By some measures, the Detroit Lions still had one of the NFL's best offenses last season. But something was clearly missing. Days after Dan Campbell teased the potential he could take over the play-calling, he did so and John Morton was one-and-done as the offensive coordinator as soon as the season ended.
So Drew Petzing is the Lions' fourth offensive coordinator in Campbell's six seasons as head coach. Early reviews of Petzing's work from players, all the way to quarterback Jared Goff, have been glowing.
Of couse Morton was subject to some positivity at this same point a year ago, and we know how that turned out. So grains of salt are inherent until we see things in meaningful games.
Jared Goff keeps sneakily calling out former Lions' OC John Morton
Goff recently appeared on "The Green Light with Chris Long" after a training camp practice. The conversation shifted to Petzing. As Long asked the Lions' signal caller what he likes or has been surprised by with his new coordinator, Goff rehashed something he previously said.
"I think I'm most excited about his variability. Like, he has, I think he gets this, like, a notion that he was like a tight end guy. They had Trey McBride. Probably one of the best players on their team, so they were going to feed him. And Sam's (LaPorta) one of our best players, so we will feed him. But we have guys that seems like every skill position on offense."
"So we've got a lot of variability on who we can get the ball, do and how we want to get it to him. I think that's where you can kind of see his genius come in where he's able to move guys, put him in different spots, move around the formation, motion shift,...And yeah, man, it's been fun to work with him."
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Goff expanded to talk about the preparation ability, accountability standard and leadership presence the great play callers he's been around have. It came off like a sneaky shot at Morton as a game planner and play caller. Then he fired the final unchecked salvo on that front.
"The good ones I've been with, everytime they've sent a play in, it was like, 'we're gonna score'", Goff said. "It feels like that coming into the helmet. That confidence from them comes into me, and then hopefully, into the whole huddle, and it goes from there."
Morton started his coaching career in 1998, and outside of 2018 he has ben employed continuously since. He has been an offensive coordinator in just four of those seasons.
In one of his two season as USC's offensive coordinator, 2010, Morton did not call plays after Lane Kiffin came back to replace Pete Carroll as head coach. The year he did call plays, 2009, the Trojans weren't particularly good in any capacity as an offense.
And of course we know how Morton's two one-year stints as an NFL offensive coordinator have gone. A lack of talent to work with on the 2017 New York Jets only goes so far as an excuse, when he drew literally everyone's ire. When he had ample talent to work with on the Lions' offense last year, even with the caveat of a struggling offensive line, Morton could not bring it together cohesively.
Morton has had a long coaching career, primarily as a position coach, and he can fill that type of role as long as someone will hire him. The Lions found out the hard way he is not coordinator or play caller material.
As he continues to cite how different things are now, Goff is bringing to light how bad the situation was last year with an overmatched offensive coordinator.
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