Lions offense continues to thrive as players offer input, coaches listen
Full article at link.
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…“The biggest thing we’ve gotta do is connect our wideouts to what our backs are seeing and what our tight ends are seeing, and why we’re doing it — why Jah likes the middle-field safety left alone, and maybe blocking on the perimeter is better when you’re in a cutoff situation,” Montgomery said.
“Ninety percent of the time, you would want to go get the deep safety, Jahmyr likes the space of the deep safety versus him being pressed from the exterior, so he can get running.”
It’s just another way that these Lions have learned and grown together, the subtle differences that allow Detroit to keep the ball rolling even when situations like staff turnover or injuries arise.
The continuity provided by Campbell has been significant, but Montgomery also plays a role in that. He spent two years as Detroit’s running backs coach before taking over the wide receiver room this past offseason. Working with both units has helped him learn what each one is looking for from the other.
“I think it’s the connective tissue, not only what we do here but the true game of football, right?” Montgomery said.
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As players have grown within the system, they’ve become more confident in what they see on the field and on tape, which has enabled them to have more input on the game plan and make subtle adjustments throughout a 60-minute game.
Montgomery listed Gibbs, running back David Montgomery, wide receivers St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Kalif Raymond, as well as tight end Sam LaPorta, as players who’ve shown significant growth in their understanding of the game.
“Increasing ‘FBI’ or ‘Football IQ,’ it’s one of our top things that we do here,” Montgomery said. "I can see it really well from the sidelines, I can use my (tablet) screens … I might have seen outside leverage, inside leverage, nickel, safety locations pre-snap all week.
“And then the first time they go out there, they’re understanding, ‘Listen, now. They’re giving us man-aligned zone or zone-aligned man. These are the details, Coach, that I’m able to see on the field.’ When you get that, then that gives them the ability, because of their preparation, to have input.”
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Part of deploying all of this successfully is having a coach who’s willing to listen and make adjustments based on what his players are seeing. It’s not as common as you’d think, but it’s definitely something that’s been emphasized on Detroit’s coaching staff and continued following the addition of offensive coordinator John Morton.
“I think Johnny gives a lot of us a lot of input on how we want to do things, and how we see things,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. "Certainly, he’s coming up with all the plays since Sunday until (Wednesday) morning, but then we get out there on the grass and something feels a little bit different. ‘Maybe we should do this split, maybe we should take this amount of steps,’ and … he listens to all of it, and all these guys have a little bit of input here and there and how they want to do things.
“It’s nice to have coaches who listen.”
) is off the charts. Especially the blocking Montgomery talks about above. Just clean up the rest of the details and be peaking come Dec boys and we’ll be good.