The Detroit Lions sit at 5-3, at the midway point of Dan Campbell’s fifth season as Head Coach and already there are rumblings from the fanbase….fire John Morton.

It seems like that’s the easy solution given that the Lions offense hasn’t looked the same as it has in years past, especially when Campbell has already done it once (relieving Anthony Lynn of playcall duties in 2021) and it produced better results almost immediately. The offense started building an identity. They were going to be that hard nosed, gritty team that Campbell said he wanted.

That team stayed with that philosophy but also gained another wrinkle, they were explosive. While it remained Dan Campbell’s scheme, the offense flourished under Ben Johnson. Each year becoming more dangerous, winning more games and scoring….a lot.

But don’t get it mistaken, there were some duds in there. Baffling play calls in situations that would leave one scratching their head. Trick plays, while working most of the time, called at crazy spots or when they weren’t necessarily needed. We ignored it because it worked. Empty backfield on 3rd & 1 after averaging six yards per carry against one of the worst run defenses of the year. Getting to cute and straying from the hard nose philosophy. Abandoning the run game to quickly at times, forcing plays to one player at the detriment of the goal to win. It worked, so people stayed silent and ignored the bad.

Under John Morton the team has at times looked unstoppable, so much so that they set a franchise record for points to start the season, scoring 174 points through their first five games. This marks the most points any Lions team has ever posted in the opening five weeks of a season.

At the time of the record, the Lions also led the entire NFL in scoring to start the season. The team also set a franchise high with 22 touchdowns in those first five games. Again, everything bad or concerning was ignored because….it was working.

If we dive into the bad of the 3 three losses, we see the same trend from Mortons past creeping its way into the Lions offense. Former players and coaches expressed concern about his ability to design and execute a consistent running game from his time with the Jets as their Offensive Coordinator.

One example of players frustrated with his play-calling, is running back Matt Forte, who publicly criticized the decision to abandon the run game in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Another example of this is a Week 12 home loss to the Carolina Panthers, during which the Jets failed to score a touchdown after three incomplete passes in a row from the 1-yard line. Then Head Coach Todd Bowles was furious with the playcalling, sources said.

Dan Campbell recently said in a media session that he’d like to see changes in the run game with more perimeter runs, showing that he too isn’t to fond of how the run game is looking this year.

Amon Ra St Brown mentioned how he wants to see more explosive plays. Agreed but the 11 players on the field have to do their job.

The Jets offense finished that year ranked:

28th in yards per game (305.2).

24th out of 32 teams with 298 points scored.

28th out of 32 teams with 4,884 total yards.

Now, a lot of that could be because the offense was led by journeyman QB Josh McCown, who finished the year with a career-best season under Morton, throwing for 2,926 yards, 18 touchdowns, and only 9 interceptions.

Bilal Powell led the team in rushing with 772 yds and Robbie Chosen led the team in receiving with 63 catches for 941 yds.

That’s for the season, in comparison after eight games, the Lions sit at:

Jared Goff has 1915 yards passing amd 17 TDs

Gibbs has 551 yards rushing

Amon Ra St Brown has 59 catches for 635 yds.

The Lions are currently

3rd in scoring offense 29.9 pts per game (2024 – 33.2 1st)

11th in total yards per game at 350.8 (2024 – 409.5 2nd)

12th is passing yards per game at 225.6 (2024 – 263.2 2nd)

9th in rushing yards per game at 125.1 (2024 – 146.4 6th)

Morton definitely has better talent to work with this time around than he did with the Jets. And, despite setting the franchise record for points in the fiart five weeks, the 2017 issues are showing up in 2025.

Despite having Hank Fraley, one of the leagues best offensive line coaches, the O-Line is struggling this year and not as dominant as it once was; failing to produce a consistent run game and currently on pace to set a career high in sacks for QB Jarad Goff. Losing an All-Pro Center in Frank Ragnow will do that to you. Losing another fantastic right guard in Kevin Zeitler was a blow that not many anticipated. While he wasn’t the Zeitler of old, he was still extremely reliable.

The O-Line isn’t the same, they have an aging backup center who is better at right guard and hates playing center, a rookie 2nd round pick at the right guard spot, and a 2024 6th round pick who played in seven games last year, starting one. The pass protection is spotty, with wither Glasgow making the wrong protection calls or Goff. Gibbs stayed in the backfield on 16 pass plays and gave up 7 pressures.

Your most electric and best offensive weapon shouldn’t be related to pass blocking, especially when he loses nerve 50% of the time.

The run game isn’t clicking either, the Lions offense allowed 10 tackles for loss vs the Vikings.

In the 2025 season opener against the Packers, they were hit 16 out of 22 rush attempts behind the line of scrimmage.

