Who will be calling plays for the Detroit Lions in 2022? Will it be head coach Dan Campbell or will it be the new offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson?
On Thursday, Campbell spoke to reporters and when asked about who will be calling offensive plays for the Lions in 2022, he said he has not yet decided.
“I think it'll be hard to make that decision until the season is almost here. I want to coach the team right now and let him coach the offense so I can keep an eye on the players.”
But Campbell then jokingly added that if the Lions put up 85 points in their first preseason game, he will name Johnson the play-caller right then and there.
Reading between the lines, it sure sounds like Campbell just revealed that Ben Johnson will be calling the Lions' offensive plays when the preseason begins.
When it comes down to it, Campbell told reporters that he will go with his “gut” when it comes to deciding who will call the offense in Week 1 of the regular season
Campbell says he is not sure if Ben Johnson will assume full play-calling duties for the offense.
"I think it'll be hard to make that decision until the season is almost here. I want to coach the team right now and let him coach the offense so I can keep an eye on the players."
— Jeanna Trotman (@JeannaTrotmanTV) June 2, 2022
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Dan Campbell has been impressed by Ben Johnson
During a recent press conference, Campbell said he is impressed with Johnson and he talked about how the Lions' offense will look different in 2022, especially when it comes to controlling the tempo and putting stress on opposing defenses.
“I've been impressed with what he's doing, what he's implementing inside of what we're trying to get done here,” Campbell said of Johnson. “I would say this, we're going to be much more efficient just on how we get things in and out of the huddle. The ability to change our tempo will be big.
“Some of that just comes from verbiage alone, believe it or not. I just feel like everything is just going to be so much more streamlined.”
Campbell added that the goal is to have everybody on the same page and that Johnson is doing a great job of that, especially when it comes to using his creativity.
“Just getting our guys comfortable with that, so we're getting our rookies some of that stuff right now,” Campbell said. “That's what we've been doing with the vets as well. But (Johnson's) been doing a great job. That's the thing is that 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.”
“We don't want to feel like we're ever limited by what we're doing offensively, schematically, verbally, verbiage, communication, anything,” he said. “Our limitations should come from, ‘Well, this player doesn't do 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. I feel like this is going to enable us to do the most that we can do.”
[irp]
