In today's NFL, a team's success can be directly tied to their philosophy of winning. In an age of analytics, aggressive head coaches take the cake. We all know this isn't a label you would ever give to Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
Despite the 'we don't live in our fears' mantra, the Steelers' philosophy is taking care of the football and minimizing risk. It's safe to say that Ben Johnson disagrees.
Johnson, the new Chicago Bears head coach and former Lions offensive coordinator, was the most highly-touted head coach candidate in the 2025 hiring cycle and had his pick of the litter. This is largely because of his aggressive offensive style that looks to rack up points on opponents.
Recently, Johnson held his first press conference with the Bears where he explained that quarterback success isn't measured by ball security.
"Modern Football in the NFL is Quarterback driven. You can look at the analytics... QB Success is a higher predictor of winning and losing than Turnover Ratio."
— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) January 22, 2025
- Ben Johnson pic.twitter.com/3m7mJHmj28
Johnson spoke fervently that QB Success is a 'higher predictor of winning' than turnover ratio. In other words, Johnson cares far less about the frequency with which a quarterback turns the ball over if the offense can put up points on the board at will (which is exactly what the Lions have done since 2022 with Johnson.
In three years as an offensive coordinator, Johnson's offense never ranked lower than 5th in the NFL in points scored. In his most recent season in 2024, The Lions finished 1st in scoring and 2nd in yards—collectively giving them the best offense in the league.
No player has benefited more from Johnson's presence than Jared Goff. The veteran quarterback completely revived his fallen NFL career as soon as Johnson came to town. As a result of Johnson's aggressiveness, the Lions have been one of the best and most dangerous teams in the NFL over the past two seasons.
Now in Chicago as the new head coach, Johnson brings the same mentality with him that could jumpstart Caleb Williams' career. It's time Mike Tomlin takes notes.
Steelers need to be more aggressive on offense
It takes a talented offense and good quarterback to pull off what Ben Johnson has been able to do in his first three years as an offensive coordinator and to be honest, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still several pieces away from even having the personnel to reach those heights. But Tomlin must be more aggressive on offense if this team is to become a Super Bowl contender again.
Gone are the days when NFL teams can get away with limited risks and playing sounds defenses. Quarterbacks and offenses these days are simply too lethal for that outdated philosophy to work.
I'm not saying that Tomlin and his staff need to be as aggressive as Johnson, but they aren't going to win many postseason games if they don't have the firepower to compete with the best the AFC has to offer. We saw this down the stretch when the Steelers scored 14 points per contest over their last five games (including playoffs) to close out the year—going 0-5 in this stretch.
We don't expect major changes to Tomlin's philosophy anytime soon. Heck, part of the reason he hired Arthur Smith was so that Pittsburgh could run the football and avoid costly turnovers. Regardless, Ben Johnson's comments feel like a wake-up call for Mike Tomlin to be more aggressive.