Former NFL QB Says Detroit Lions Will 'Just Reload'

The Detroit Lions will enter the 2025 season with a rather new-look coaching staff, including new offensive and defensive play-callers. 

Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, the team’s offensive and defensive coordinators last season, departed the organization this offseason for head coaching opportunities with the Chicago Bears and the N.Y. Jets, respectively. Johnson was replaced by John Morton, who served as the Denver Broncos’ pass game coordinator the past two seasons, and Glenn was succeeded by Kelvin Sheppard, previously Detroit’s linebackers coach.

Due to the departure of the highly-touted play-callers, a variety of fans and pundits have speculated that both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball in Detroit – each top-10 units a season ago – won’t be as productive in 2025.

Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, now the host of the popular YouTube show “4th&1 with Cam Newton,” is not one of those individuals, though. On the show’s most recent episode, he dispelled the notion that the Lions’ offense and defense will take a dive, claiming that Dan Campbell’s squad will simply “reload.”

“Absolutely not,” Newton said when asked whether the Lions will be “cooked” without Glenn and Johnson. “See the thing about great teams, you know, they just reload. Next man up, even with the coaches. People forget oftentimes … the head coach of the Buffalo Bills who’s doing an exceptional job, Sean McDermott, any time you have success, anybody who has success or is a part of that success knows that opportunities come from that. Do you know how many head coaches have coached under the regime of Bill Belichick? A lot. It’s a breeding ground. So, when you have coaches or the coaching carousel, we want to know how ya’ll are winning. So, we pluck.”