The offense he ran in New York saw career highs for several average to beliw average players, so surely with the talent the Lions have, he would see similar if not better results. That hasn’t been the case, instead we’ve seem uncharacteristic mental and physical mistakes from some of the better Lions players.

Plays that Morton drew up in 2017 to allow his playmakers to make plays, like throwing a 2 yard pass on a 3rd and 6 that wasn’t picked up because of a bad throw or a missed block, are occurring this year for the Lions in 2025. The Lions last year were able to throw screens and balls short of the 1st down marker because the players would make a move and get those much needed yards…it isn’t happening this year. Is that really John Mortons fault?

Morton said before the season started that he’d be foolish to not run the same offense they’ve been running because it worked so well, but coaches are prideful, they’re control freaks and they have an ego. Why would Morton run the same stuff and hear how he just rode the coattails of what Ben created instead of trying to etch his name in the Lions history books?

Not all of the problems are strictly because of playcalling and play design, it’s also execution from the Lions best players, or lack of. But that killer instinct and creativeness are definitely missing.

The Lions defense has forced 18 turnovers this season by takeaways or turnovers on downs. They’ve scored four touchdowns.

“Seventeen third downs is crazy” Campbell said. “That’s a high, high amount of third downs. Our first and second down efficiency has to be better.”

The Lions went three-and-out four times against out of a total of 11 possessions. The offense struggled with efficiency, going 5-for-17 on third down.

People might say that’s because the Lions go for a fourth down so they’re not concerned with converting third down. To those people I say, bull. The Lions offense on 3rd and 4 or longer is 3-of-23. They’ve combined for more turnovers and sacks (7) than conversions (3) in these situations.

Again, is that all on Morton or can the blame be shared with the players? I say it’s both.

John Morton can build an opening drive script. The Lions have scored 5 TDs, 1 FG and punted twice on the 8 opening drives. Not only does the offense score, it scores fast with only one drive needing double digit plays to get into the endzone. The only other drive that went over 10 plays was vs KC when they took 15 plays to get a FG.

Week 1 @GB — Punt, 3 plays, −4 yards

Week 2 vs CHI — TD (5 plays, 60 yds).

Week 3 @ BAL — TD (11 plays, 67 yds).

Week 4 vs CLE — Punt (4 plays, 20 yds)

Week 5 @ CIN — TD (7 plays, 58 yds).

Week 6 @ KC — Field goal drive (15 plays, 61 yds).

Week 7 vs TB — TD (6 plays, 69 yds).

Week 8 — Bye.

Week 9 vs MIN — TD (6 plays, 72 yds)

The problem with Morton is after the script disappears, he seems unsure what to do. He doesn’t change his approach and sticks with the gameplan, we saw it vs GB and Minnesota. The run game wasn’t working so he went away early, against pressure and blitzes he went with long developing plays instead of quick strikes like slants and drags to exploit the zones left open by the blitz. Goff, whose normally one of the best QBs vs the blitz, struggled vs Minnesota.

The other problem is the offense not having an identity or a clue about how to handle things if ARSB isn’t on the field. That was evident vs the Vikings when he went down in the hurry up before halftime. I feel Morton, along with Ben tries to force feed St Brown to much. With so many weapons there’s no need to force feed anyone. There needs to Henan emphasis on spreading the ball around.

Jameson Williams has to be utilized more than just running deep, he needs the ball quickly in space. Teams are taking away the deep shot, so let your playmakers do what they do best, make plays.

It’s definitely premature to fire anyone, especially a potential Super Bowl contending team, after eight games. Re-evaluate and make the necessary changes. I wasn’t a fan of the hire to begin with but I will give it time. With nine games left, the Lions are going to have to figure it out soon.

If they dont the Lions will not win the division, a playoff game or the SB with the offense playing the way it has. Too many points left on the field, too many missed opportunities when the defense gets turnovers.

Special teams has not been good all year and it was a disaster vs Minnesota.
Two kick returns were almost TDs if not for a saving tackle by Bates and a holding penalty. A blocked FG that cost Detroit 3 pts and would have given Minnesota 7 if not for Jack Fox.
The kick returners consistently running straight into their own blockers and not gaining ground.

Time will tell if John Morton was the right guy to replace Ben Johnson. With all the good that Ben did, there certainly was some bad and even if Morton were to eliminate all the bad, it’s still a tough act to follow.

The offense needs more explosive plays and needs to be less predictable with the 27 screens a game. I understand the reasoning behind it but teams are quickly catching on because the execution isn’t there like last year…that falls on the players, not John Morton.

That begs the question, is the offense to boring or very complex to run. Either way, what has happened despite the good, can’t continue to happen if the Lions want to finally nab that elusive Superbowl. From coaching, play design, play calling and player execution.

Was John Morton the wrong hire? No…at least not yet anyway.