Ben Johnson

Johnson is married to his high school sweetheart, Jessica. The couple has three children: daughters Emory and Halle, and son Kennedy.

He is a fan of the Chicago Cubs, a loyalty stemming from a family season ticket package his younger brother applied for in 2007, and he attends games annually.

Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to Gail Johnson, a middle school teacher, and Don Johnson, a high school principal and former college football coach at Idaho State and The Citadel. He attended A. C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina, where he led the football team to a North Carolina 4A state championship as a junior and earned conference player of the year honors as a senior, graduating in the top five of his class.

Johnson enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played as a walk-on backup quarterback for the Tar Heels from 2004 to 2007. He graduated in 2008 with degrees in mathematics and computer science. Following his graduation, he spent a year away from football working as a software developer for eTeleNext in Durham, North Carolina.

Encouraged by his college offensive coordinator John Shoop, Johnson entered coaching in 2009 as a graduate assistant at Boston College, earning a promotion to tight ends coach in 2011.

In 2012, Johnson joined the Miami Dolphins as an offensive assistant. He served in several roles in Miami over seven seasons, working as assistant quarterbacks coach from 2013 to 2015, tight ends coach under interim head coach Dan Campbell in 2015, assistant wide receivers coach, and wide receivers coach in 2018 under head coach Adam Gase.

Johnson joined the Detroit Lions in 2019 as an offensive quality control coach and was promoted to tight ends coach in 2020. When Dan Campbell became Detroit's head coach in 2021, Johnson was retained and elevated to passing game coordinator midway through the season.

Promoted to offensive coordinator in February 2022, Johnson directed one of the most productive offenses in the NFL. In 2023, his unit ranked third in total offense, helping Detroit capture its first division title since 1993 and reach the NFC Championship Game. During the 2024 season, Johnson led the NFL's highest-scoring offense at 33.2 points per game, earned AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year honors, and set a franchise record with 15 regular-season wins.

On January 21, 2025, Johnson was named the 18th full-time head coach of the Chicago Bears. He assembled a coaching staff that included offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, alongside assistants Antwaan Randle El and J. T. Barrett, who followed him from Detroit.

In his first season, Johnson led Chicago to an 11-6 regular-season record and the NFC North title, becoming the first Bears head coach to win a postseason game in his debut season with a 31-27 wild-card victory over the Green Bay Packers. The victory featured an 18-point fourth-quarter comeback, the largest playoff comeback in franchise history. Chicago's season concluded in the divisional round with an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams, finishing with a 12-7 overall record.