While it’s not quite official yet, the Detroit Lions are reportedly working to hire Broncos passing game coordinator John Morton to be the team’s new offensive coordinator.
It’s not the sexy move that Lions fans may have hoped for and it’s not the internal hire that was expected, but if you’re going just based on everything that was said about Morton during the one season he was on the Lions staff in 2022, you might find that the answers on this guy were in front of us all along.
In 2022 when Lions quarterback Jared Goff began his resurgence, Morton got a lot of credit from the staff.
“Yeah, well look I would say he’s more comfortable at this time than he was last year. A lot of that has to do with what we’ve done offensively, I would say (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben Johnson has done a really good job and his staff. Not only what we’re doing or where we’re going, bringing in (Lions Senior Offensive Assistant) John Morton has been really good for us, who was at Vegas. But also, we’re doing a number of things that he did well at LA. So, I think those will help him.”
That was Campbell talking about Jared Goff’s early progression in July of 2022. That was the summer that Johnson took over the offensive coordinator role and it seems like maybe Morton was kind of his sidekick for that first year and was a part of helping the Lions establish a more explosive offense.
In January of that season, Johnson was asked about where Goff was at after a solid second season in Detroit. Morton was one of the guys Johnson credited.
“I am really proud of how he’s taken the coaching this year from (Lions Quarterbacks Coach) Mark Brunell, from (Lions Senior Offensive Assistant) John Morton, from (Lions Offensive Assistant) J.T. Barrett, myself, and he’s taken any criticism we’ve had about his game, and he’s worked to improve those. And that’s been on a weekly basis. So I’ve seen growth from him as a player, and like I said to start the year, as long as a player’s still growing, it’s very encouraging as a coach.”
The biggest vote of confidence comes from Lions head coach Dan Campbell in October of 2023.
“John Morton, man, Johnny was – Johnny’s a superstar now and there’s a number of things that he did for us last year that are things that we’ve kept. And I really feel like that helped Tanner as well.”
We’re going to see soon enough when the Lions will make this official and how the offense will pan out under him. What we can say now is that this doesn’t seem to be something that the Lions just did without thinking about it. Morton seems to be a part of why the Lions are the way they are today.