On Thursday Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was asked one of the questions he’s received multiple times over the last three years, but the first time this year. Do you want to be a head coach? His response had many Lions perking up in their seats.
“I think there’s a burning desire in every man to find what he’s made out of, push the limits, and see if he’s got what it takes,” Johnson said. “So, yeah, there’s a fire there. When that time is, I don’t know when that would be, but there’s certainly a fire there.”
It’s really easy to focus on the “burning desire” part of this and say that he wants to break out on his own right now. I personally didn’t take it that way. The way I took it was in the full context. He’s saying “everyone wants to prove themselves, but do I want to do it right now? Do I have to do it right now?” He’s interested in the future, but as we know, he’s much more interested in the right future.
“If I get the opportunity to go down that road, it’s about how do I get to that second contract? How do I set myself up that the stars need to align?” Johnson said in May after he chose to stay a second time. “I’m not going to do it just to do it. I love what I’m doing right now. Love it. I love where I’m at, my family loves where we’re at, I love the people that we’re doing it with, and so I’m not willing to go down the other path yet unless I feel really good about how it’s going to unfold.”
That’s just huge. Since then we’ve learned so much more about what he’s looking for and until a team like the Bengals or the Bills jumps out there, I just can’t see him finding a team with “organizational alignment between the coaches and GM” or “recognition from the organization on what went wrong previously and their willingness to fix it.”
I mean on Thursday we learned that the owner of one of the teams looking for a new head coach didn’t want his team to bring in a receiver because his Madden rating is too low. That’s the Jets.
The Bears are heading toward their third head coach since Johnson started working for the Lions in 2019. They can never get on the same page regarding the head coach, GM, and quarterback situation there.
The Saints are an option, but that seems more like Aaron Glenn’s job than Johnsons. Plus, is that where you want to be with an offense that’s old and needs to be rebuilt with a brand new quarterback?
Who would want to go to the Cowboys where it’s the strongest possible opposite to organizational alignment? The Raiders are pretty much the same thing. The Jaguars too.
He could fulfill that burning desire this offseason, but it feels like it would be a departure from everything else that we know he wants or that he has told us he wants. I just don’t see it happening right now. 2026 makes a lot more sense.