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From the movement the Detroit Lions’ offensive co-ordinator’s job came open, it appeared to be Ben Johnson’s job to lose.
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The 35-year-old Johnson, who spent the past two seasons as Detroit’s tight end coach, was officially installed on Wednesday as the club’s offensive co-ordinator. He replaces Anthony Lynn, who was fired the day after the season ended.
Minutes after announcing Lynn’s firing at his season-ending press conference, Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell was quickly singing Johnson’s praises.
“Now, I will say this, I think Ben Johnson did a Hell of a job for us,” Campbell said at the time. “I will say that and kind of leave it at that, if you will.”
Campbell took over play calling for the team midway through the season and Johnson took on a bigger role as the club’s unofficial passing game co-ordinator from that point on.
“Yeah, Ben really stepped in there, about halfway through the year, and became very involved in having a lot of ideas and installing things and having his hand in a lot of the stuff the quarterback was doing and really every position, wide receivers, and really tightening everybody,” Lions’ quarterback Jared Goff said. “His ceiling of him is – the sky’s the limit for him.”
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Johnson has never held a co-ordinator’s post and Campbell has not indicated if he plans to give up play calling next season.
“I feel pretty good, one way or another, about what we’re going to do because I do know we’re going in the right direction offensively,” Campbell said. “I do believe that.”
A walk-on quarterback at North Carolina University, Johnson played four seasons and graduated with a degree in mathematics and computer science.
I have spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Boston College before beginning named the school’s tight ends coach.
In 2012, Johnson was named an offensive assistant with the Miami Dolphins and coached receivers and quarterbacks over seven seasons with the club with four of those spent with Campbell on the staff from 2012 to 2015.
Johnson joined the Lions in 2019 as an quality control coach and took over tight ends in 2020 where he helped TJ Hockenson become Detroit’s first Pro Bowl offensive player at the position since 1999. When Campbell was hired in 2021, he opted to keep Johnson on staff .
The Lions and New York Jets coaching staffs served as coaches for the Senior Bowl all-star game in Alabama last week with Johnson handling the offensive co-ordinator’s role before Wednesday’s promotion.
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