Lions Coaching Turnover 'Scares' NFL Executive

The Detroit Lions return off of a 15-2 season that saw the Lions earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC as a follow up to their NFC Championship Game appearance in 2023. The 2024 season was also aided by coordinators Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson electing to return to the Motor City.

This season, however, brings the unexpected. Both have departed for their own head coaching gigs, with Glenn to the New York Jets and Johnson to the division rival Chicago Bears. The players remain the same, save the notable swap of Carlton Davis for D.J. Reed at corner. 

While the player talent in Detroit is evident, the coaching changes have executives concerned about Detroit's future.

“There would be a lot about Detroit that scares me, but it’s not the players,” an executive told Mike Sando of The Athletic.

Some of this, however, results from the high praise the other executives had for both coordinators.

"Johnson took total advantage of the four-down game-management approach because he's a really, really good play caller, an evil genius, really," another executive told Sando. "Losing him would almost be like the Rams losing Sean McVay."

Sando also had pointed out that new offensive coordinator John Morton has only ran an offense in the NFL for a single season. That team was the 2017 New York Jets. On top of Morton’s sole experience being nearly a decade old, that Jets team placed 28th in the league for yardage. 

Morton was the passing game coordinator for the Broncos last season, and was part of the offensive staff that was able to break Denver’s nine-year playoff drought. Denver also had 52 passing plays of over 20 yards last season. That number is a bit off of Detroit’s 62 pass plays over 20 yards, but the Lions’ returning receivers are, on the 2024 stat sheet, an upgrade from Denver.

In short, Morton gets the helm of a very dangerous offensive personnel group. The returning Lions offense looks much more explosive than that of the Mile High city. With Jared Goff also expecting to carry a bigger load on offense in 2025, that can help Morton’s transition to OC. 

New defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, on the other hand, will be in charge of a defense for the first time in his career. Sheppard was an internal promotion, and a coach that oversaw the overhaul of the linebacker room during his first four seasons under Dan Campbell. 

One thing that Sheppard will have to replace is Glenn’s ability to maximize players in their roles.

“I will be curious with role players if there is a dropoff because you have to have a vision for how to deploy these guys,” an exec said, via Sando. “Glenn was really good at that, getting the best out of a Derrick Barnes and those guys.”

That change from Glenn to Sheppard offers a new perspective, as expressed by Lions OnSI's Christian Booher.

“Glenn played professionally as a cornerback, giving him the view of the game through the lens of a defensive back," Booher wrote. "Now, Sheppard brings his background as a linebacker to the fold and as a result will interpret the game through that lens.”

While the untested coordinators might not scare the executives, the Lions’ goal remains the same. It is a different route to the Super Bowl for Detroit in 2025, as the team remains the same, but the play callers are different. Time will tell if the anonymous executives were right, or if they will be eating their words in early 2026. 

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