Nicki Jhabvala spent the last two weeks in Detroit covering the Lions' playoff wins for the Washington Post, head coach Dan Campbell's success in turning around the bottom-feeding franchise, and the crazy environment inside Ford Field for their first two playoff wins in three decades.
But that's not the only reason she was there as Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn are both on the list for second interviews for the Washington Commanders' vacant head coaching position.
"I think the thing that stuck out to me the most about Ben Johnson is every player I talked to among the first things they said was, he's a very clear communicator," Jhabvala told Kevin Sheehan. "Obviously a good play-caller, very smart, he's a mathematics and computer science major at North Carolina... he was a walk-on quarterback at Carolina. I don't think he fully intended to go into coaching but he had some really good mentors coming out, he's smart as hell. And that's really helped him."
Jhabvala added that she believes players appreciate and Washington fans perhaps more than most would appreciate is that he's a very clear communicator – his system is complex but it's condensed and they run a lot of different plays out of the same formations... "I think the way he maximizes the talent is something they certainly appreciate."
"They also said he's collaborative in the sense that players can come to him and say, 'this isn't working, this is what we're seeing, can we run this.' And he really does use what they say," Jhabvala continued.
Listen to the complete conversation from the Kevin Sheehan Show – including a bunch of names that could potentially join Johnson's staff in Washington if he takes the Commanders job, the rest of the candidates on Washington's list and much more about the search for a head coach – on the audio player above.
