Detroit Lions Mailbag: Why didn’t the Lions hire Jets OC Tanner Engstrand instead of John Morton?
Well, Week 1 did not go the way the Detroit Lions wanted it to, and Lions fans are understandably upset. They also have a lot of questions right now. Let’s answer them. Did the Lions consider Jets OC Tanner Engstrand for their OC job? No. At least there was never any public information about whether […]
Well, Week 1 did not go the way the Detroit Lions wanted it to, and Lions fans are understandably upset. They also have a lot of questions right now. Let’s answer them.
Did the Lions consider Jets OC Tanner Engstrand for their OC job?
No. At least there was never any public information about whether or not the Lions were interested in him. It was always speculation that when Johnson left, it would be Engstrand who took the job. That was what everyone expected until the offseason came around, and then things cooled down dramatically there. The thought was that maybe Scottie Montgomery would be considered, but it seems as though John Morton was always the guy, and the Lions never interviewed anyone else.
The Lions seemed poised to keep Engstrand on the staff, but then the Jets came and poached him. Campbell wanted somebody who was a big part of the installation of this offense and understood what the team was driving for. While it’s reasonable to think Engstand could have done that, he was still young, and Campbell might have wanted someone who had been doing things longer.
Morton isn’t someone that nobody wanted or a guy whom Campbell is doing a favor to. He was with the Broncos, and they wanted him back badly. On top of that, Ben Johnson was trying to hire him to be the Bears’ coordinator. Sunday did not go well, but people are making rulings on things way too fast right now. If we get to November, and it’s still bad, then we’ll see what happens. The same thing goes for Engstrand. We don’t know if this is what his Jets team will look like all the time.
How can the Lions get the defensive line going against the Bears?
They need to keep doing what they were doing against the Packers in the second half of Sunday’s game. The Packers dropped back just six times in the second half, and the Lions played their best defense of the day on those dropbacks. Everyone will ignore that and focus only on the first three drives. They got better as the day went on.
Apart from that, guys need to go there to win when they get 1-on-1 situations. Aidan Hutchinson is going to get doubled every single time. Well, then, Davenport, Reader, Williams, or whoever is out there needs to take advantage and win their matchups. The more that happens, the more the Bears have to respect the rest of the line, and that opens things up for Hutchinson to get active.
Why didn’t Brad Holmes get depth on the offensive or defensive line, and why didn’t they bring in a big star edge rusher?
Why didn't Holmes go after depth on both the O and D lines? Or, go all in on a big name yo pair with Hutch?
— Gotte Jib⭕️⭕️ (@dgotte75.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
He did. On the defensive line, he grabbed Roy Lopez and Tyleik Williams. When Alim McNeill comes back, those guys can become more a part of the rotation. On the offensive line, the Lions have Miles Frazier, but he’s hurt and not ready to come back yet. Then there’s Kingsley Eguakun and Kayode Awosika. They had other guys like Trystan Colon and Jamarco Jones, but they both got hurt. Holmes did the work, but things just aren’t working out yet.
The Lions feel good about Davenport, and they were feeling good about Ahmed Hassainen, but then he got hurt. They felt good about Josh Paschal, but then he got hurt. Seeing a pattern here? If the Lions had all these guys and were at full strength, I don’t think Lions fans are freaking out right now. They’d be pretty deep all around in the trenches. A big name is cool, but a big name comes with big money implications. The Lions have enough big-money implications to deal with already.
Can the Lions get their communication issues solved in time for the Bears?
Realistically how much better can the interior o-line get at their assignments within a week?
— Andrew Jazdzyk (@michigan-forged.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 1:18 PM
It’s realistic for multiple reasons. The first one is that the Lions are dialing things back and not putting so much craziness on the offensive line’s plate. This week will be all about getting back to basics. Campbell has said that, or a variation of that, so many times that he can start having T-shirts made.
It wasn’t that it was a pretty simple communication problem. Tate Ratledge said this week that the Lions’ biggest problem stemmed from not picking up the silent count. That’s something that, over time, you start to figure out more and more each game. The good news is that this team is playing at home this week.
Did the Lions pay Jameson Williams too early?
Did tbe Lions, potentially, sign Jamo too early when this team has bigger areas to fill, like O.L. and D.L. ?
— ProudDetroiter (@detroitstrong.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM
No. To reiterate again, the Lions did a good job of finding depth everywhere this offseason. They’re just dealing with some injuries at the moment, and those injuries are close to being over. Most of those guys should be back in the coming weeks.
Paying Jameson Williams now was the best thing this team could have done to counter the market. Williams will be jumped big time in the rankings when it comes ot pay next year, and his deal is going to look like a steal because the Lions got ahead of all that. Plus, he’s not taking up much cap space this year. It doesn’t prevent much at all.
Why did it seem like Packers’ defense just had this Lions offense figured out?
The Packers read the Lions like a book in this game. They knew that Detroit wanted to go deep, and they went all in on preventing it from happening. They never needed to blitz. The problem is that the Lions’ counter for that was to just check down every time.
That’s why Jahmyr Gibbs had 10 catches. The Lions need to find a couple more moves, and they can’t rely on just explosives. That’s why back to basics is the theme of this week. Run the ball to set up the pass and then hit your open guys. Get the deep shots when you can, but don’t rely on them. This game was sort of an anomaly in the way they just wanted that deep pass and wouldn’t move off it.
Could the Lions trade for a new center to replace Graham Glasgow?
Probably not. I don’t think the Lions have any plans to move on from Glasgow anytime soon. The communication issues can be fixed, and don’t forget he was playing a little hurt out there. Plus, it’s not like there’s a lot of starting-caliber centers that a team would be willing to trade away.
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