Analyst offers unsurprising idea about Dan Campbell and the Lions' offense

As he acknowledged the expectation he'd lose both of his coordinators to head coaching jobs, and hours before reports offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was leaving for the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about a lesson he learned from his first season as he moved toward having to hire a new offensive coordinator.

“Make sure that I am heavily involved in however we go. I am very offensive-heavy, I think is the best way to say that," Campbell said. "Certainly picking, I am picking that, I need to have my checklist done. But then on top of that, I need to be part of the whole process. There’s a number of things, when that transition (of hiring Anthony Lynn in 2021) took place, ‘Hey, your offense, you call it, I’ll have some things I want,’ and then I’m with Brad. We’re getting ready for the draft, looking for players, free agency. So you kind of allow all those things to happen and then it’s a blind spot, and it shouldn’t be because that’s my area of expertise."

In the middle of the 2021 season, Lynn was demoted to running game coordinator, Johnson became the passing game coordinator (a pre-cursor to him becoming offensive coordinator) and Campbell took over the play calling. It was a great credit to Campbell to acknowledge it wasn't working with Lynn and change things up.

Upon being named offensive coordinator in 2022, Johnson naturally became the play caller for the Lions' offense and immediately advanced himself as a head coaching candidate.

Analyst has un-shocking idea about Dan Campbell and the Lions' offense

This week, John Morton was hired as the Lions' new offensive coordinator. He has history with Campbell, including being on the Lions' staff as a senior offensive assistant in 2022. There seems to be automatic philosophical alignment there, but there are some questions until we see what happens.

Brett Whitefield of Fantasy Points appeared on Friday's edition of the "Locked On Lions" podcast with host Matt Dery. The hiring of Morton to replace Johnson was an obvious topic.

"Ben Johnson, obviously that stinks that he left. It stinks he went to a division rival", Whitefield said. "I'm not super worried about it, though, because of the talent you mentioned, because it’s Dan Campbell’s offense. He designed the offense. It’s his show. I think he was way more involved in play-calling than anyone cared to realize or mention in the media."

Johnson deserves a ton of credit for the success the Lions' offense had the last three seasons. But it's a mistake to shrug off the idea Campbell had a lot of influence on things, and Campbell's ongoing influence is the biggest reason to have faith in the hiring of Morton as the new offensive coordinator.