David Blough played four snaps in Dan Campbell's second season as head coach and spent the 2023 season back with the team on the practice squad, so can we call the former Detroit Lions quarterback a branch of Campbell's coaching tree? I think we can.
In any case, after coming back to the Lions in 2023 and with his playing career done, Blough moved into coaching as assistant quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders last year. The idea of him coming back to the Lions as a coach has surfaced amid all the turnover on Campbell's staff, but if that's anywhere in the cards there will be some competition.
According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, the New York Jets have requested interviews with Blough for their quarterback coach job and the Chicago Bears want to interview Blough for their passing game coordinator job.
Garafolo originally reported the Jacksonville Jaguars had put in a request to interview Blough for their quarterbacks coach job, but a subsequent edit of the tweet removed them.
#Commanders assistant QB coach David Blough has a request from the #Jets to interview for their QB coach jobs as well as a request from the #Bears for passing game coordinator, sources say. Blough, 29, is garnering attention only one year into his coaching career. pic.twitter.com/6T3Ue8ItBj
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 29, 2025
The Bears and the Jets of course have a former Lions' coordinator as their new head coach. Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, though naturally Johnson more than Glenn, got to see what Blough was like behind the scenes in 2021 and 2023.
Johnson has hired two former Lions' assistants (Antwaan Randle El and J.T. Barrett) to his Bears' staff, and Glenn seems in line to hire another (Tanner Engstrand) as his offensive coordinator in New York. Glenn could also make it two former Lions on his staff if Blough becomes the quarterbacks coach.
Former Lions quarterback David Blough is a fast-rising coaching star
After his college career at Purdue, Blough entered the NFL in 2019 as an undrafted free agent with the Cleveland Browns. He was traded to the Lions in late-August, and he wound up starting five games to end that season when Matthew Stafford was injured and Jeff Driskel was ineffective then injured.
Blough would start two more games in his NFL career, both for the Arizona Cardinals in 2022. Seemingly not coincidentally, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was finishing his run as the Cardinals' head coach in those two games Blough started. That connection seems to have yielded Blough landing in Washington as the assistant quarterbacks coach.
Blough clearly showed himself as someone who could make the move into coaching, and after just one season alongside Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunner Jayden Daniels in Washington the rest of the league is noticing him.