I thought I saw this topic somewhere but I could not find one. If there is a Ben Johnson for OC topic already please merge this thread into the existing thread. Honestly, until today I didn’t really look into Ben’s resume. But damn. Call me impressed with Ben:
College QB at North Carolina (has his degree in mathematics and computer science) before taking a job with Boston College (2009-2011). Washed out with the Dolphins. In 2012 Ben was an offensive assistant in Miami before becoming the team’s assistant QB coach between 2013-2015. In 2015 Ben was promoted to TE coach, likely by Dan Campbell who worked with Ben in Miami. Dan was with the Dolphins from 2010-2015 so he would know Ben well. Dan was an assistant so he didn’t hire anyone at that point. In 2016 and 2017 Ben was moved to assistant coach of the WRs and then in 2018 Ben was promoted to being the wide receiver coach.
Next, and this is a weird twist, in 2019 Ben Johnson joins the Patricia staff in Detroit as an offensive quality coach and in 2020 Ben becomes Patricia’s TE coach. Dan Campbell keeps Ben as the TE coach in 2021. Credit for Dan keeping Ben on the staff!
When one looks at that resume it is clear Ben Johnson is qualified to be an OC in the NFL. To me that looks like 12 years coaching, most at the NFL level as an offensive assistant, a assistant QB coach, a TE coach and a WR coach. Ben also played QB himself. And the results sure looked good over time as his voice was allowed to grow with Dan.
Dan knows the guy, we saw creativity and the team seems to like Ben Johnson and at this point he has a resume that warrants a serious look as an NFL coordinator. I am totally fine with making Ben Johnson our new OC. Thoughts? Please merge is this thread already exists.
Why not? I trust whatever decision they make moving forward is going to be well thought out.
I think they are kind of in a holding pattern right now because of Glenn… if Glenn leaves then the need for an OC becomes more of a priority… but I think DC likes calling plays, and if Ben Johnson would take the promotion to OC but also let DC call plays, and Glenn stays and DC can trust the defense to him and Pleasant, I think that is a very plausible thing.
And for once this feels like a smart move. I didn’t think that this was a smart move until I saw Beb’s resume. Yes, only two NFL teams but he has been with Joe Philbin, Adam Gase, Matt Patricia and now Dan Campbell. He spent three years in college. Worked with Qs, WRs and TEs. We have an OL coach who knows Ben and has worked with him. This seems like an easy and smart decision to me at this point and I don’t think Ben will care if he calls plays but I bet he is ready to take on that task and he now sees exactly how Dan wants it done.
I don’t think Ben Johnson would have an issue with DC calling the play, judging from Ben’s response about promotions at the 5:00 minute mark of this video. Judge for yourself:
Ben may have the inside track mainly because I think Dan wants to call plays. Its going to be harder to recruit someone if Dan keeps calling plays. Great post/research, didn’t know he had such a diverse background.
dude1: I took my girl to that island in the Carribean…you know, the one that starts with a “J”.
dude2: Jamaica?
dude1: No, I didn’t have that much time.
He’s the odds on favourite
I heard he’s basically had an extended interview since the bye week
He’s basically been running offense meetings, building out the playbook etc
They may interview others just to get input but he’s likely to be the next OC
Hopefully that’s a good thing
However they do things, clearly Goff is better off with Campbell in his ear.
•Goff’s rating the last 4 games was top 3
•Goff played increasingly well within the concepts Campbell & Johnson cooked up
•Amon-Ra’s play moon-shotted once Johnson took over
•All this while working with half our OLine starters most of the time.
For these reasons, it makes sense to keep the momentum rolling with Ben Johnson as OC.
•Dan can keep calling plays
•If things regress offensively, Dan can always let Johnson call plays
•In-house promotion builds culture, creates buy-in, and improves morale
It’s going to be Ben Johnson. It has been Ben Johnson since the bye week. He was designing the gameplans for the week, running the meetings…telling MCDC what plays to call in the headphone. It’s Ben Johnson’s job. Fraley needs kudo’s because he has been running the running game. MCDC was protecting Johnson and shielding him from the media and the scrutiny while they tried this out since Lynn was such a colossal failure. Goff looked so bad because Lynn would call plays with one option (hock or swift)…if both were on the field okay cool…two options…everyone else was a decoy…That is why Goff looked so lost and indecisive. Lynn didn’t like Goff, didn’t trust wr’s not named hock or swift and Goff knew that…there are some stories coming out now about Lynn and it’s crazy. Essentially he didn’t listen to anyone…all new coaches and all and he having all his experience…What did MCDC do on sunday? Put Jonah Jackson in at center at the prompting of his coaches…Lynn was not going to do that…
Word
Makes a lot of sense.
Love the direction of things, how quickly and directly they address issues.
Love how willing they are to admit mistakes and move on. Did it with WRs, LBs, OC, and probably a lot more that we don’t know about.
exactly, i can’t take credit and won’t, but figured people here would want to know the info…funny thing is i have dropped links and info as to where to hear stuff like this…so it’s not like its a secret.
