In a move that signals yet another staffing shakeup for the Detroit Lions, offensive coordinator John Morton has been sacked after just one season on the job. The Lions' official announcement came Tuesday, swiftly following their victory over the Bears but failing to secure a playoff spot. Information originally reported by Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, and later confirmed by the Lions' social media channels, details the end of Morton's tenure as the offensive playcaller for the team.
Morton, who joined the Lions after two years with the Denver Broncos, was hoping to continue with the Lions into 2026, he said, preferring to stay regardless of his job title. Clearly, the team had other plans, opting to let go of Morton after stripping him of play-calling duties in Week 9 of the season. Head coach Dan Campbell, who had previously taken over play-calling from the team's previous offensive coordinator, Anthony Lynn, in 2021, stepped in again to assert his control over offensive strategies, although this effort has failed to considerably turn the tide for the Lions' erratic performance in the latter half of the season. "You always have to be positive. You know, it ain't about me. It's about the team," Morton told CBS News Detroit in an earlier statement.
During Morton's play-calling span, the team maintained a 5-3 record with averages of 29.9 points and 125.1 rushing yards per game. However, the numbers dipped slightly under Campbell's direction; the Lions scored 26.9 points per game and averaged 115.6 yards on the ground. Despite the decline, Campbell noted the potential benefits of his continuing to call plays, stating that it would eliminate concerns about a play caller's possible departure. "I don’t know exactly where I’m at with that yet," Campbell told Detroit Free Press. "I mean, I guess one of the good things if I did do that, you don’t have to worry about somebody else leaving. You don’t have to worry about your play caller leaving. So that would be one of the perks of it."
Statistics from NFL Research show that with Morton at the helm, the Lions averaged 28.8 offensive points and 350.8 yards per game. Post handover, the team managed nearly two fewer offensive points per game but increased their yardage to 393.1 per game. Despite these changes, quarterback Jared Goff's performance saw a nearly 10 percentage point drop in completion rates and a decline in his passer rating from 115.2 to 98.6. The whole offensive strategy has seemingly failed to consistently ignite, with the Lions finishing the season with a middling 9-8 record.
Looking forward, Campbell has made it clear that changes are imminent, expressing a brutally honest self-appraisal and signaling a desire for competitive reinvigoration. "We've got nobody to blame but ourselves. But I really don't believe we're that far off," he explained to NFL.com. "There's a couple of things we can do, and I just want to make sure we go after it. I'm not saying we weren't hungry, but let's get that hunger back and we're going to bring in some guys to compete." Adding a new offensive coordinator to the team seems just the start of Campbell's plan to bring back the edge the Lions seem to have lost.
.jpg){kind=link}