NFL

Have Lions wasted best Super Bowl chance? How Detroit can still break through despite losing both coordinators

by
SaC Bot
July 24, 2025

Welcome to “NFL Thoughts,” a wide-ranging, in-depth look at some of the top storylines of the 2025 season. After looking at a pair of recent NFC contenders who had rough 2024 seasons (the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys), we turn our attention to a team trying to stay at the top: the Detroit Lions.

It’s hard to remember, but at the end of October 2022 — already a year-and-a-half into Jared Goff’s tenure in Detroit — the Lions were 1-5. After going 3-13-1 the year before, Detroit was in dire straits, and Goff’s struggles succeeding face of the franchise Matthew Stafford seemed to spell doom and gloom for a franchise that had experienced doom and gloom for decades.

That’s when Goff met with coach second-year Dan Campbell and, according to The Athletic, expected to be benched.

What ensued was anything but. Campbell uplifted his woebegone quarterback, who relaxed and started playing more freely: 321 yards, one touchdown and no turnovers in a narrow loss days later. Detroit then went 8-2 over its final 10 games of the season, barely missing the playoffs but restoring faith in and around the organization. Over the final 11 weeks of the season, Goff threw 18 touchdowns to just one interception and led the NFL in expected points added per dropback.

Though Goff and Campbell were the faces of the Lions’ resurgence, it was Ben Johnson steering the ship offensively and perhaps saving Goff’s career as a starter. The whizkid play caller, retained when Campbell arrived and promoted quickly therafter, was a perfect fit for Goff, combining a heavy dose of a physical running with play action and in-breaking routes to suit his strong-armed pocket passer.

It wasn’t just the offense that started finding its stride, though. Aaron Glenn had come over with Campbell — the two shared time with the Saints — and, like Goff, things hadn’t gone well early on. But Campbell believed in his defensive coordinator, just like with Goff. By 2023, Glenn, armed with homegrown youngsters Aidan Hutchinson, Brian Branch, Jack Campbell, Kerby Joseph, Alim McNeill and others, finally had the personnel to fit the aggressive play style he had always envisioned. In 2023, Glenn oversaw one the league’s best rushing defenses. By 2024, it was one of the league’s best defenses, period.

But this great story hasn’t had a great ending … yet. Detroit made the NFC Championship Game in 2023 and was on the doorstep of the Super Bowl before a second-half collapse. Last year, they went 15-2 but again fell short of their Super Bowl dreams, this time done in by a banged-up defense and a nightmarish five-turnover game in the divisional round.

In the NFL, championship windows open very slowly but close in the blink of an eye. Campbell, never one to hide his emotions, had that exact same sentiment after the NFC Championship Game.

“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality.”

He’s absolutely right. The 2024 season proved it as the Lions kept both coordinators despite significant outside interest and kept their core together … and still fell short due in part to the whims of the sport.

Now, the Lions don’t have those two coordinators, with Johnson the Bears‘ head coach and Glenn the Jets‘ head coach. They also don’t have some of their core pieces. Do they have enough to remain a true juggernaut and — if things break right — break through?

Lions offense: What do John Morton, pair of new linemen have in store?

Regardless of what you think of Goff — good, accurate, strong-armed passer (all true) or limited athlete uplifted by his surroundings (also true) — he has made terrific strides in Detroit. After years of struggling mightily when pressured, Goff had the eighth-best passing success rate and 12th-best expected points added per play in those situations in 2024, both career highs. He found check downs with composure, did a good job avoiding sacks and threw seven touchdowns compared to just four interceptions when pressured, his best rate since his breakthrough 2017 under Sean McVay.

New offensive coordinator John Morton’s challenge will be continuing to put Goff in a position to succeed. Morton was a senior offensive assistant in Detroit in 2022 — Johnson’s first year as offensive coordinator — before spending the last two seasons with Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos as a passing game coordinator.

Campbell told reporters that he brought back Morton for continuity reasons, so expect a lot of similarities in language and concepts.

The big unknown is Morton’s play-calling acumen, an area in which Johnson excelled. It’s not just having the plays, but knowing when to deploy them. Johnson’s offense was based in an excellent, two-headed rushing attack and a strong play action game off of that, but he also used a lot of motion, unusual alignments and trick plays.

Morton has just one season of play-calling under his belt: 2017 with the Jets, who were quarterbacked by Josh McCown and Bryce Petty. That team was 31st in play-action rate; the Lions were first last year. That’s not to say Morton can’t adjust — in fact, he can and likely will, or else Campbell wouldn’t have hired him — but it is an adjustment.

He’ll also have to deal with two major departures on the offensive line as stalwart center Frank Ragnow retired at 29 and Kevin Zeitler signed with the Titans.

Ragnow graded out as Pro Football Focus’ top center in 2023 and the No. 2 center in 2024. Over those two years, the Lions had a 51.8% success rate with him on the field and a 45.9% success rate without him on the field, not including garbage time. That’s the difference between the NFL’s best offense and an average offense. Zeitler graded out as the third-best guard in the NFL last year, his only season in Detroit.

It’s not just the departures that are concerning, but who’s coming in for them. At guard, Christian Mahogany, a 2024 sixth-round pick who started just one game last year, is expected to play a much bigger role, as could former free agent addition Trystan Colon. Both put up solid numbers — but in very small sample sizes — last season.

Tate Ratledge, a 2025 second-round pick, could be the frontrunner at center. The Lions didn’t expect to rely on him so quickly — Ragnow retired in June, more than a month after the NFL Draft — but the NFL is a league full of the unexpected, and that means a college guard could be snapping the ball for a Super Bowl contender right away.

