The Detroit Lions had a great regular season before falling to the Washington Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs. The Lions finished with 15 wins and one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL. Their offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, received plenty of interest to be a head coach before accepting the job with their divisional rival, the Chicago Bears.
The Lions had their staff gutted as many coaches received better opportunities elsewhere. Head coach Dan Campbell doesn’t believe there will be any change in production, though, seemingly taking a shot at Johnson by saying he wasn’t the reason for their success.
Dan Campbell’s Subtle Shot at Ben Johnson
Johnson always had tricks up his sleeve, week in and week out. With wild trick plays and an extremely dynamic offense, the Lions were always a threat to put up points on any drive. Campbell believes that this is a testament to their offensive players rather than the schemes that Johnson drew up. Campbell is not willing to give Johnson the credit that Johnson likely believes he deserves by saying the players are the offense.
“This is a Detroit Lion offense, is what it is. … This offense is Jared Goff, (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, (Jahmyr) Gibbs, (David) Montgomery,” Campbell said, via the Detroit News. “It’s Frank (Ragnow); it’s (Penei) Sewell; it’s (Taylor) Decker. I can keep (going). It’s (Jameson Williams). … That’s what we are.”
Campbell is going to believe in his players no matter what and support the notion that they don’t need Johnson for success. The players that they have are all great players and have been the building blocks of the franchise for a few years now. It is fair for Campbell to believe that the Lions’ offense success can be attributed to the players that they have more than the scheme that Johnson ran.
“We can say, ‘Well this is our scheme, this is what we’re running.’ No, no, no,” Campbell said. “(The players are) the ones who make it what it is. That’s our playbook, those guys.”
If the players don’t execute, the offense fails. This goes for any offense or even any team in all of sports, if the players can’t execute, then it will all be downhill from there. Therefore, the players do have a role to play in the success of the offense. The Lions’ offense is not short of playmakers and high-level weapons, so Campbell’s assumption might be proven correct.
Taking a subtle shot at Johnson is quite surprising as Johnson didn’t get his promotion to head coach without any reason. He is a high-level offensive mind who was extremely creative in scheming his players open. While Campbell likely didn’t mean much by this statement, it certainly undermined the job that Johnson did with the Lions.
Lions fans will be hoping that Campbell is right, as the NFC North was very competitive last season and should continue to be extremely tight in the years to come. The Bears are on the rise, the Packers are scary, and the Vikings are coming off a 14-win season of their own, so the Lions need their offense to keep pace with their performance last season if they want to be champs of the NFC North again.