At some point this season, perhaps even out of the gate, the Lions' offense will stumble. The hurdles of a new coordinator and two new starters up front are real. And "when adversity hits," said Jared Goff, it's reassuring to know that he and John Morton "already have that rapport." Morton was an important behind-the-scenes figure in Goff's first resurgent season in Detroit under Ben Johnson.
"He's not afraid to speak his mind to me, and I'm not afraid to speak my mind to him," Goff said Monday on Fox 2's Training Camp Special. "We're not, like, stepping on eggshells around each other. ... When you have a guy you have a relationship with, he feels like he can tell me, 'Hey, mf-er, do this,' and I feel like I can speak to him freely as well. That's how you want a coach to be, that's how you want to be communicated with. You want to hear honest feedback and Johnny gives us that, certainly gives it to me."
Morton was barking at the Lions' offense in the first practice of training camp Sunday for not operating with enough tempo coming out of the huddle. He was also calling frequent shots downfield. Goff connected on one with Tim Patrick, but Detroit's secondary typically snuffed out the threat. A former wide receiver, Morton is keen on stretching the defense vertically. The first play of Monday's team period saw Goff roll out to his right and heave a ball in the direction of a streaking Jameson Williams that was knocked down by Kerby Joseph.
"Kerby's been pissing me off the past couple days," Goff said with a smile. "We can get better by getting over his head more often. He's been keeping it in front of him pretty good so far."
In Morton's first stint with the Lions as a senior offensive assistant in 2022, he had a big hand in game-planning each week. Dan Campbell credits him for coming up with plays the Lions used in the pass game, plotted for a particular look from the defense. Morton also studied the tendencies of the opposing coordinator, often up to the final hours before kickoff, to help Johnson and the Lions stay one step ahead.
"He was so helpful for Ben with ideas, and he's continued with that," said Goff. "Some of the ideas that he's brought to us in the passing game is stuff I've never done before, but I've seen around the league. Him being able to teach it to us and show us how to do things, certainly it will still be a lot of the same stuff we've done, but there's a lot of really cool new wrinkles he's been able to add that I'm excited about."
Morton offered a glimpse of one such idea Sunday when the Lions showed a few sets with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery on the field at the same time. The offense teased this now and then under Johnson, but never really weaponized it. Gibbs said prior to camp that he's "getting split out way more than I was the last two years" as Morton wants him "more involved" in the passing game.
The Lions scored a lot of points under Johnson, more than anyone in the NFL last season. It will be difficult to sustain that with a lesser offensive line. Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany are full of potential, but comprise a clear downgrade from Frank Ragnow and Kevin Zeitler. Getting as many playmakers on the field at once could be one way for the Lions to overwhelm the defense and retain the advantage.
Indeed, using Gibbs and Montgomery in tandem poses "a lot of problems" for the opposition, said Goff.
"Those are two of the better players in the league, and you get them both out there, the defense has to make a decision whether to play base or nickel, and then we can go off of that as far as how we want to run our offense from there. You can put them both next to me, one of them can release, both of them can release, you can motion one of them out, there's a million things you can do. You can hand it off to one of them, the other guy can block. You can go all the way down the list with what's possible with those two guys."
And with Morton's offense, which has tons of room to grow in Detroit.
