Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has made it clear he won't be taking interviews with every team that wants to interview him for their head coaching opening. That said, according to Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports, he will interview for four head coaching jobs in the coming days.
Per Schultz, the Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots are on Johnson's docket Friday, followed by the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. Dianna Russini of The Athletic left the Raiders off her reported list of interviews for Johnson. All interviews at this stage of the process will be done virtually.
With the Jaguars doing a half-measure in their house-cleaning, keeping general manager Trent Baalke while firing head coach Doug Pederson, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer invited the question of whether Johnson (or Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn) would take their interviews there. It appears Glenn will interview, and so will Johnson.
1 team can easily show they are all-in on Ben Johnson
On Monday, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan opened the door to a head coaching candidate being able to sell him on firing Baalke. That could easily be seen as a message to top candidates, like Johnson, who may be turned off by the idea of working with Baalke. By taking the interview, Johnson may have gotten that message. Or he wants to see if he might be fine with working with Baalke.
Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda published some insider notes about the Jaguars on Wednesday. "People in the league" believe Baalke may not be long for his position, helping Khan through hiring a new head coach and general manager before ending up in a different role within the organization.
In regard to the Jaguars' head coaching search, Pauline had a note regarding Johnson.
"As far as the coaching search, people tell me the team is all in on Ben Johnson, who once again is the hot candidate on the head coaching front. Johnson will be able to pick the head-coaching job he wants from the openings available.”
If the Jaguars are "all-in" on hiring Johnson, and they should be, there's an easy way to grease that skid (fire Baalke). But if the plan, as Pauline reported, is for Baalke to step into a different role soon, that would presumably be revealed in an interview.
So if Johnson wants to pick a new general manager in Jacksonville, assuming he wants the job otherwise, it seems he'll have an opportunity to do so. That opportunity for a proverbial "carte blanche" does not really exist anywhere else right now.