Dan Campbell is no stranger to the importance of continuity within a coaching staff. He coached under Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints before taking over his own team, the Detroit Lions, ahead of the 2021 season. He made two key hires that first year: defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and passing game coordinator Ben Johnson, who was elevated to offensive coordinator the following year.
Campbell doesn’t have much to prove after his incredibly impressive first four years in Detroit, but 2025 does bring some significant change to the Lions locker room, as Glenn takes over as head coach of the New York Jets and Johnson does the same for the division rival Chicago Bears.
Losing two established coordinators isn’t easy, but Campbell isn’t stressing, at least publicly. He was asked about the turnover at the NFL annual meeting Tuesday and was very confident in the team’s ability to maintain its momentum with new faces leading both the offense and defense. It likely helps that both of those faces are very familiar.
“We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine,” Campbell said. “Everybody knows how I feel about these coaches that have been here and been part of this. I’m happy for them. They’re moving on and I wish them the best. But John Morton stepping in as offensive coordinator, somebody I know, I trust, I’ve been around, I mentioned this before. He was here when we built this thing back up in ’22. And then Kelvin Sheppard’s been here, man.
“So It’s not like it’ll be starting from scratch with somebody I don’t know … so I see this thing moving pretty quick. There’ll be a couple of bumps in the road, we’ll have to work out some kinks, but it’ll be kind of fresh and new actually and I think we’re all excited [for] that.”
Morton is a fellow veteran of the Payton-era Saints and joined the Lions as a senior offensive assistant in 2022 before taking the passing game coordinator job with the Denver Broncos over the last two years. He last served as offensive coordinator with the New York Jets in 2017. Sheppard played for Campbell during their time with the Miami Dolphins and has been on staff with the Lions since ’21, coaching linebackers before getting the bump up to DC.
Detroit is coming off of one of the best seasons in franchise history, going 15–2, but were knocked out of the playoffs by the Washington Commanders in the NFC divisional round. Campbell hopes that a couple of (somewhat) new voices can help give the team a spark, especially once January rolls around.
