Last season, the Detroit Lions were one of the NFL’s most unexpected success stories. The Lions didn’t make the playoffs, but they were in contention until the final week of the season, largely on the strength of their explosive and efficient offense.
The Lions finished the season fourth in yards, fifth in points, fifth in Football Outsiders’ offensive DVOA, and third in Tru Media’s version of EPA per play. With one of the league’s top offensive lines protecting him, Jared Goff had his best season in years, and players like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jamaal Williams, D’Andre Swift, D.J. Chark, and more played significant roles in elevating the team’s performance.
Also key to the evolution was offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who became a hot name on the coaching circuit this offseason but decided to pull his name from consideration for several jobs and return to Detroit for at least another year. And Johnson sees big things coming for his offense this season.
“I personally expect a huge step forward in terms of the growth and knowledge base of our players the experience they have under their belt,” Johnson said this week, per the team’s official website. “That’s why the emphasis has been on the basics. Let’s get really good at the fundamentals because that’s what helped us win games at the end of last year.”
As for where the team can get better, Johnson doesn’t think the Lions need to do anything new. They just need to do what they need to do what they already did, better.
“When we look back at what we did in self scout all of our plays from last year I came away from it personally that even if we didn’t run one new play this year, if we ran all the same plays that we ran last year, that we would be a better offense because we have to execute better than we did,” Johnson said. “We did a lot of nice things a year ago, but it really means nothing going forward to this year. We have to…
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