The Chicago Bears made a loud statement on Monday with the hiring of Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson less than 24 hours after Detroit was eliminated from the NFL Playoffs. Johnson never had his in-person interview with the move being so swift, and it says a lot about where the franchise stands on what general manager Ryan Poles has laid as a foundation for Chicago.

“This is the biggest vote of confidence in what the Bears in what they’ve already constructed, what Ryan Poles has constructed and in Caleb Williams,” Carmen Vitali said on the Bears on the Marquee podcast. “Ben Johnson didn’t need a second look to say, ‘No, I believe in this team. I think that I can help them. I think that this is a good situation for me that I can be successful in.'”

With the move going official on Tuesday, now it’s time to see who Johnson will add to his coaching staff, and what Poles will do with the $66 million in cap space available for 2025.

[MORE: Aggressiveness key to Bears acquiring Ben Johnson]

“The work is just beginning,” Vitali said. “You got the guy, but now you need to surround him with the resources he needs to be successful whether that’s the staff, different meal programs, strength programs, analytical programs. Anything that he feels like he needs now needs to be implemented, and he needs to be given the autonomy and ability to mold not just the roster but the entire organization in how how feels he can be successful.

“Hopefully [he’ll be] taking some of those things that he saw in Detroit where that organization went through a complete overhaul under Dan Campbell. How much of that is Ben Johnson taking with him, and are the Bears going to make room for him to do those things? Those things sound great in principle, but they cost money. The Bears – assuming they shelled out a ton of money for Ben Johnson – that’s not over. That’s not enough.”

New episodes of the Bears on the Marquee podcast drop each Tuesday.