Ben Johnson's Blueprint
What the Lions' offense actually teaches — and what Chicago must copy, adapt, or leave behind.
By Erik Chambers
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Chicago has spent a decade importing offensive philosophies like flat-pack furniture — assembled on Sunday, discarded by December. Ben Johnson's Detroit blueprint is the first system in years worth studying with a straight face, because it actually survives contact with defenses, bad weather, and roster attrition. The lesson is not that the Bears need to plagiarize the Lions' playbook. It is that they need to adopt the Lions' process: a run game that forces defenders to declare their intentions, motion that gathers intelligence, and a quarterback menu built on rules rather than heroic rescue missions.
That distinction is the entire story.
What the Numbers Actually Say
In the 2024 regular season, Detroit finished top-three in the league across the metrics that predict sustainable offense — not just point totals, but the underlying drive math that separates functional schemes from lucky bounces.
| Metric | Definition | Lions 2024 | Rank | Bears 2024 | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points per drive | Total points ÷ offensive drives | 2.63 | 2nd | 1.62 | 23rd |
| EPA per play | Expected Points Added — value gained vs. league-average result in the same situation | +0.163 | 3rd | −0.041 | 25th |
| Success rate | Share of plays that meet down-and-distance efficiency thresholds (40% of yards on 1st down, 60% on 2nd, 100% on 3rd/4th) | 48.7% | 2nd | 42.1% | 21st |
| Play-action EPA per dropback | EPA when the QB fakes a handoff before dropping to pass | +0.41 | 2nd | +0.08 | 19th |
| Explosive play rate | Share of plays gaining 10+ yards | 12.8% | 4th | 9.4% | 24th |
Sources: nflfastR public play-by-play, 2024 season; NFL Next Gen Stats, 2024 season.
The overall shape matters more than the exact decimals. Detroit was efficient before it was explosive, and explosive because it was efficient. That sequence is the architecture — and it stands in stark contrast to Chicago, where explosive plays have long been occasional accidents rather than structural outputs.
The most misread element of the Lions' offense is pre-snap motion. Imitators see the movement and copy the movement. They completely miss the purpose.
Motion in Johnson's system functions as a diagnostic test. When a receiver shifts across the formation, the defense is forced to react — and that reaction tells the quarterback the coverage scheme before the ball is snapped. Man defenders travel. Zone defenders bump. Ambiguous rotations give the secret away. Detroit uses that moment of compulsory honesty to pick the right answer from a menu the quarterback has already thoroughly rehearsed.
The result is a passing attack that looks fluidly improvisational while remaining strictly rule-based. Jared Goff is not asked to invent magic on the fly. He is asked to read, confirm, and deliver on time.
"The best offenses don't just have plays. They have a conversation with the defense. Detroit's conversation starts before the snap."
| Design Choice | Detroit (2024) | Chicago (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Motion at snap rate | ~68% of dropbacks | ~41% of dropbacks |
| Run scheme variety | Inside zone, duo, gap/pull, counter, toss — no single concept over 25% of runs | Heavy zone concentration, limited gap looks |
| Play-action usage on early downs | Top-5 rate, top-3 efficiency | Middle-of-pack rate, bottom-third efficiency |
| First-to-third down linkage | Third-down calls draw from first-down formations | Third-down package often stylistically detached |
Sources: NFL Next Gen Stats team leaderboards, Sumer Sports 2024 charting.
The gap is not purely talent. The gap is that Detroit's offense is cumulative — every first down alters the defense's rules for the next snap. Chicago's offense far too often resets to zero after every single play.
The Historical Lineage
Johnson's system is hardly revolutionary. It is simply the current best-in-class iteration of a very old idea. The skeleton draws from Bill Walsh's timing rules, the outside-zone family Mike Shanahan popularized in Denver, the condensed-formation and play-action leverage the McVay-Shanahan tree extended in the 2010s, and the pre-snap information gathering New England relied on for two decades.
What Detroit added is genuine integration. Rather than picking a single branch of that tree, Johnson stitched them together into an offense that can bully with duo on first down, misdirect with motion on second, and exploit soft coverage on third — all out of formations that look virtually identical. Defenders cannot cheat on one down without exposing themselves on the next.
This explains why a copycat league struggles to import the scheme. You cannot simply borrow integration. You have to build it.
Copy: the principles. Run the ball to force defensive structure. Use motion to gather intelligence. Treat play-action as a reward for genuine run efficiency rather than decorative polish on top of losing football. Design the passing game around the quarterback's processing speed rather than a coordinator's favorite play sheet. Related reading: The Bears' O-line audit and Quarterback development under pressure.
Adapt: the personnel fit. Detroit's offensive line has been elite; Chicago's has not. Detroit's tight-end room enables condensed formations; Chicago's isn't equipped for that yet. Installing Detroit's plays without Detroit's blockers yields the worst of both worlds — complexity without competence.
Leave behind: the comforting fantasy that a new coordinator acts as a magic cheat code. Detroit's offense required multiple seasons, roster patience, and a coaching staff that stayed intact long enough to actually teach it. Chicago's history of organizational continuity is, generously speaking, spotty.
Remaining Questions
- Can Chicago's offensive line sustain the extra protection time Johnson's play-action game demands?
- Does Caleb Williams' improvisational instinct fit a rules-based rhythm system, or will the system end up bending around him?
- How quickly can a new staff install genuine integration — the actual hard part — as opposed to merely copying the cosmetic look?
We will track these questions as the season unfolds. See our companion investigation on why the Bears' rebuild math keeps failing.
Sources
- nflfastR — 2024 NFL play-by-play dataset. nflfastr.com
- NFL Next Gen Stats — 2024 team leaderboards for motion rate, EPA, and play-action efficiency. nextgenstats.nfl.com
- Sumer Sports — 2024 offensive scheme charting. sumersports.com
- Pro Football Reference — 2024 Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears team pages. pro-football-reference.com
- ESPN Analytics — 2024 EPA and success-rate splits. espn.com/nfl/stats
The Standard
Detroit did not conjure a miracle. It engineered a system in which every play makes the next call easier — and every defensive adjustment generates a fresh defensive dilemma. That is the actual portable lesson.
For Chicago, the benchmark comes down to this:
- Cumulative, not episodic. Every first-down call should constrain the defense's second-down options.
- Run game as strategic threat, not moral stance. Multiplicity beats volume.
- Motion for information, not aesthetics. If it doesn't change the read, cut it.
- Play-action as earned currency, spent only when the run threat is real.
- Quarterback menus, not quarterback miracles. Design for the read; don't gamble on the scramble.
- Measure drives, not highlights. Points per drive and success rate tell the truth; explosive plays are the byproduct.
Chicago has spent far too many years trying to look like a competent offense. The next step — the only one that actually matters — is to become one.
Editorial Transparency
This article contains a combination of reporting, publicly available research, and editorial analysis.
Analysis and interpretation. Facts are sourced; conclusions are the author's. Evidence before opinion — facts require sources, analysis requires transparency, opinions require labels.
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Erik Chambers
Founder, Creator & Editorial Architect
Jamal Whitfield breaks down film for 2ND CITY STANDARD after ten years coaching at the collegiate level.
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About the author
Erik Chambers
Founder, Creator & Editorial Architect
Jamal Whitfield breaks down film for 2ND CITY STANDARD after ten years coaching at the collegiate level.
Ben Johnson's Blueprint
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