Good news for Detroit Lions: he is back

Aaron Glenn’s return to the Detroit Lions is fantastic news, much like Ben Johnson’s.

Aaron Glenn will get his chance one day. Or at least he should. The tone of his voice conveys the authority of a head coach. He speaks like one, too.

To get over the final barrier, the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator, who was allegedly a top three finalist for the Washington Commanders’ head coaching position, will need more than positive player reports.

Oh, and he has a top-tier run defense and metrics that indicate late-season improvement and turnover output. But are points or yards allowed?

His numbers remain too far back in the pack, well into the lowest third of points allowed. Still, those numbers improved during the season, particularly from the previous season.

But if he can get the Lions’ defense into the top ten or even the top 12 next season, prospective employers will be able to tell their fans, “Look what he did with the Lions!”.

Ben Johnson has those numbers on offense. He also has a mega-server full of clips from clever and artful plays that are all archived online. Johnson’s résumé and play-calling skills landed him eight interviews this hiring cycle; they most likely would have landed him a head coaching position if the situation had been perfect for him, whatever that involved.

Johnson is an excellent offensive coordinator, both by metrics and by sight, and in a league that values young, innovative playcallers, he’ll be given another shot to head his own squad.

It should also be emphasized that calling plays is simpler when the big fellas up front are among the best in the league, a couple of All-Pros are receiving passes, and a potential future Pro Bowl pick is taking handoffs from Jared Goff.

And what about Goff?

Yeah, Johnson helped him, but Goff also helped Johnson. This is how things go in the NFL. Coaches are vital. The plan is important, especially because it aligns with the personnel.

However, no coach wins without players. Look to New England, Seattle, or Detroit, where Dan Campbell won three games with a depleted squad two years ago and 12 this season with youthful talent everywhere.

Campbell certainly improved as a coach over time, just as most of us do from year one to year three. But he came within three points of making the Super Bowl because the team’s personnel improved significantly.

The majority of that progress came on offensively. Does Johnson deserve credit? Absolutely. Brad Holmes, the general manager, agrees, having drafted three All-Pros (Sam LaPorta, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Penei Sewell) to work with Johnson. (Frank Ragnow, the fourth All-Pro pick, was already on the roster.)

Glenn officially does not have an All-Pro; instead, linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin was named to the team’s special teams. Perhaps Glenn will have one soon in Aidan Hutchinson, who made his first Pro Bowl appearance in 2023. And, while he would never admit it, the talent disparity between the two sides of the field is obvious.

In other words, who knows exactly what kind of defensive coordinator Glenn is? Aside from Campbell, who stated this when asked about Glenn early last week:

“Well, where should I begin? I mean, let me begin with what he did and does. I mean, there’s no one who works harder than him on tape to prepare his players, coaches, and himself for what he thinks is going to happen, where he thinks the game is going, and what he thinks he needs to call in that time relative to what he believes that coordinator will call. There is nobody. And he has excellent vision for putting a plan together.”

“He understands football very well and when you start talking about his leadership, he’s one of these guys – he’s special,” Campbell said. “He’s special. He’s got it. His ability to communicate, to relate, to push, to grind, to love, demand, he’s got it all … I’m fortunate that he’s on staff with me.”

Campbell feels that way even though “(Glenn is) better looking than me.”

He chuckled as he said this, of course — self-deprecation is a nice quality for a head coach, too. Glenn has that one as well. Remember, there are reasons he got so many interviews despite the lack of sparkling numbers.

General managers can see when a defense gets better. They can see the talent limitations and the coaching decisions to try to overcome those limitations.

For the Lions, that meant sending more blitzes, especially from the secondary, where an emerging safety and a rookie nickel back showed the skill to get home in a hurry. Beyond Glenn’s connections to his players, what Campbell admires most are his plans — his willingness to try different things, to mix them up.

Until Glenn’s defense climbs to where the offense is — or at least near there — then Johnson will garner most of the “coordinator “head-coach-in-waiting” headlines on this team. And rightly so: It’s a production business.

Production is simpler with talent, but it is up to Holmes and Campbell to give Glenn more of it. Again, Glenn would never discuss it publicly. You train the players you have. Glenn has done just that.

He’ll be back next season to repeat the feat. Campbell is well-known for being an offensive player, and he recently discussed how much more time he spends on that side of the ball during game-week preparation, leaving Glenn to his own ways.

This is fine with Campbell. As he described his defensive coordinator: