CINCINNATI – When Zac Taylor was finalizing his coaching staff following the 2020 NFL season, he reached out to Ben Johnson and offered him a job, but here’s the twist: Taylor wanted the offensive-minded Johnson to coach on the defensive side of the ball.
That might sound a little bizarre, but there’s an explanation behind it. Taylor and Johnson entered the NFL together in 2012 when both were hired to serve on Joe Philbin’s staff with the Miami Dolphins. It was their first NFL coaching job and they worked together for four seasons. Although they parted ways after the 2015 season, they almost reunited in Cincinnati a few years later.
Taylor had just wrapped up his second season coaching the Bengals and hoped to add Johnson to his staff. Johnson, who had just finished his second season in Detroit, faced an uncertain future since head coach Matt Patricia, who hired him, had just been let go.
From 2012 through 2020, Johnson always coached on the offensive side, but the Bengals lacked openings on that side. Hence, Taylor proposed hiring Johnson as a quality control coach on defense.
“He was out [in Detroit] and we didn’t have any openings on offense,” Taylor said regarding Johnson. “After the 2020 season, we hadn’t yet hired [quality control] coaches on defense. We did not have an offensive opening so I just wanted to get him on the staff. So we both knew he could come in on defense and help the defense. That was the only opening we had.”
Johnson was an offensive quality control coach for the Lions in 2019 before becoming the tight ends coach in 2020. Typically, asking an offensive-minded coach to switch to defense doesn’t yield results, but Taylor expressed confidence in Johnson’s ability to adapt.
“He was just really smart that way where that translates – in a [quality control] coach sense – to any side of the ball,” Taylor said. “You don’t always want to have guys do that, but Ben could have done it.”
Had Johnson been hired, Taylor indicated that he wouldn’t have remained a defensive coach for long. “We would have eventually got him over to offense when it made sense,” Taylor noted.
Ultimately, Johnson remained in Detroit because the Lions appointed someone familiar to him: Dan Campbell. Johnson worked alongside Campbell from 2012 to 2015 on the same Dolphins coaching staff that also included Taylor.
Following his time as tight ends coach in 2020 under Patricia, Johnson continued in that role in 2021 with Campbell. He progressed to passing game coordinator in 2022, and was upgraded to offensive coordinator in 2023, leading to his current success.
There’s a parallel universe where Johnson accepts the Bengals’ offer and eventually transitions to offense, collaborating with Taylor to devise plays for Joe Burrow. Instead, we now witness a different scenario where Johnson leads the Bears as the top seed in the NFC ahead of Week 14.
Johnson holds a record of 9-3 with the Bears, including a thrilling 47-42 victory against Taylor’s Bengals in Week 9, which was one of this NFL season’s most exciting matches. Although Taylor and Johnson didn’t end up coaching together, Johnson has a Taylor on his staff: Zac Taylor’s brother, Press Taylor, is the passing game coordinator for the Bears.
