Pride of Detroit
While the Detroit Lions have yet to make the hiring of offensive coordinator Drew Petzing official, one player has already offered his first thoughts on the hire.
During his weekly podcast with his brother, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown provided a little insight into the Petzing hire, what he heard from quarterback Jared Goff, and a brief conversation he’s already had with the Lions new offensive coordinator.
This weekend, St. Brown said he was getting antsy waiting to hear who his next offensive coordinator will be, so he hit up someone he’d knew would have an inside look into the process: the quarterback. While nothing was official yet, Goff did bring up Petzing’s name and provided some insight to St. Brown.
“He said he was good. He’s smart,” St. Brown said. “Although they didn’t have the best offense, he does a lot of good stuff.”
St. Brown then went into doing his own research, and was fascinated to see that Petzing has a shared history with former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
“Come to find out he was actually at Boston College with Ben Johnson, which is crazy,” St. Brown said. “And he was a groomsman at Ben Johnson’s wedding. So, that’s actually really ironic.”
Then, he got the text from coach Dan Campbell confirming the hiring was happening.
“I just want to let you know we’re hiring Drew Petzing as our OC. He’s going to be great for us,” St. Brown said, recalling the text.
Earlier this week, St. Brown got a call from Petzing himself, and they had a little conversation, both personal and football-related. Here’s what St. Brown had to say about his first impression of the new Lions offensive coordinator.
“Basically, he just wanted to say what’s up to me. He told me he was excited, I told him, ‘I’m excited, too. Let’s get to work.’ It was just catch(ing) up, small talk,” St. Brown. “That was it. He just wanted to check and introduce himself. So, I appreciate him for that, and, honestly, I’m excited. I think it’s going to be great for us. I trust Dan. I trust all of the decision-makers for the Lions. I think they do a great job, so I’m excited for him.”
In between hearing the news and talking to Petzing himself, St. Brown also saw a wave a negative reactions from the fans. And the Lions All-Pro receiver had a pretty strong message to those who were being overly critical of the hire.
“I see crazy Lions fans talking crazy like, ‘Oh why would we do this?’ Bro, do you guy have no trust in Dan and the Lions? Do you think they would just hire a random dude? Be for real,” St. Brown said. “You think they don’t know what they’re doing? They don’t do the research? They don’t interviews?
“Most of you guys don’t know know really much about anything about any ball,” St. Brown continued. “And you’re tweeting about a coach that was hired that...
