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Buffalo Bills DC: Ben Johnson 'Toughest' OC to Prepare Against

Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator praised Ben Johnson.

John Maakaron

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson
Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Detroit Lions' offense is amongst the toughest units to prepare for in the entire National Football League.

Appearing on the "Centered on Buffalo" podcast, Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich was asked which offensive coordinator was the toughest to prepare for.

With so many offensive weapons, including Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, it is understandable why Babich listed Ben Johnson as challenging to scheme against.

"Ben Johnson. It was funny, we were just having this conversation today," Babich explained. "I think Detroit does a great job, and this is from years ago, they do a lot of things and they do them well. Which that is hard to do and is hard to prepare for."

Johnson has drawn widespread praise for his creativity. The Lions have deployed unique personnel groupings, formations and plays since he took over as coordinator in 2022.

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Passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand expressed to reporters how working with Johnson and Dan Campbell has aided his development as an offensive coach.

“I think it was a valuable experience. You come to work and you’ll learn every day from those guys. I mean, Ben is a wealth of knowledge as well as Dan," said Engstrand. "So you come to work and you think you’re doing the right thing and you are. You learn something new every day. Whether it’s helping to put the game plan together or just something else that we want to look at or just dependent on the week for what direction that we wanted to go.

"I had a lot of things that I was doing on a weekly basis that were pretty standard, but every week there’d be something else. Something new that came up that you just take it and you run with it and you learn from it. So for me, it was a really good learning experience.”

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John Maakaron

JOHN MAAKARON

John Maakaron has covered Detroit Sports since 2013. Brings a vast array of experience covering the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Detroit Mercy Titans, and Oakland University Golden Grizzlies. John brings a wealth of sports broadcast experience. In 2013, John had the vision to establish the Detroit Sports Podcast Network. Has recorded over 3000 podcasts analyzing Detroit Sports. In 2019, Sports Illustrated Media Group, a historical sports media outlet, partnered with Detroit Sports Podcast to provide daily Lions content for their growing and expanding digital media outlet. Our Lions content can also be read in the newspaper at The Oakland  Passionate about Detroit Sports and it is reflected in his coverage of the local teams!

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