After the Lions’ offense was slow and somewhat mistake-prone last year, head coach Dan Campbell is promising a faster pace.
Despite getting better late in the season, after head coach Dan Campbell took over play calling, the Detroit Lions still had a pretty bad offense in 2021 (25th in the league in scoring, etc.). With Ben Johnson moving from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator and some added talent, things are lined up to be better this year.
Speaking at rookie minicamp on Saturday, Campbell professed improvement in one particular area offensively (via SI.com).
"We’re going to be much more efficient just with how we get things in and out of the huddle. The ability to change our tempo will be big. Some of that just comes from verbiage alone, believe it or not. I just feel like everything is just going to be so much more streamlined."
Via Football Outsiders, the Lions had the fourth-slowest offense in the NFL in neutral situations with the score close and the game clock not a factor to drive faster tempo–running a play every 32.64 seconds.
Dan Campbell wants Lions offense to be faster, and cleaner as a residual
Slower-paced offenses can still be good and efficient (see Packers, 49ers and Bengals). But couple being slow with having nine delay of game penalties (tied for second-most in the league), and that’s a recipe for struggles like the Lions had.
There appears to very little carryover from last year’s Lions’ offense, which could only be changed so much during a bye week in the middle of last season amid role changes. Johnson has an offseason to make the offense his, with Campbell’s clear and obvious blessing to do so.
There is the lingering question of who will call the plays for the Lions this season, the head coach or the offensive coordinator. Campbell had what came off as a tongue-in-cheek answer to that question on Saturday, while firmly removing any sense of suspense in the same manner (h/t to SI.com again).
"Look, I promise you this, if I don’t call them, Ben will. I’ll promise you that right now.”"