Does he even want to be a head coach???
I’d think if he leaves, it would be to resurrect a different offense to Lions level. As an OC. After he does that, then start entertaining HC possibilities.
I know 0 about his desires, but I get the feeling he enjoys coordinating offenses the most.
The average OC in the NFL makes around 1 million per year. Certainly not chump change. My guess is Ben if the kind of guy that can take that 1 million and set him and his family up for life over a short period of time. My guess is Sheila also has him on the upper rather than lower end of the pay scale. Maybe not? Making 6 to 10 times that for a few years gamble could be worth it for him though. Only Ben really knows.
One of the most successful coaches in modern Lions history was a little thought of retread. For me the conversation isn’t about justifying why teams like young whippersnappers. I get it. This is about my personal view of retreads. They can bring a special sauce to the situation. And the success of retreads is not a distant memory. The defending Super Bowl Champs are led by a retread. The 2021 Super Bowl was a battle of 2 retreads. And if you look at things the way I look at it, I consider Dan Campbell a retread.
Hitting on a hire like Mike McDaniels is super sexy. His career is yet to be determined. What we know about him right now is that he has the same record (6-3) as Mike McCarthy. I use that example because both of them are named Mike. The difference is Mike McCarthy has back to back 12 win seasons prior to 2023. Mike McDaniels does not.
This isn’t to say that young inexperienced coaches are a bad thing. I am only speaking from the perspective of keeping the retreads in the conversation. I would also add that part of what gives a retread a potential advantage over a young whippersnapper is experience and perspective of how things work once you are in the big chair. First time head coaches like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay do not fit into that category. Kyle being the son of Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan is obvious. But Sean McVay didn’t fall off of the turnip truck either. His grandpa was a head coach in the NFL and GM of the 49ers from 1980 to 1994. They won a few games during that stretch. The family has tons of ties around the NFL, including a close relationship with the Gruden’s. Interesting enough Shanahan, McVay, LaFluer, McDaniels, Taylor, O’Connell and Saleh all come from the same circle. Saleh was the best man at LaFluer’s wedding, for instance. That coaching tree with parallel branches is taking over the league much the way Bill Walsh’s coaching tree did.
Looking at the narratives that came out when he was hired, it seems like Scottie might be the guy. The best thing about our offense is that we now have institutional knowledge. Even if the next guy isn’t as good as Ben, the players can lift him up with what they know about how Ben would have handled a situation. And of course the meat of “who we are” on offense lands at the feet of Dan Campbell and Hank Fraley.
And that leads to another thing I like to think about when a talented playcaller leaves. What a team might lack in playcalling talent, they can gain in unpredictability.
I’ll go one step further and say the key is Campbell himself