Ben Johnson is gone, and Aaron Glenn is soon to follow.
"I would expect to lose both," Dan Campbell said Monday as he wrapped up a season that ended three weeks before the Lions expected, and a day before Johnson accepted the head coaching job with the Bears. "I’m prepared to lose both.”
Prepared is the operative word here, as Campbell gets set to replace his offensive and defensive coordinators. He was the one who promoted Johnson and hired Glenn in the first place, so he's shown the right touch in the past. Asked if their looming departures will affect the Lions' Super Bowl window, Campbell said, "It can't. Can't allow that to happen."
"That’s my job, is to replenish and find the next man up and the guy who’s going to give us the best chance to have success on both sides of the ball. So, we’re not going to allow that to happen. I’m not. Does it hurt to lose those guys? Absolutely," Campbell said. "They’re a part of what we’ve been here. They’ve been here for four years. They’re one of the major reasons why we’ve been able to get to where we’ve been, man. We came out of the dump and got to where we’re at.
"So, I will forever be grateful for those guys and our team will. Absolutely, it would be a loss, but yet, man, we move forward, this train rolls on and I’ll find the next best guys for us.”
If Campbell promotes internally as many expect, passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand and running backs coach/assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery are natural candidates to replace Johnson. Offensive line coach Hank Fraley, who interviewed last week for the Seahawks' offensive coordinator job, also merits a look. On defense, linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard feels like the favorite to replace Glenn.
In both cases, Campbell said he'll be looking for the "right" coach more than the "best" one, though ideally they're one and the same.
"We’ve got guys on staff that I think are more than qualified and would be outstanding in those roles, but that doesn't mean that I’m not looking outside, either," Campbell said. "I want what I believe is going to be as close to what we have been as possible, so we don’t lose what we’re about and our identity. We’re going to stay true to who we are. And if you’re somebody that doesn’t feel comfortable with that, then no, this isn’t the job for you.
"I’m not going to be in a hurry, I’m not in a mad dash. No matter what happens, I want to do what’s right by our team, so those guys will be able to stand in front of that room and command respect and get everybody going in the same direction and will, ultimately, deliver the same message that I’m delivering.”
Campbell did err in a coordinator hire in his first season in Detroit when he put Anthony Lynn in charge of the offense. Lynn was demoted midway through that season, with Campbell taking over play-calling himself, and the two sides parted ways in the offseason. Campbell said he learned from that hire that "I need to make sure that I am heavily involved in however we go" after feeling like he was too removed from the process once Lynn was hired in 2021, which created a "blind spot" for Campbell on offense.
"I am very offensive heavy, is the best way to say that, so I am picking that," he said. "I need to have my checklist done, but then on top of that, I need to be part of the whole process. There was a number of things when that transition took place, ‘Hey, your offense, you call it, I’ll have some things I want.’ And then I’m with Brad (Holmes) because we’re getting ready for the draft, looking for players, free agency, so you kind of allow all those things to happen, and it’s a blind spot and it shouldn’t be because that’s my area of expertise, if you will.
"So, I’m not going to allow that to happen. I’m going to be involved no matter what because I think that’s best for our offense."
Ultimately, Campbell wants to ensure that Detroit's offense is still "set up for Jared Goff to have success with our playmakers." He also wants "to keep our terminology in place to make sure that Goff is comfortable." To that end, Campbell said Goff will have significant say in the search for Johnson's replacement.
"I want his input. To me, that’s important. That's what Ben did a great job of, is those guys working together. The system was kind of built from the ground up, and it was to help him and for him to be a part of it," said Campbell. "So yeah, that’s huge, he’ll have a lot of input. What he says, says a lot to me, I should say. Now, is it going to be the ultimate decision? No, it’s not, but what he says is going to mean a lot to me.”
With Detroit's top two coordinators heading elsewhere, Campbell was adamant that the Lions' identity and philosophy to winning will remain the same: "What we are is what we are, and we’ve been that way since I’ve been here."
"A couple of things will get tweaked, just with the nature of new coordinators, if that happens, because you want it to be their flavor, their style with it," he added. "But yet, what I want is what we’re going to do."