There’s one thing we’re definitely not going to do and that is come here and say that Ben Johnson was a bad offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. He was spectacular and was a big reason why the Lions had one of the league’s top offenses for the last three years in a row.
That said, it’s a new day in Detroit, and Johnson is gone. He’s taken the head coaching job with the Bears, and now the Lions have to find a way to keep their offense hot. The best thing they can do is try not to replicate what they had with Johnson. They have to move on and focus on efficiency and adaptation first.
Again, Johnson was great at his job in Detroit, but we can’t act like there were no faults. One of the long-standing complaints about Johnson was the lack of adaptation at times. You’d see it in a lot of games where Johnson would come in with a game plan and refuse to get off it.
The Lions’ loss to the Commanders is a really good example of that. Johnson insisted on trying to get David Montgomery going and it wasn’t working. Jahmyr Gibbs on the other hand was running all over the Commanders.
Sometimes the Lions’ offense would just work in spite of stuff like that and that’s why it’s easy to ignore that it ever happened It’s like when I was throwing discus in high school and my coach said that I was throwing it far by just muscling it out there and if I learned how to do it properly, it would go so much farther. I never learned by the way.
The Lions may have been muscling for a while. If they learn to throw it right and be more efficient, the offense could go even further than it has before. Which is scary to think about since it’s already just really good.
The trick plays were amazing and so much fun, but when they didn’t work, they hurt a lot. It was either a loss of yards or you had moments like you did with Jameson Williams throwing an interception.
The Lions may not move completely away from them, but the focus on what they do well first and foremost is going to help Detroit be the efficient offense they’re capable of being.
The Lions’ coaching hires reflect these ideas. Tashard Choice for example is a show that the Lions not only look to be a team that is dedicated to moving forward with being a run-first team, but that the Lions plan to be a Jahmyr Gibbs first team.
A lot of the Lions hired and coaching movement has to do with running the ball. Scottie Montgomery moving from running backs to receivers is going to help the Lions continue to be good at not just having a good receiving game but having a strong blocking component from their guys there.
New tight ends coach Tyler Roehl is a former NFL running back and a running back coach. He can play a big hand in making the Lions’ tight ends very good at run blocking. The Lions promoted their offensive line coach Hank Fraley by adding run game coordinator to his job title. I don’t know what more you have to see to know that the Lions are going to be a team that is all about running the ball.
That doesn’t mean the pass goes away. John Morton and David Shaw are two guys who can be innovative in their own ways, but they have been all about making sure their quarterbacks can be accurate and are put in the best situations for them to succeed. Goff works best in play action, so look for a lot of play action.
Don’t think that this will take away the excitement of the Lions’ offense. Just because they aren’t running hook and ladders or handing the ball off to Penei Sewell, that doesn’t mean that they will be going full conservative.
Dan Campbell is still the coach of this team and he’s going to be involved with the offense just like he always had been. The Lion will take chances and they will go for it on fourth down and be aggressive and whatnot. They just may not be razzle-dazzle while they do it. That’s ok though because nothing is more exciting than touchdowns and wins.