The Lions are in search of a new offensive coordinator.
Detroit fired John Morton earlier this week after one season, during which head coach Dan Campbell took over offensive play-calling in the middle of the year.
Reportedly, the club has already expressed interest in former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel for the job. During his Thursday press conference, General Manager Brad Holmes told reporters that Detroit is “looking at everything” when it comes to candidates, while also noting that the team has “a lot” of priorities for the person who fills the role.
"[T]here has to be leadership, there has to be detail-oriented, there’s got to be command of the room,” Holmes said, via transcript from the team. “You just have to be able to know that there’s somebody that’s going to be able to dot every ‘i,’ cross every ‘T’ and make sure that nothing is compromised from a detail standpoint, from a standards standpoint from the start of the game-planning period all the way ‘till the end of the week. And so, we’re just looking for that type of person, whether the person has previous experience calling plays or not.
“I’ve been around previous coaches that have not done it and did it and had a lot of success with it. So, I do think a lot of it is just you’ve got to just get in front of them, hear them out, spend some time with them and kind of hear their ideas, hear their philosophy, do a lot of vetting — as much vetting as you can — and just make the decision. But I think when you go through the process of getting in front of them, when you know, you know.”
Morton had previously worked in the organization under Holmes and Campbell in 2022 as a senior offensive assistant, which was part of why the Lions brought him back a year ago. But given the way things work in the coaching cycle, Detroit swiftly made the decision to move on and now can work to get someone else in the position.
"[I]n this business and these chairs, you have to make some really tough decisions,” Holmes said. “And look, Johnny did a lot of good things this time around, the first time around for us. So, appreciate all of his efforts and everything that he put into it. But look, there is a time where you just have to just make a decision, especially when candidates are becoming available.
“You have to just make the tough decision to move forward and move on. So, we didn’t have a pre-determined date in mind or anything like that. It’s just kind of after some discussions, just felt that it’s time to just move on and start fresh.”
