Ben Johnson raided the Detroit Lions coaching staff for two assistants when he left for the Chicago Bears, and now Aaron Glenn is taking at least one of his former colleagues with him to the New York Jets.
The Jets hired Lions tight ends coach Steve Heiden as their new offensive line coach Wednesday, NFL Network reported. Glenn left his post as Lions defensive coordinator to become Jets head coach last week.
Heiden spent the past two years coaching tight ends with the Lions after working in a variety of roles for a decade with the Arizona Cardinals.
He is the sixth Lions assistant to leave for a job with another team this offseason.
Glenn and Johnson, the Lions’ offensive coordinator in 2022-24, were hired as head coaches.. Defensive line coach Terrell Williams joined Mike Vrabel’s staff with the New England Patriots as defensive coordinator. And Johnson hired receivers coach Antwaan Randle El as assistant head coach/receivers coach and assistant quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett as quarterbacks coach.
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Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand also is a candidate to be Jets offensive coordinator.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes spoke of how difficult it would be for the Lions to keep assistants who had a chance for advancement this offseason at his end-of-season news conference last week.
“It’s obviously a challenge cause you always — you want to keep the good ones, obviously, and guys that you’ve gotten comfortable with and proved that they with here,” Holmes said. “But it’s the nature of this business and it’s something that you just have to expect, you’ve got to prepare for it, that’s going to come, that’s part of the job. It’s not only in coaching, it’s in personnel as well. So I’ve always said it’s hard to keep the good ones, but I understand that when guys want to poach guys from our program, you’ve just got to be prepared for it.”