In the 2024 season, the Detroit Lions missed their chance at the Super 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 NFL teams 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 Kansas City Chiefs for the NFL's best regular-season mark), but it all fell apart in the divisional round, when the Washington Commanders came to Ford Field and blew Campbell's team out in a 45-31 shocker.
There was little time to regroup after that disappointment. Three days after the Lions' season ended on January 18, the Chicago Bears hired Bern Johnson, Detroit's highly-respected offensive coordinator, as their new head coach. One day after that, the New York Jets hired defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as their new head coach.
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.
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.
“Well, 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’t have enough time to get it done. We don’t have enough reps to get it done. We can’t really do a true, we can’t even - this isn’t football. This is – at least you can kind of line up across from each other and whatever. But training camp, it’ll be big. That is one of the positives of four [preseason] games. You’re going to have four games to be able to do that. Just like I’ve done with AG and with Ben, we’re going to do a ton of call-it periods, a ton of move the ball, a ton of change the situation to where you’ve got to think on your feet immediately – we will.
"We’ll 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’s called plays before. And by the way, wherever he’s been - this is not the first time. The Jets [Morton was the New York Jets' offensive coordinator in 2017] is not his first time. I mean, even when he was here, I needed — it’s third-and-12, we need a play, he’s the one who’s yelling it, ‘Here. Here you go.’ And he did that at San Fran. He’s done that everywhere he’s been, so it’ll be good. Now, this is going to be something where everybody’s 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’ll be good.”
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 quarterback Jared Goff defined openings.
“How many ways and times can we isolate one of these guys?" Campbell recently posited, when asked about the development of running back Jahmyr Gibbs, receiver Jameson Williams, and tight end Sam LaPorta. "I think that’s what it comes down to. Alright we know we’re 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’s 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’s your three routes. Here’s what you do best. Or any of those other guys. So I think it’s not all that different from what we’ve 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.”
Morton was the Denver 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.
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.
"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."
There will be a few new wrinkles, but you won't see a ton of changes from the Aaron Glenn model — as much press coverage as possible, linebackers as a primary focus, and pressure with a high blitz rate.
"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."
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.
“I mean, look, it’s different knowing that Frank’s out of the fold now," Campbell said. "It is. I hate to use the word ‘unsettling,’ but there is acknowledgement, like, ‘Okay, so that’s where we’re at, and now we need growth. We need development, quickly.’ That’s why [Lions Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach] Hank Fraley’s the coach in that room. He’s done a hell of a job developing talent. He’s 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 — it’s huge — because he’s got the flexibility to play both guards and center.”
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.
"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.
"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."
If they did, who's to say that this isn't finally the Lions' year?
