5 quick thoughts after meeting with Detroit Lions' retooled offensive coaching staff

Allen Park — After three consecutive years of finishing top five in scoring, the Detroit Lions will have a revamped offensive coaching staff in 2025.

Former coordinator Ben Johnson — the architect of the Lions’ high-octane unit — now leads the Bears, and wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El will serve as Johnson’s right-hand man in Chicago. Meanwhile, passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand and tight ends coach Steve Heiden are with the New York Jets, serving in key roles on former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn’s staff.

On Tuesday, the Lions made the seven coaches who will lead the offense available to the media. That group is headlined by Johnson’s replacement, John Morton. His lieutenants include a few holdovers — offensive line coach Hank Fraley, quarterback coach Mark Brunell, and Scottie Montgomery, who was shifted from running backs to receivers this offseason. The other newcomers are passing game coordinator David Shaw, running backs coach Tashard Choice and tight ends coach Tyler Roehl.

The media sessions lasted close to two hours, and combined with similar conversations scheduled with the defensive staff later this week, will generate an offseason’s worth of headlines that should carry us to training camp.

More immediately, here are five quick thoughts from Tuesday’s press conferences.

Rest on laurels? New staff content to bury them

Morton and Shaw understand what the Lions have achieved offensively over the past few seasons. They’re not here to overhaul what’s working, but they’re also not going to accept coasting on those past accomplishments.

“(We have to) make sure that we’re not saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna come back and do a carbon copy of last year,'” Shaw said. “Last year is dead. It’s gone, right? It’s in the history books, you know? We got a chance to write another chapter, so we’re not gonna be ogling at what happened last year.

“We’re also not gonna be held to it, either,” Shaw said. “Brand new year, different players, different coaches, different opponents, so it’s really taking stock in who we have and what we have and making sure that we get the most out of everybody in the building.”

While the foundation of the system that Detroit has thrived running will remain, Morton and company are building on it by incorporating concepts they’ve developed and have had success utilizing.

“Listen, Ben did an unbelievable job,” Morton said. “He’s a hell of a coach. I’m not taking that away from him, at all. I would never do that, because we’re friends. But we have to paint our own picture here, so we can get the ultimate picture, which is the Super Bowl. Like, let’s win now. Let’s get it done. We have the pieces, so it’s my job, us as coaches, everybody, I’m just the orchestrator, boom, they go do it.”

Hitting another gear

Despite a second suspension in as many years for violating a league policy, wide receiver Jameson Williams noticeably turned a corner with his professionalism and offseason approach a year ago, resulting in a 1,000-yard campaign.

According to his coaches, he’s taking things to another level this offseason, which the team believes will pay major dividends on the field.

“When I first got here, he came in to see me,” Morton said. “We had a chat and I’m painting the picture; this is what you need to do, this is how I see it. And he has been unbelievable. Unbelievable. In the meetings, the attention to detail, I mean, I’m so excited to see him this year. It’s going to be a breakout year for him. I can’t wait. I just can’t wait, man.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Montgomery, who said Williams has been impressively proactive.

“He was here when I got back here, so that's a big deal to me,” Montgomery said. “When I came off of the couple-week break we had, Jamo was already here, right? In the offseason, I didn't have to call him. Once I got the job, he knew exactly what it was. He just came up just to say hello to me because he knew what we need to get done.”

Unbreakable bonds

Within the coaching staff, the Lions have added a couple of long-term friendships. Morton called Shaw his closest friend in an industry where it’s difficult to build that kind of trust.

Similarly, Choice forged a strong bond with defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard during their playing days, which has carried through their rise as up-and-coming coaches.

Like Sheppard, Choice is fiery. I asked how his competitiveness with Sheppard might show up during training camp.

"Oh, I'm going to talk trash,” Choice said. “We don't like each other (during practice). I may fight him. It's funny — when you're in them lines, I hate him as a player on the team, but I love him at the same time. You know what I mean?”

Remember those Duce Staley/Aaron Glenn spats captured on “Hard Knocks"? I’m expecting another round of that, at minimum.

A fresh injection of grit

We all understand that the Lions target gritty players to fill out the roster. It’s also part of the coaching staff’s identity. It shined through in our first chat with Roehl, a former running back who will lead the team’s tight ends.

“My goal is to play with one speed, and that one speed is physicality,” Roehl said.

I asked Roehl if his coaching style matched the way he played the game, and if so, where that demeanor originated.

“I delivered the newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota,” Roehl said. “Every other day from about fourth grade until, let’s say, freshman year of high school. When you have to deliver the newspaper in Fargo in December, January, February, and it could be -25 and going through snowbanks, literally. For me, it’s just what you did. You embraced it.

“So, for me, there was always a level of, I need to have a level of grittiness to accomplish the task at hand,” Roehl continued. “So that’s just how I was brought up and that was the standard. If you don’t reach the standard, then you’re not going to fulfill the mission.”

It’s not that blocking wasn’t previously an emphasis for the tight ends, but something tells me Roehl is going to raise the bar a little higher in that room. Would you expect anything else from a man who lacked a clearly defined neck during his brief pro career?

Read on rookies

The Lions coaches liked what they saw from their crop of first-year players at rookie minicamp, with Morton praising the surprising lack of mental errors. Still, it’s far too early to set any expectations for the newcomers.

On second-round draft pick Tate Ratledge, Fraley said there will be a continued emphasis on getting reps at center to expand the lineman’s versatility.

“Center is not as natural for him yet, so you definitely tend to give him more reps at that, snapping the ball, making it more comfortable,” Fraley said. “…I thought what he did in rookie minicamp was pretty good, for handling that. Our centers, like across the whole league, they do a lot. They have a lot on their plates. They're like quarterbacks of that o-line. They set a lot of the protections, a lot of the calls, and they work one-on-one with the QB. In time, he's going to get it down and become a pretty good center here.”

I don’t believe this is saying anything about Frank Ragnow’s short- or long-term future. However, it wouldn’t hurt to develop an alternate option for when it's needed. I imagine the cross-training is more about planning for the eventual exit of Graham Glasgow, who remains Ragnow’s primary backup.

As for wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa, he impressed with his ability to absorb coaching last weekend.

“We threw a lot at him mentally,” Montgomery said. “I challenged him, put him at multiple positions to see if he could handle that. Brought him along as fast as we could. He didn't blink an eye.”

Still, no one is ready to commit to any specific role for the rookie receiver for the upcoming season.

“We’ll see, I don’t know that yet,” Morton said. “As a rookie, it’s tough, man, especially when you come from the college game and being a wide receiver, some of these guys haven’t been in a huddle. They’ve gotten signals from the sideline, and they go line up.

"I mean, it’s a lot," Morton continued. "But I can sense that I think he will be OK. I do. And we’ll have to be smart with the rookies, especially wideouts, because everything is new.”