Why the Lions didn’t have anyone waiting in the wings to take over as OC after Ben Johnson left

The Lions had a plan, but so did Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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The Detroit Lions are going through an offensive coordinator search the year after Ben Johnson left because the one they picked to replace Johnson did not turn out to be the guy they hoped he would be. On Saturday night, I got this question from a Lions fan, and it’s worth elaborating on my answer.

That’s a really good question. The Lions had all the time in the world to build a guy up, and they knew that Johnson would leave at some point. So why didn’t they have a guy waiting in the wings? Here’s the thing: they did. They had multiple guys whom they were developing. The problem is that all those guys are left with Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

Tanner Engstrand

Engstrand was long considered to be Johnson’s successor. A lot of people thought for well over a year that he would be the Lions’ OC after Johnson left, and then when it came to the time to do that, there was a different feeling in the air.

Suddenly, it no longer felt like it would happen. Maybe the Lions didn’t feel he was ready, but Aaron Glenn did. He took him to New York to be his offensive coordinator.

J.T. Barrett

Barrett was another guy who was a lot bigger part of the Lions offense than you might think. Johnson gave him a ton of credit for helping come up with and install a lot of the specials the Lions ran when Johnson was there. Johnson took him with him to the Bears to be his quarterbacks coach.

Antwaan Randle-El

Another guy who absolutely is ready for an OC job and was ready for it last year, too. Again, Johnson took him with him to be his assistant head coach and wide receivers coach.

There are still some guys left in Detroit to keep an eye on

In addition to Barrett, the other guys who helped with specials were current Lions assistant offensive line coach Steve Oliver and assistant tight ends coach Seth Ryan. Both are growing in the NFL, and while they’re probably not ready to be offensive coordinators just yet but could be down the road.

So that’s it, the three guys who could have been considered all left. Along with them went any chance the Lions had of a backup plan.

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