Ben Johnson Has Unfinished Detroit Business, and That’s a Major Lions Win

The Detroit Lions’ 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game is still fresh, but the franchise is starting its offseason with a major win.

Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has informed the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders, the two remaining NFL teams with head-coaching vacancies, that he is staying in Detroit for the 2024 season, according to multiple reports. The 37-year-old has been Detroit’s OC for the past two seasons and was considered a hot candidate for a top job this hiring cycle.

Johnson interviewed with Seattle in-person on Monday, and was also widely seen as a favorite for the Commanders opening. Washington officials were en route to Detroit for meetings with him and Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn when they got word Johnson was staying put, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. So for the second year in a row, Johnson is pulling his name out of the running for head-coaching opportunities to address some unfinished business with Detroit.

Newsweek reached out to the Lions via email on Tuesday for comment.

Detroit’s hopes of a first Super Bowl trip burst when it blew a 17-point halftime lead to the top-seeded Niners in the franchise’s second-ever NFC title game.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell was brutally honest postgame, in a way coaches rarely are: “This may have been our only shot” at a title. A return trip to the conference championship game is no guarantee.

But retaining Johnson certainly boosts the Lions’ chances of getting back.

Johnson joined the Lions in 2019 as an offensive quality control coach, then took over the tight ends from 2020-21. When Campbell elevated the former walk-on North Carolina QB to the top position on his offensive staff ahead of the 2022 campaign, though, the Lions started to flourish.

Detroit won only three games in 2021 and finished 25th in points, but has notched consecutive top-five scoring seasons with Johnson calling plays. This last season, the Motor City’s team finished fifth in points scored (461) and third in total yards (6,712). Johnson has also contributed to the revival of quarterback Jared Goff’s career. The former Los Angeles Rams signal-caller set a career-high in completion percentage in 2023, while also finishing top-five in the league in passing yards and touchdowns while leading the Lions to a 12-5 record, the franchise’s first division title in 30 years and two playoff wins.

And as the Lions offense continued to be among the league’s best, and Detroit reached rarely before seen heights, Johnson garnered plenty of outside attention.

The offensive guru interviewed for five head-coaching openings over the last few weeks, including with the Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Chargers and Carolina Panthers before those jobs were filled. But Johnson was adamant that his focus and commitment was with the Lions during their playoff stretch.

“It’s awesome, quite an honor, but honestly [I] haven’t thought about it beyond anything that’s going on this week,” Johnson said at a press conference ahead of Wild Card Weekend of teams requesting head-coaching interviews with him. “So just going to leave it at that right now.”

After NFL Media first broke the news of Johnson’s decision, Schefter reported that the coach’s asking price scared some interested teams, though the abrupt pivot toward staying with the Lions ahead of the Commanders interview was still considered “surprising.”

Glenn remains a candidate for the Washington job. But Detroit will have at least one of its highly sought-after assistants back for another year. And Johnson will continue to coordinate an offense featuring Goff, star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, and two players coming off promising rookie seasons—Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta—as the franchise seeks another postseason shot.

“I think we have a lot of good players on this team, the right coaches, the right everything to be back here next year,” St. Brown said after losing to the 49ers. “Obviously it’s going to be tough—probably going to be tougher than it was this year. But we feel like we’ve got the guys and we’re hungry. We’re gonna be ready.”