With his team firmly in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, Ben Johnson will have the Chicago Bears charged up and focused for Sunday’s game against rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns.
Shedeur Mania has officially arrived in Cleveland, after Sanders just gave the Browns their first 300-plus-yard passing performance in 20 games, dating back to the 2024 season. Given his extremely team-friendly, rookie-scale contract as a fifth-round draft pick, fans are hopeful Sanders could be the quarterback that leads their team out of its current salary cap hell and into the future.
Johnson and the Bears are more focused on the other side of the ball right now, though.
Cleveland boasts one of the best defenses in football, led by a generational talent in Myles Garrett, who’s currently on an all-time tear. Garrett just notched his 20th sack of the season, becoming the first player in NFL history to reach that number in 13 games.
Let’s just say Garrett has Johnson’s attention entering a Week 15 game that’s a lot more important for the Bears, and their playoff hopes, than it is for the already eliminated Browns.
Ben Johnson’s plan for Myles Garrett shows exactly how serious the Bears are taking him
The Bears haven’t morphed into the most prolific offense in Johnson’s first season — but they’re certainly up there; entering Week 15, Chicago sits eight in scoring, 14th in passing, and second in rushing among all NFL teams on a per-game basis.
Erasing the negative plays that crushed young quarterback Caleb Williams and the Bears last season has been Johnson’s neatest trick. Williams was sacked an NFL-leading 68 times in 2024. He’s improved in that area considerably under Johnson, entering Sunday with just 20 sacks taken, which is tied for the seventh fewest among QBs with at least 10 game appearances this season.
That’s not the best sign for Garrett, who sits three sacks away from breaking the NFL’s single-season record, and would love to get there prior to Week 18, as both Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt recorded their matching 22.5-sack seasons in 16 games.
Judging by Johnson’s comments on Garrett this week, the Bears will have a plan in place to keep him from wrecking Sunday's sneaky-big game.
“Not our first time that we’ve gone against a dynamic pass rusher,” Johnson said. “Certainly, this guy… he might be on another level than anybody else in this league right now…
Heaven forbid you ever leave him 1-on-1. That’s really where he shows up. He’s almost unblockable that way in pass protection. So a lot of respect for him. He’s done an incredible job. And just to look at the number of double teams, triple teams, that he has on tape, and yet he still has 20 sacks on the season? It’s pretty remarkable, and it’s a special season for him. No doubt.”
Ben Johnson on Myles Garrett: "He might be on another level than anyone else in this league right now"
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) December 10, 2025
As Johnson mentioned, the Bears have already faced some of the game’s premiere pass rushers this season, including Micah Parsons last week. Chicago wound up dropping the game to the Green Bay Packers, but it had a chance to win it late, and Parsons ended his day with seven total pressures, no sacks, and two QB hits, per Pro Football Focus.
The Bears also faced the Raiders and Maxx Crosby back in Week 4, limiting Crosby to five pressures, no sacks and one QB hit. They did surrender a sack to Detroit Lions star Aidan Hutchinson, but only one, and it came back in Week 2, with the Lions forcing a negative game script and running away with a 52-21 win.
Garrett was frustrated a bit last week by a Titans team that either ran the ball away from him, or had quarterback Cam Ward get rid of the ball so quickly, Cleveland’s pass rushers struggled to impact the game.
Browns fans should expect more of the same in Week 15. Johnson and the Bears are too dialed in right now to let Garrett derail a game they desperately need to win.