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Dan Campbell Shares Vision for Jared Goff's Level of Input on Likely OC Search

Campbell is expecting the Lions to have to backfill Ben Johnson's role.

Josh Wilson

Campbell led the Lions to a 15-2 record this season.
Campbell led the Lions to a 15-2 record this season. / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK
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For now, Ben Johnson is officially the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator. But Dan Campbell is preparing for the worst, admitting on Monday that he's expecting both Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to be hired away by head coaching opportunities.

"I would expect to lose both [Johnson and Glenn], but I haven't been told anything," Campbell said Monday in his press conference.

Both coaches took interviews with various teams with coaching vacancies leading up to their divisional round loss to the Washington Commanders.

So, that will leave the Lions to have to retool their coaching staff a bit, backfilling the ever-important roles of the coordinators of two of their three phases.

Speaking about having to find an answer for the absence of Johnson, Campbell was asked how involved he envisions quarterback Jared Goff to be in selecting the new coordinator.

"A lot, a lot. I want his input. To me, that's important," Campbell said. "That's what Ben did a great job of is working, those guys working together. This system was kind of built from the ground up and it was to help him and for him to be a part of.

"He'll have a lot of input. What he says says a lot to me. Now is it going to be the ultimate decision? No, it's not."

The Lions have cracked the code on how the offense works with Goff under center, so it makes sense that, should they need to replace Johnson as expected, he'll have some input to who they go with.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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