Daily Norseman
In my second installment of 2025 forecasts for the NFC North, I’ll focus on the reigning division champion Detroit Lions. In case you missed it, my first installment was on the Bears, and I also did a piece on the NFC North at the end of June, some of which is a bit outdated with subsequent events.
It’s been an eventful offseason for the Lions. After a 15-2 division-winning record, both coordinators for the Lions took head coaching jobs- offensive coordinator Ben Johnson with the Bears, and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn with the Jets. Dan Campbell remains the head coach but does not call plays.
The Lions’ new offensive coordinator is John Morton, 55, who’s been an offensive assistant or wide receiver position coach in the league for most of the past 20 years, with a two-year stint as offensive coordinator at USC and with the Jets in 2017. Most recently he’s been the passing game coordinator for the Broncos under Sean Payton the past two seasons before being named offensive coordinator by Dan Campbell this offseason. Morton was a Senior Offensive Assistant for the Lions in 2022, so there is familiarity there, and the Sean Payton connection is a common one for Morton and Campbell. The desire is for continuity with Ben Johnson’s scheme of the past few years, but how well Morton can fill Johnson’s shoes as a playcaller and coordinator remains to be seen. Morton has only one year of experience as a coordinator in the league and that didn’t go well- the Jets’ offense finished near the bottom of the league that year, but it was the Jets so not entirely unexpected. Still, Morton has everything to prove at this point in what is likely the back-nine of his coaching career.
Defensively, the Lions hired from within, promoting former NFL linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, 37, from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. Sheppard is well regarded within the Lions organization and Aaron Glenn appeared to be grooming him to be a defensive coordinator in the future. Once again the desire is continuity in scheme, but as a rookie defensive coordinator, Sheppard is an unknown quantity and will have a learning curve as he grows into his new role.
Of all the NFC North teams this offseason, the Lions did the least to improve their roster. In fact, they’ve likely regressed a bit along their offensive line. The Lions lost All-Pro center Frank Ragnow to retirement and All-Pro right guard Kevin Zeitler in free agency. To replace them, former starting left guard Graham Glasgow is moving to center, and is being replaced at left guard by 2024 sixth-round pick Christian Mahagony, who graded very well in two games last season as a starter. At right guard, the Lions are going with 2025 second-round draft pick Tate Rateledge. Going from two seasoned All-Pros to essentially two rookies is likely to have an impact, as its exceedingly rare for a non-first round draft pick...