Again, it’s difficult to project these two, but would be tough for either to be better than Ragnow or Zeitler. In fact, only a modest drop off would be considered a win.

And that’s OK, because there’s still talent oozing all over the rest of the offense. Last year, Detroit became the first team ever with two running backs (Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery) and two wide receivers (Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams) to hit 1,000 yards from scrimmage. Sam LaPorta returns, too. Detroit traded up for Isaac TeSlaa, a raw prospect with incredible physical traits (6’4″ and a 4.43-second 40-yard dash) who could add another big, downfield dimension — even in small doses.

It’s also OK if the historically efficient Lions offense takes a minor step back, because the defense should take a significant leap forward.

Lions defense: Does healthier unit have the talent to make a leap?

Detroit’s 2024 defense was not only the most-injured unit in the league, but, using Aaron Schatz’s adjusted games lost, the most-injured defense since 2021. The Lions’ M*A*S*H unit — 21 players on injured reserve in late December — included your typical lower-body injuries but also some true freak accidents, too. Carlton Davis broke his jaw on a tackle. Hutchinson suffered a broken tibia and fibula while his leg whipped around … as he made a sack. There were several friendly fire injuries, including Alex Anzalone’s left forearm fracturing on a hit by Branch.

Injury luck is generally unpredictable, and there’s reason to believe the Lions will bounce back.

That means, first and foremost, the return of Hutchinson. Across the first five games last season, he wasn’t just the best defender in the NFL — he was the best defender by a wide margin. His 7.5 sacks were 1.5 more than anyone else. His 45 pressures were 16 more than anyone else. Both figures were more than three teams had through five games. A human being should not be able to produce this much speed to power …

… AND spin like this:

Hutchinson is everything the Lions want in their defenders: dogged competitors and physical forces. He is a defense all by himself.

Sack rate	7.9%	4.6%
Opponent time to throw (sec)	2.73	3.08
Pressure rate	39.1%	36.4%

Those sack rate splits are the difference between the seventh-best in the league and the worst in the league. As a whole, Detroit finished 28th in sack rate, ahead of the Panthers, Jaguars, Falcons and Patriots. If Hutchinson is even 90% of the player he was pre-injury, that is a seismic boost.

It will also help if he gets any sort of pass rush help around him. Detroit’s second-leading sack artist last year was Za’Darius Smith with four. Could a reunion be in the works? Marcus Davenport missed nearly the entire season (again) but has shown previous pass-rushing chops. It’d be a lot easier to get excited about this defense with a complementary pass rusher.

Unlike at offensive coordinator, the Lions hired from within at defensive coordinator, promoting linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard. Last season, the Lions played a hyper-aggressive defense, ranking third in blitz rate, sixth in press coverage rate and first in man coverage rate. It worked to an extent — Detroit ranked sixth in defensive success rate — but it also backfired plenty, too. No one gave up more passes of 25-plus yards than the Lions’ 47, and a league-high 42 of them came through the air.

Regardless of Sheppard’s plans leave his cornerbacks on islands or not, Detroit will look for a big improvement from Terrion Arnold, their 2024 first-round pick who struggled in a demanding role. He graded out as PFF’s No. 109 cornerback (out of 116 qualifiers). His 10 defensive penalties tied for the league lead, and his 161 penalty yards led the league.

Just behind him in that second category is, coincidentally, Detroit’s premier offseason addition: D.J. Reed, who came over from the Jets. The difference is Reed graded out as the 30th-best cornerback in the NFL. Detroit still has the terrific safety tandem of the versatile Branch and the ballhawking Joseph, too. They’ll hope 2024 second-round pick Ennis Rakestraw Jr. can come in and contribute after an injury-shortened season and Amik Robertson can build off a strong finish to last season.

More than anything, though, the Lions will hope for better health, which will lead to a better pass rush, which will lead to fewer blitzes required to get pressure, which will lead to more sound defense on the back end. Detroit ended up between a rock and a hard place last season. A healthy Hutchinson has a chance to be a one-man game changer.

Outlook: Worse offense but better defense still good enough

We return to the elephant in the room: two new coordinators. It’s even a bigger elephant considering Campbell doesn’t call either the offense or the defense. He is the culture setter, the overseer, the boss (and he excels at those things) … but not the play caller.

In the past five decades, only five teams have lost both coordinators to head-coaching jobs in the same offseason, according to Detroit Football Network’s Justin Rogers. The most recent one was a disaster: The Eagles nearly won the Super Bowl in the 2022 season before Shane Steichen left for Indianapolis and Jonathan Gannon left for Arizona. In 2023, the Eagles fell apart, losing five of their final six regular-season games and getting throttled by the Buccaneers in the playoffs. Amid plenty of discontent, both coordinators (Brian Johnson and Sean Desai) were fired, and even Nick Sirianni seemed to be on the hot seat.

Detroit likely isn’t destined for that same outcome, but it is worth noting that in all five instances in the last 30 years, a team that lost two coordinators had a worse record the following year, and only one went deeper into the playoffs than it had the year before.

The Lions weren’t likely to go 15-2 again regardless of who returned. But the bones of this roster remain good enough for them to be a playoff team again. All teams can do in the NFL is give themselves a chance and let the chips fall how they may. Last year’s Lions were done in by their own bodies. This year’s team might have more growing pains and fewer wins, but with better health, the Super Bowl window is still open.