“This is a Detroit Lion offense, is what it is. … This offense is Jared Goff, (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, (Jahmyr) Gibbs, (David) Montgomery,” Campbell said last week, via the Detroit News. “It’s Frank (Ragnow); it’s (Penei) Sewell; it’s (Taylor) Decker. I can keep (going). It’s (Jameson Williams). … That’s what we are.”
“We can say, ‘Well this is our scheme, this is what we’re running.’ No, no, no,” Campbell said. “(The players are) the ones who make it what it is. That’s our playbook, those guys.”
A GREAT coordinator knows how to build a scheme around the players they have.
Not force a scheme they WANT to run on players that may not fit.
That was the difference in my mind between Johnson and Glen.
Johnson built a scheme around the offense.
Glenn built a scheme he wanted and forced the players to play in areas they may not excel at. In a perfect world if all were healthy it would have worked. But NO team not even the eagles had all 22+ of their defensive players healthy
Scheme that gets the most out of your 3-4 star players or one that gets the most out of the other 20.
Johnson had his QB, a top 3 o-line, and a raft of top skills players that were continually being upgraded.
Sure hope he could do something with that.
Glenn had much more the empty cupboard to work with. And no, he couldn’t turn chicken shit into chicken salad until he actually did in 2024 after losing 16 guys on his side of the ball.
This is why culture is way more key than some want to agree.
It is culture that drives the attention to detail and the ability to execute. Football at it essence is getting the 11 dudes on the field to act as one and execute their task on the pay in front of them. Yes absolutely the more talented a player is physically and mentally the better they will be able to execute that task. But step 1 is getting everyone on the same page and executing.
Once you have everyone executing and on the same page (culture) you can then truly benefit/maximize from the individual talent.
The Lions for 50 years relied on individuals to win games but it takes a team to win championships. And that is where the coaching and culture come in.
But seriously it’s a coaches dream to have that much talent on the same offense. We have a stud at most positions. I think the offense is going to be lethal once again. Maybe better. Jamo and Gibbs have another level yet
It’s the players more than anything. Seen a lot of great coaches move on from a team and not have the same level of success. Coaches are definitely important but the guys on the field is what matters the most.
Yes, 9 times out of 10 Jimmie’s & Joes beat X’s & O’s. Coaches get in trouble when the ego gets in the way and they forget this.
I think back in the day, when Nick Saban was QB for his HS team in some coal mining town. They used to let the QB’s call the plays, HS coach on a crucial play told Saban “think players not plays” and he never forgot that
Ben Johnson did us right for “most” of his tenure as the Lions OC. My complaint about him is that he got “too cute” during games sometimes. Maybe it was for the players fun and it kept them engaged. But this isn’t an offense that needs to use trickery to move the ball.
I can’t wish Ben well because he chose to go to the Bears. I can thank him for what he did for this team when he was here. Now he can get a std and his balls can shrivel up for all I care. I just want to beat him twice a year and make him rethink his life choices.
That’s why I’m not too worried. If you’re a player and Dan (who could still play TE today) is getting in your face because you didn’t execute right, you’re listening. If Ben Johnson the boy wonder is getting in your face? Is he going to set the tone, build the culture? We’ll see.
I feel like the Bears will quickly look like Miami. Same type of coach IMO and likely same issues. Team will be talented. And they will compete at times. But they will lack that GRIT needed to win at the highest level and consistently.
Unfortunately no, he isn’t. We had the same players originally with Lynn when the reins were turned over to Dan - then in very short order Ben. Then there was an immediate upturn. Of course we continued to add talent, but tell me a Josh Reynolds went from meh, to legit #2 to meh the very next season and it had nothing to do with Ben Johnson. How amazingly talented is Brock Wright? Was it him channeling Tony Gonzalez with those back door long strikes, or Ben Johnson SCHEMING him wide freaking open with everyone in the world leaving him alone, faked out of their jocks. Think Kalief Raymond didn’t benefit? He had two back to back seasons with 9 catches before coming to Detroit with BJo as Passing Game C. then OC he had 48, 47, 35, then 17 last year in 12 games with some injuries. Is it because Raymond had a light bulb moment? Or BenJo?
I get it, I’m sure DC has heard way too much that it was ALL BenJo and we are screwed now and this was a response based on frustration with that theme. I know he certainly can’t go “uh… yep, we’re screwed without Ben here now.” But personally I don’t believe he is being honest here, as opposed to “we built the process” bravado. I think we’ll be fine with Morton, but I also believe we are losing a genius level playcaller and replaced him with a lesser model. We now have a better chance to overcome that with the talent we do have, but those thinking we won’t skip a beat offensively because it wasn’t BenJo scheming up the results are fooling themselves IMHO.
