The Lions may finally have the coach who can unlock the missing piece of their offense
Detroit Lions may finally have the coach to unlock a missing part of the offense. The talent has been there for years, but one new addition to the staff could be the key to making Detroit more explosive in 2026.
If there’s one thing Detroit Lions fans have been waiting on with this offense, it’s the deep ball. When are they really going to open this thing up?
There’s been a silly narrative that Goff just can’t do it, but that’s not accurate. Goff did throw the deep ball here and there under Ben Johnson, and he was one of the best deep ball passers when he actually did it. One of the highest EPAs, completion percentage, and output.
The thing is, we just haven’t seen it as much as you would think when the Lions have guys like Jameson Williams and Isaac TeSlaa who can stretch the field. Now they add Greg Dortch to that, by the way. They should be able to do it this year.
Passing game coordinator Mike Kafka, along with Drew Petzing, may be the key to unlocking the deep ball for the Lions
John Morton said he wanted to open this up last summer, but he definitely did not do that. Goff’s average depth of target sat at 6.43 yards in 2025 (22nd) on roughly 40 deep attempts. Even though they did it with more Ben Johnson, in 2024, the deep rate ran in the bottom third.
With Kafka, the Lions have the chance to open it up more. Kafka’s 2025 Giants, as interim HC/play-caller, ran one of the more downfield-willing operations in the league. Jaxson Dart put up a 9.0 average depth of target, and 34.2% of his throws were 10+ yards. That’s a lot more attempts than Goff and the Lions.
Where Detroit can benefit is that they have the deep ball players instead of really just one deep ball threat like the Giants have with Malik Nabers, who is very good, but is kind of on his own there. The Lions also have a more accurate quarterback in Goff. Dart completed just 39.7% of his deep passing attempts.
The Lions are going to be run first all the way, and that’s where Petzing, who didn’t really dial up the deep ball a ton in Arizona for a few reasons, comes in handy. But this is where Petzing and Kafka can do a sort of a co-coordinator type thing.
The problem with all of this is that the Lions likely have just one year of this offense with Petzing and Kafka. If the Lions are really good this year and the offense pours it on and either remains as explosive as they’ve been or gets even more explosive, Kafka is likely to get another OC job somewhere. If they win the Super Bowl, both Petzing and Kafka could get head coach jobs. It’s not as crazy as it seems.
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