If New York Jets Want Ben Johnson, He Has Two Head-Coaching Demands

If the New York Jets are going to lure Detroit Lions coordinator Ben Johnson, they better have these two things in order.

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson watches warm up before the Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ben Johnson may be the hottest coaching candidate entering this upcoming hiring cycle.

The Detroit Lions offensive coordinator has been instrumental in getting the franchise in prime position to go to the Super Bowl for the first time.

A trip like that would delay him taking over a team until February. But, if he can help the Lions get that far, well, he may be worth the wait.

The thing is, he’s been down this road before. He was a candidate on last year’s carousel but wasn’t hired. Reportedly, he felt he had unfinished business in Detroit, which lost to San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game.

Now, well Johnson sounds interested. But, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, he isn’t going to jump at just any old job.

Breer reported on Johnson during the kickoff show before the Packers-Lions game on Thursday.

From TNF Tonight—On the head coaching prospects of the @Lions coordinators. pic.twitter.com/IOAFZhPFnl

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 6, 2024

In fact, Johnson has two clear parameters for taking a head-coaching job.

Per Breer, he wants organizational alignment, with an emphasis on making sure the head coach and the general manager are on the same page.

Second — and this could be critical when it comes to the Jets — a “recognition from the organization on what went wrong previously and their willingness to fix it.”

New York and its owner, Woody Johnson, have a lot to clean up after this mess of a season. He fired both his head coach, Robert Saleh, and his general manager, Joe Douglas, in-season, a rarity in the NFL.

It’s not the sort of situation first-time head coaches like walking into. The Jets are partnering with The 33rd Team, run by former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum, which will put a professional face on the search. New York is also likely to hire the GM first and then pursue a head coach.

It’s possible that puts the Jets at a disadvantage. The teams that already have coaching openings are not, currently, looking for GMs.

But, since Johnson is going to let the openings come to him, the Jets may have a short window to get the right GM before going full-bore into their coaching search.

Earlier this year, SI posted a list of the Top 27 coaching candidates this cycle and Johnson was on the list, with a note that it’s a matter of “when, not if” Johnson gets a job this time around.

His boss, Dan Campbell, raved about Johnson’s improvement recently.

“Ben has grown the most of any coach I've ever been around,” Campbell said. “He's always been a very creative play caller. He has great vision every week for how to attack our opponents, but most importantly he knows how to communicate that vision to our players in the room with him. He's confident, competent and above all, competitive. The players on offense respond to him because of it.”