Dan Campbell’s Hiring Process Succeed Once, It Can Again
Credit: Junfu Han via Imagn Images
The Detroit Lions are at a bit of a fork in the road with their franchise after a disappointing playoff loss and the departures of Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn. One road has plenty of wins, a lot of success, and maybe that Super Bowl the city so desperately wants. The other leads to repeating much of the franchise’s history, regressing to irrelevance, poor fan attendance, and paper bags over heads.
Dan Campbell is still at the wheel, and the way he drives the car will depend on how they deal with their playoff and coaching losses. It’s a challenge that often comes with winning; other teams start poaching your coaching staff, and the Lions have lost Johnson, Glenn, and defensive line coach Terrell Williams. But the biggest questions center around the departure of Johnson, who called Detroit’s plays.
That’s notable because before Johnson took over those duties, the Lions’ offense struggled. What can we take away from that? Should we be concerned about how well Campbell or a new offensive coordinator can run the team without Johnson? Or are the Lions going to be just fine?
Johnson has been hailed as one of the brightest young minds in the NFL, and the results showed on the field. Campbell’s first season was in 2021, and to say the team had a long way to go was an understatement. During a 3-13-1 inaugural season, there were whispers about Campbell not being the right guy, and it looked like his time could be short-lived.
But at 0-8, Campbell planted the seeds of success by stripping Anthony Lynn of his play-calling duties and promoting Johnson. The Lions ended the rest of the season 3-5-1, a shift in momentum they used to build upon for the next few years. In 2022, they finished with a 9-8 record and these last two years have seen Detroit combine for a 27-7 record overall.
But to do a quick bit of math: Campbell has a grand total of zero wins without Johnson calling plays.
So what happened during that 2021 season? With Lynn in charge, the Lions averaged 16.8 points per game, while Johnson immediately boosted them to 21.2 points per game. There were still some duds, but Jared Goff looked a lot more comfortable executing Johnson’s plays. Goff immediately jumped from an 8:6 touchdown to interception ratio to 11:2 in his six games under Johnson. Overall, he’s thrown 107 touchdowns and just 33 picks under Johnson.
But if we’re doubting what Goff can do without Johnson, rest easy. Yes, things wound up falling apart with the LA Rams, but in his first two seasons as a starter, he led the team to 24 wins, a Super Bowl appearance, and threw 60 touchdowns against 19 interceptions.
When he was asked last winter about being a product of Johnson’s system, Goff didn’t seem too pleased with the question, or concerned about this situation. “Yeah, I was called that when I was in LA, too, so I guess I’ve just got great systems around me at all times,” Goff said sarcastically. “I’m just the luckiest guy in the world, I guess. Yeah, I don’t know. If [he were to leave], we’ll see… I’ll just keep playing my game, keep trying to win games.”
The real concern might be the defense without Glenn. The defense ranked 31st in points allowed in 2021, then rose to 28th in 2022, 23rd in 2023, and finally seventh in 2024. But it might still be a concern, as they’ve had games where they gave up way too many points, though injuries were a factor. They gave up 31 points against the Packers in Week 14, 48 points to the Buffalo Bills in Week 15, 34 points to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17, and finally 38 (not counting a Pick-6) to the Washington Commanders. If they can’t match someone with Glenn’s steadying hand, they might be in trouble going forward.
But the good news is: Campbell made the right hire with Johnson, so why shouldn’t he be trusted to make the right hire going forward? The Lions are in the middle of their Super Bowl window, and losing a couple of coordinators isn’t going to change that. The brightest up-and-coming offensive minds have to be drooling to handle the arsenal of weapons Detroit has assembled; Campbell may not have to do much more than simply pick one of them.
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