The Detroit Lions are facing the arduous task of replacing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson in 2025 after the 38-year-old took the Chicago Bears head coaching job.
Dan Campbell granted that assignment to John Morton, who spent the 2022 season with the Lions before spending a couple of seasons with Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos.
Suffice it to say that both Morton and Jared Goff are excited about the possibility of teaming up again. The veteran quarterback even credited the 55-year-old coach with being ‘a big part’ of his success during the 2022 season, when he made it back to the Pro Bowl after a three-year drought.
‘That was Ben’s first year as a coordinator and I think he helped Ben a ton,’ Goff told the Detroit Free Press of Morton at Super Bowl 59. ‘I think Ben would say that himself. But yeah, it’ll be exciting for him. I’m excited to work with him and get going.’
NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.
Morton shares Goff’s enthusiasm about the 2025 season and beyond. He believes that the familiarity between the two of them will be ‘big’ and allow Detroit to continue to build upon the success it enjoyed under Johnson.
‘I think it’s big because it all starts with the quarterback,’ Morton told Fox 2 Detroit’s Dan Miller when discussing his existing relationship with Goff and the Lions coaching staff. ‘Just kind of knowing him – and when I was here, I was in the quarterback room. So, I have a feel of what he likes, what he doesn’t. That’s important as a play-caller. We’ll continue here when the players come back and stuff, so I’ll get to know more about him and the plays that he really likes a lot and what they’ve been doing good here.’
Morton is particularly intent on listening to Goff, Campbell and other members of the Lions offense as he takes over as the team’s play-caller. He made it clear that he isn’t trying to reinvent Detroit’s offense, which was the top-scoring unit in the NFL last season.
‘They’ve already established a philosophy here,’ Morton said. ‘It’s just my job to continue the vision of how Dan wants things. We’ll tinker with things here and there, and we’ll see how we can make it better.’
Improving upon Johnson’s offense, which ranked top five in both points and yards per game in his three seasons with Detroit, won’t be an easy task.
But if Goff and Morton show early synergy in 2025, losing Johnson may be more of a bump in the road than a death knell for Detroit’s Super Bowl chances.