’ve heard discuss the Ben Johnson offense with us here (article), here (video), and here (podcast), recently cut up every trick play the Lions ran in 2024 and shared them on his YouTube page.
The NFL recently started to block All-22 footage from being embedded away from YouTube, so you’ll probably need to click over to his page to watch the fun.
It’s the nature of fandom to be excited when a trick play works and to be livid at the play caller for being too cute when it doesn’t. As Chicago Bears fans, we saw Matt Nagy have some success with his bag of tricks, but there were some big misses too. The Matt Eberflus era featured a handful of tricky things that didn’t always hit the mark.
However, Ben Johnson has something those other play callers didn’t, and that’s a feel for the game and an understanding of when and how to set things up. He marries his plays together in a way we haven’t seen in Chicago in decades, which is something Bobby discussed with us in those links up there.
Also, not every trick play needs to go for a touchdown. While they can be huge momentum swings, oftentimes they’re just another play called in the 75 or so a coordinator dials up each Sunday. If a double reverse only gains 7 yards, that’s still a successful gain. If a flea flicker just goes for a check down, that’s fine. The big negatives off trick plays usually happen when a team is calling them in desperation mode, which good play callers don’t do.
Time will tell how Johnson’s playbook shapes up, but I have a feeling he’ll show enough trick plays for Bobby to cut up a 2025 version for the Bears.