What to Expect from Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson
The Detroit Lions revamped offense has a new leader in Ben Johnson.
After playing quarterback at North Carolina from 2004-07, Johnson secured his first coaching position with Boston College as a graduate assistant in 2009.
In 2011, the young coach was promoted to become the tight ends coach prior to departing for the NFL.
The Miami Dolphins hired Johnson in 20212.
During his tenure, he served in a myriad of roles, including as an assistant quarterbacks coach, tight ends coach, assistant wide receivers coach and wide receivers coach.
According to the Lions team website, "Johnson helped Lions TE T.J. Hockenson become the team's first tight end to make a Pro Bowl since 1999 after Hockenson finished third among all NFL tight ends with 723 receiving yards. Under Johnson's coaching, Hockenson has recorded the most receiving touchdowns (12), second-most receptions (160) and third-most receiving yards (1,673) a Lions tight end has ever produced through three-career seasons."
When the offense struggled to move the football and score points last season, Johnson became part of the solution, as he was put in charge of the passing game and had more input in how the offense was being run.
Now that he has been named the next offensive coordinator, Johnson is expected to pick up the tempo of the offense, while maintaining the balance of running the football and taking chances deep.
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Head coach Dan Campbell explained at rookie minicamp how the offense could look different in 2022.
"The ability to, shoot, get on the line if we need to and, one word, one call. Whether that’s with high tempo or not, could be we’re just back on the line," he said. "No tempo, we’re not huddling, which that in itself puts stress on the defense. Just getting our guys comfortable with that, so we’re getting our rookies some of that stuff right now. That’s what we’ve been doing with the vets as well. But he’s (Johnson) been doing a great job. Everything is, everybody’s on the same page. So much of this, as simple as it is, is just having the staff on the same page with what I want. Ben’s doing a great job of that and using his creativity with it.”
The early goals of the 2022 offense are to put stress on the oppositions defense and to be able to take advantage of each weapon that is available to the coaching staff.
With several new wideouts added to the roster and the development of the running backs already on the roster, Johnson will be tasked with deciding how to divvy up carries and wideout targets.
"You just want to get to the point where you know that, offensively, you can do anything and everything in your arsenal to put stress on the defense. We don’t want to feel like we’re ever limited by what we’re doing offensively, schematically, verbally, verbiage, communication, anything," Campbell explained further. "Our limitations should come from, ‘Well, this player doesn’t do this well. This player does this well.’ We don’t ever want to feel like we’re the ones holding our offense back as a staff, let’s put it that way. We feel like this is going to enable us to do the most that we can do.”
