On Saturday, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was made aware of a social media post from running back Jahmyr Gibbs that clearly revealed what appeared to be pass protection terminology and code words.
Campbell was clearly not happy about it in that moment, and his "no comment" during his press conference on Sunday only reinforced that.
On Monday, during his appearance on 97.1 The Ticket, Campbell fully addressed the situation and put it to bed.
"We might as well just put everything out there. I don’t really give a crap", Campbell said. "I mean, if we’re gonna lose because of code words, then we’re not good enough anyway. So, I think we’ll just post the whole freaking playbook out there and every code word we’ve got. It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna hurt us, it won’t affect us. It’s all good."
Campbell said he joked with Gibbs about it, so the matter is closed and the Lions are moving on.
Ben Johnson echoes Dan Campbell regarding code word leaks
Campbell putting the situation with Gibbs' social media post to bed is all well and good. But the opportunity came on Monday to get offensive coordinator Ben Johnson's reaction to it when he met with the media.
"You guys thought about maybe we wanted them out there?", Johnson said, with a smirk. "So now we know what they know."
Then Johnson got a little more serious.
"No, listen, each week we like to try to keep guys off-balance, teams off-balance, opponents off-balance, and we certainly don’t want them to know when a play is coming.”
Johnson then cited a play from their first offensive drive against the Packers in Week 9. Jared Goff checked at the line. Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark make the universal signal for a run play, and he was right. The Lions got nine yards anyway, moving the chains on a 3rd-and-5 in the red zone.
"Even if teams know what’s coming, it’s still challenging to stop us,” Johnson said. “That’s the mentality we take. We don’t use those code words at the line of scrimmage a ton, but we’ll make any necessary adjustments we need.”
One of things clearly seen in Gibbs' social media post is "Khloe Kardashian", meaning whatever it means. John Maakaron of SI.com tongue-in-cheekily asked Johnson if Goff could still call that as an audible.
'We'll See'
— DetroitSportsPodcast (@DetroitPodcast) December 2, 2024
Maybe Jared Goff could still call
"Khloe Kardashian" as an audible
--Big smile from Ben Johnson when I asked
As expected, the Lions are not worried about the possible leak of their offensive terminology and the situation is over with. Teams change those things constantly, and more than anything Gibbs got a little lesson about being more careful with what he posts on social media.