The Chicago Bears had their most successful season in eight years, winning the NFC North Division title and advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs last month. As expected, the Bears have paid the price for that success as other teams have tried to grab a piece of the culture that Ben Johnson built.
That includes the departure of offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who agreed last weekend to become the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator. Doyle’s departure creates an important item on Johnson’s to-do list ahead of the 2026 season, but it also creates an opportunity to troll the Detroit Lions.
The Lions hired Drew Petzing as their offensive coordinator last month, but A to Z Sports' Mike Payton suggested he would have been Johnson’s first choice to replace Doyle for the same position in Chicago. With Petzing off the board, it could lead Johnson to make a phone call that would throw a wrench into Dan Campbell’s offseason plans and bring Hank Fraley to Chicago.
Ben Johnson Could Seek Revenge on Lions By Hiring Hank Fraley as OC
Payton noted that Petzing and Johnson worked at Boston College before coming to the NFL and had similar theories on how to run an offense.
“They like to run the ball the same way, they’re both aggressive in their play-calling, and both utilize tight ends in a similar way,” Payton wrote. “It just would have been a perfect fit.”
Payton also acknowledged that Petzing was a groomsman in Johnson’s wedding, giving him a personal connection that may have made him a leading candidate for the Bears’ OC job. With Petzing already in Detroit, that’s not possible. But that’s where Fraley comes into play.
While Johnson wanted to bring Fraley with him to Chicago last winter, the Lions' decision to give Fraley a raise kept him in Detroit for the 2025 campaign. Payton added that “there’s not really a whole lot stopping Fraley from taking an interview with the Bears and maybe getting" the offensive coordinator job, which could be another shot across the bow of Campbell’s coaching staff.
Fraley and Johnson have their own history as they arrived in Detroit one year apart in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Both worked their way up the ladder, with Fraley becoming offensive line coach in 2020 and Johnson becoming offensive coordinator in 2022. As noted above, Johnson has already made one attempt to bring Fraley to Chicago.
That personal relationship could make it easy to lure Fraley away from Detroit, leaving the Lions scrambling for a new offensive line coach one year after it was a key reason they coughed up the division title to the Bears after winning it the past two years.
In the aggressive nature of the NFL, this is normal behavior. And it could leave Johnson to stick it to the Lions one more time after hiring his good friend this offseason.