Pro Football Rumors
Over the course of the Brad Holmes-Dan Campbell era, the Lions have emerged as one of the NFL’s best teams. Each of the 2023 and ’24 campaigns ended with painful postseason defeats, however. The past several months have seen few major losses on the roster (with the offensive line representing an exception), but an expected exodus along the sidelines has led to questions about Detroit’s Super Bowl window closing.
Last year, the team become the ninth in NFL history to post 15 regular-season wins in a campaign but only the second not to win a playoff game after doing so (joining the 2011 Packers). If Campbell’s team is to rectify that in 2025, it will do so with new offensive and defensive coordinators in place. Another season filled with competition from within the division and elsewhere in the NFC should be expected as the Lions aim to avoid further missteps in the postseason.
Campbell was hired as the Lions’ head coach in 2021. Glenn joined him in Detroit that same offseason to take on his first career coordinator gig at any level. Johnson was already in Detroit by that time, but he was a familiar face based on his previous experience working with Campbell as part of the Dolphins’ coaching staff.
Together, that trio enjoyed a strong run, with Johnson taking on offensive coordinator duties in 2022. The Lions posted an annual improvement in points allowed under Glenn, finishing seventh in that regard last season. Johnson, meanwhile, oversaw top-five scoring units in each year at the helm; Detroit led the NFL in points in 2024. Losing at least one – particularly Johnson, who jumped off the past two HC carousels to stay in Detroit – loomed as a possibility in recent years, and Campbell conceded after the season he expected both would be head coaches for the 2025 campaign.
As such, it came as little surprise when Johnson and Glenn were hired. As expected, both were highly sought-after in this year’s hiring cycle, with the Jaguars, Raiders, Patriots and Saints either conducting or requesting an interview with one or both staffers before their respective decisions to join the Bears and Jets. In each case, 2025 will mark their first head coaching opportunities. While Glenn exited to an AFC rebuild, the Lions will be seeing plenty of Johnson due to his Chicago landing.
Campbell and the Lions did not cast a wide net in looking for replacement coordinators. No other candidate was linked to Detroit’s OC gig prior to Morton’s hire....
