Football is a business. We often hear this when players seek new contracts and feel they are being underpaid, but it applies to coaches, as well.
As head coaches assemble their coaching staff to support them throughout the season, they usually go with people they either believe in or trust. However, assistant coaches are the first to be poached when head coach openings come up. Every year, a coaching carousel surrounds the NFL, where teams interview assistant coaches and college coaches for a finite number of openings.
For two years, all eyes had been on the Lions coordinators. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn had turned their respective units into some of the best in the entire league. While they both were sought after for interviews in the 2024 coaching carousel, both stayed in Detroit for the 2024 season.
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After the season, both Johnson and Glenn finally left the Lions and moved on to head coaching gigs in the NFL. Here’s more on how Campbell replaced his two coordinators from 2024 ahead of the 2025 season.
Lions coaching staff
John Morton — Offensive Coordinator
It remains to be seen how easily Johnson can be replaced. He had developed into one of the best offensive minds in the game, devising not only effective game plans but also unexpected trick plays.
Trying to fill his shoes will be John Morton. He played his college ball at Western Michigan but went undrafted in 1993. Morton never made an NFL main roster, but he spent 1993-1997 on practice squads and in the CFL. After his playing career, he became an offensive assistant with the Raiders.
Morton has been some form of a football coach for the past 27 years, bouncing between roles in the college game and the NFL. He first had the opportunity to serve as an offensive coordinator in the NFL in 2017 with the Jets. That season, New York had the fifth-fewest offensive yards per game and scored the ninth-fewest points per game.
Most recently, Morton served as the pass game coordinator for the Broncos in 2023 and 2024. In that time, Denver had the ninth-fewest (2023) and 13th-fewest (2024) passing yards per game. This will be Morton’s second stint with the Lions organization. He served as a senior offensive assistant for the Detroit Lions in 2022.
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Kelvin Sheppard — Defensive Coordinator
Kelvin Sheppard is tasked with taking over as the defensive coordinator from Glenn. He played college football at LSU and was selected as a third-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Sheppard spent time with the Bills, Colts, Dolphins, Giants, Bears and Lions over his eight-year career. He spent some time away from football after his career ended, but returned to Detroit in 2021 as a coach.
Sheppard was brought on as the franchise’s outside linebackers coach. After a year, he was promoted to the overall linebackers coach. Sheppard held that title for the last three seasons before being promoted to defensive coordinator.
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What happened to Ben Johnson?
Johnson was expected to be the most highly sought-after coach in the 2025 cycle. He had another successful season as Detroit’s offensive coordinator. It helped that there were some viral plays — like a fake fumble — that were attributed to Johnson, making him appear to be an offensive genius.
Johnson left Detroit to become a head coach. Unfortunately for Detroit, he didn’t go very far. The Lions will see him twice during the regular season because Johnson took the Bears’ head coach vacancy.
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What happened to Aaron Glenn?
Glenn joined the Lions in 2021 as their defensive coordinator. He and Campbell had helped turn the franchise around. Glenn was consistently linked to head coach openings, but he kept returning to Detroit.
The 2025 coaching carousel presented an opportunity for him that he couldn’t pass up. The Jets had fired their head coach and GM, ushering in a new era for the team. New York reached out to Glenn and chose him as the new head coach. It was a reunion between the two parties because the Jets drafted Glenn with the 12th overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft.
He was with the franchise until 2002, when the Texans selected him with the third overall pick in the expansion draft.
