Ben Johnson stood in front of the NFL world this week and said the quiet part out loud: the Super Bowl is not his ceiling. "You've got 31 other teams coming to training camp saying, 'Our goal is to win the Super Bowl,'" the Chicago Bears head coach told The Athletic's Dan Pompei. "I want more than that. I want to have the highest-scoring offense ever, which happens to be the 2013 Denver Broncos. I know how many points per game they scored [37.9], and I want to surpass them. I want shutouts. I want blowouts."
Let that land for a second. A second-year head coach with one 11-5 season on his résumé is publicly aiming at the most prolific scoring offense in the history of professional football — a 606-point, 37.9-points-per-game monster that required prime Peyton Manning, four future Hall of Famers on the perimeter, and a defense that handed the offense the ball back constantly. And he wants it in Year 2 of the Caleb Williams era. That is either the most confident coaching declaration of the decade, or the most expensive bulletin-board material in the NFC North.
The 2013 Broncos Are the Greatest Cautionary Tale in Football
Here's the part Johnson conveniently left out of his soundbite: the 2013 Broncos scored 606 points, averaged 37.9 per game, never scored fewer than 20 in a single game — and then laid a 43-8 egg in Super Bowl XLVIII, scoring exactly eight points against a Seahawks defense that treated Manning like a tackling dummy. The greatest offense ever assembled went home with a ring ceremony for the other team.
Johnson knows this history better than anyone. He was the offensive coordinator of the 2024 Detroit Lions, the league's No. 1 scoring offense (33.2 points per game) that steamrolled everyone in the regular season — then got bounced from the playoffs in the divisional round, 45-31, by a Washington team that simply out-executed them in January. Johnson has already lived the exact scenario he's promising Chicago: the best offense in football, and a postseason exit that left the trophy case empty. He is chasing the record anyway.
Why This Bears Offense Is Actually Built for It
Here's the uncomfortable truth for the rest of the NFL: Chicago's 2025 offense was already good. Ninth in scoring (25.9 points per game), sixth in total yards (369.2 per game), an 11-5 record — and that was Year 1 of Johnson's system, with Williams still learning the playbook on the fly. The jump from Year 1 to Year 2 under a returning play-caller is the most reliable leap in modern football, and this is the first time Williams has had the same offensive coordinator in consecutive seasons since college.
The weaponry is legit. Luther Burden III emerged as a true WR1 down the stretch. Colston Loveland finished his rookie year with 58 catches, 713 yards and six touchdowns, ranking 13th among tight ends in receiving and top-eight in scores. Rome Odunze is healthy after a lingering foot issue. D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai form a two-headed backfield monster. Cole Kmet, Kalif Raymond, Zavion Thomas, Jahdae Walker — Johnson has more chess pieces than most NFC contenders, and he traded D.J. Moore to Buffalo for draft capital instead of hoarding him, a sign he trusts the young room completely.
The Sharps Already Know What This Means
Here's where the analytics crowd should perk up: "I want shutouts. I want blowouts" is not coachspeak — it's a market signal. A head coach who openly wants blowouts is a head coach who will leave starters in late, keep the pedal down in the fourth quarter, and chase style points in October games that most teams quietly punt. That is exactly the profile that cashes team-total overs. Chicago's win total sits at 9.5, and the market still prices the Bears behind the Lions and Packers in the NFC North (+305). Williams is +1400 to +1500 for MVP, and the over on his passing yards (3,649.5) and touchdowns (24.5) is sitting right there for the taking.
If Johnson means what he says — and everything about his personality suggests he does — the Bears are going to run up scores in ways Chicago hasn't seen since the days of Walter Payton and Jim McMahon. The 1985 Super Bowl champs won with defense and ball control; Johnson is trying to build the anti-1985, a team that wins 34-27 instead of 17-10. For a franchise defined by a century of conservative "Bears football," this is a culture earthquake.
The Trap Is Real — But So Is the Value
Now the controversial part: history says this ends badly. The 2007 Patriots scored 589 points, went 16-0, and lost the Super Bowl to Eli Manning. The 2013 Broncos scored 606 and got boat-raced by Seattle. Johnson's own 2024 Lions led the league in scoring and were home before the conference championship. There is a genuine, statistical pattern here: teams that define themselves by regular-season scoring peaks tend to hit a January wall against defenses that play with nothing to lose.
But here's the counter-take that makes this fascinating: Johnson isn't chasing the record because he thinks it wins rings. He's chasing it because it's the fastest way to change the identity of a franchise that has been a laughingstock for decades. A 600-point season sells tickets, breaks the mental chains of 100 years of "the Bears don't do that," and makes Chicago a destination for free agents. Even if it ends in a playoff loss, Johnson will have rebuilt the brand. And if Williams is genuinely the quarterback everyone thinks he is, the scoring record becomes a byproduct, not the goal.
The Prediction
Put it this way: the Bears won't break the 606-point record — that requires a historic convergence of health, schedule luck and a defense that creates short fields, and the NFC North gauntlet alone will cost them two or three shootouts. But Chicago finishes top three in scoring, Williams throws for 4,200-plus yards and 35-plus touchdowns, and the Bears go over 9.5 wins. The record stays with Manning. The playoff run, for the first time in a generation, becomes a real possibility. And if Johnson's blowout culture works, the 2027 Bears will be terrifying — because by then, everyone will know he wasn't bluffing.
Ethan Brooks
Ethan Brooks covers sports betting and analysis with a focus on form, matchups, team trends, and the factors that shape competitive events.