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In the 2024 season, the\u00a0Detroit Lions\u00a0missed their chance at the\u00a0Super Bowl, and they also suffered the “brain drain” of other teams poaching their best coaching minds that Super Bowl winners generally experience. Primarily due to a slate of injuries that would have had most\u00a0NFL\u00a0teams hobbling their way out of the playoffs altogether, head coach Dan Campbell’s Lions finished the regular season with an NFC-best 15-2 record (tied with the\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0for the NFL’s best regular-season mark), but it all fell apart in the divisional round, when the\u00a0Washington Commanders\u00a0came to Ford Field and blew Campbell’s team out in a 45-31 shocker.<\/p>\n
There was little time to regroup after that disappointment. Three days after the Lions’ season ended on January 18, the\u00a0Chicago Bears\u00a0hired Bern Johnson, Detroit’s highly-respected offensive coordinator, as their new head coach. One day after that, the\u00a0New York Jets\u00a0hired defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as their new head coach.<\/p>\n
Not to impugn the efforts of new OC John Morton and new DC Kelvin Sheppard before their schemes are seen on the field, but with two of the NFL’s best assistant coaches out the door, how exactly does that make these new Lions better? Add in the surprise retirement of center Frank Ragnow on June 2, and that’s a lot of high-quality football knowledge for one team to maintain in one offseason.<\/p>\n
Campbell is one of sports’ eternal optimists, so of course, he’s all in with the new guys. But even Campbell is realistic about the fact that there’s no real practice in play-calling for said new guys during minicamps.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWell, hard to do this time of year,” Campbell said on May 30, when asked how he’s preparing Morton in particular to call plays in a game. “We don\u2019t have enough time to get it done. We don\u2019t have enough reps to get it done. We can\u2019t really do a true, we can\u2019t even – this isn\u2019t football. This is \u2013 at least you can kind of line up across from each other and whatever. But training camp, it\u2019ll be big. That is one of the positives of four [preseason] games. You\u2019re going to have four games to be able to do that. Just like I\u2019ve done with AG and with Ben, we\u2019re going to do a ton of call-it periods, a ton of move the ball, a ton of change the situation to where you\u2019ve got to think on your feet immediately \u2013 we will.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ll make sure they get plenty of that to where you just, as you go, you get better and better and better – and he has. He\u2019s called plays before. And by the way, wherever he\u2019s been – this is not the first time. The\u00a0Jets\u00a0[Morton was the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2017] is not his first time. I mean, even when he was here, I needed \u2014 it\u2019s third-and-12, we need a play, he\u2019s the one who\u2019s yelling it, \u2018Here. Here you go.\u2019 And he did that at San Fran. He\u2019s done that everywhere he\u2019s been, so it\u2019ll be good. Now, this is going to be something where everybody\u2019s going to be a little more involved in this in a good way, so the communication has got to be on point. But this is not his first time to do it, so we\u2019ll be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the job that Ben Johnson did, Morton has the most eyes on him. Johnson was (and is) a master of route spacing, timing, and combining, and it sounds as if Campbell wants the new guy to be even more with the program when it comes to designing routes that give\u00a0quarterback\u00a0Jared Goff\u00a0defined openings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many ways and times can we isolate one of these guys?” Campbell recently posited, when asked about the development of\u00a0running back\u00a0Jahmyr Gibbs, receiver Jameson Williams, and tight end Sam LaPorta.\u00a0“I think that\u2019s what it comes down to. Alright we know we\u2019re going to get the one-on-one with Jamo here, and these are the best routes to use him on and let him really shine and do what he does. LaPorta as well. Gibbs as well. That way, that\u2019s fine. You want to take away (Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint? You want to take away Jamo? You take away LaPorta. Well Gibbs, here we go, here\u2019s your three routes. Here\u2019s what you do best. Or any of those other guys. So I think it\u2019s not all that different from what we\u2019ve done before, but I think so much of it will be how do we just – simple plays here and let those guys go to work. Get it in their hands and let them go to work and do what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morton was the\u00a0Denver Broncos’ passing game coordinator under Sean Payton in 2023 and 2024, so he’s used to high expectations in a complex offense. But it’s always different when you’re in charge.<\/p>\n
As with Morton, new defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has the right kind of experience to get the job done. He was the team’s linebackers coach over the last three seasons, so the transition was natural.<\/p>\n
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“Honestly, the only difference is now he has a mic in his hand and he’s in your helmet,” Campbell said of Sheppard’s graduation. “That’s been good though. I’m happy for him. He deserves it.”<\/p>\n
There will be a few new wrinkles, but you won’t see a ton of changes from the Aaron Glenn model \u2014 as much press coverage as possible, linebackers as a primary focus, and pressure with a high blitz rate.<\/p>\n
“There’s a few changes,” Campbell said of the new look. “There’s some things I’m excited about that the back end is excited about and the guys upfront are excited about. It’s going to be good, I think, but you have to learn with it. Little nuances within the call that’s a little bit different than what Coach Glenn did. I’m just excited to see what happens. We have the right guys in the room … so I’m excited.”<\/p>\n
As for Ragnow, who led one of the NFL’s best offensive lines since the Lions took him with the 20th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Arkansas, that’s a bit more complicated. Ragnow’s retirement was not what the team expected, so it wasn’t like the Johnson and Glenn defections, where they were two of the NFL’s more highly-regarded assistant coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, look, it\u2019s different knowing that Frank\u2019s out of the fold now,” Campbell said. “It is. I hate to use the word \u2018unsettling,\u2019 but there is acknowledgement, like, \u2018Okay, so that\u2019s where we\u2019re at, and now we need growth. We need development, quickly.\u2019 That\u2019s why [Lions Run Game Coordinator\/Offensive Line Coach] Hank Fraley\u2019s the coach in that room. He\u2019s done a hell of a job developing talent. He\u2019s going to get these guys right – whoever it is – between [OL Miles] Frazier and[ [OL Tate) Ratledge. All of these guys, some of these young guys we got. And there again, having [OL] Graham [Glasgow] helps now \u2014 it\u2019s huge \u2014 because he\u2019s got the flexibility to play both guards and center.\u201d<\/p>\n
There’s a lot to be defined for the NFC’s best regular-season team in 2024, but the good news is this: The 2024 Lions’ injury report was an absolute horror show, and regression to the mean would seem to indicate that the luck will be better this time around. If the new coaches in charge of the offense and defense don’t have to dart around all the personnel losses Barry Sanders-style, that will certainly help.<\/p>\n
“I told Ben and AG the same thing when they were leaving, and it was the same thing I was told: The most important thing you’ll do as a head coach is hiring your staff,” Campbell said at the scouting combine, soon after he hired his new primary assistants I had to do that already one time, and then over the course of the last four years other coaches have come and again.<\/p>\n
“This was the biggest — this was kind of the Phase II, the reload [of] the coordinators and different position coaches, so I wanted to take my time and do it right. I did a lot of interviews. A lot. Really sat them down (and) got to know them, kind of figured them out a little bit. The football is there, but it’s really about the mesh (and) the chemistry; I’m big on that. That was a big part of it. I think we got it right.”<\/p>\n
If they did, who’s to say that this isn’t finally the Lions’ year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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