When Jared Goff was with the Rams, he often thrived when the club would utilize an up-tempo offense.
With the quarterback entering his second year with the Lions, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell is planning to integrate more of those principles into his system.
“We want to be able to do anything and everything that we can at any given time,” Campbell said over the weekend, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “And I feel like what we’re implementing will allow us to do that.”
It’s not like the Lions are going to be a full-time, no-huddle offense under coordinator Ben Johnson — who was promoted to the role this offseason. And there’s a chance Campbell may still call plays, as he did in the second half of 2021. But the ability to vary tempos within the offense can be an advantage because it keeps defenses off balance. And it helps that Goff has experience with something like that.
“The ability to change our tempo will be big,” Campbell said. “And some of that just comes from verbiage alone, believe it or not. So I just feel like everything’s just going to be so much more streamlined and the ability to, shoot, get on the line if we need to and one word, one call. Whether that’s with high tempo or not. Could be we’re just back on the line, no tempo, we’re not huddling, which that in itself puts stress on the defense.”
Detroit has made some upgrades to its receiving corps, bringing in DJ Chark through free agency and drafting Jameson Williams to play alongside Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end T.J. Hockenson. If Goff can distribute passes to those targets effectively with varied tempos, then Detroit’s offense could show some real competitiveness in 2022.