Surprise! Ben Johnson informs Washington, Seattle he’s returning to Lions

ALLEN PARK — There might not have been a hotter name on the coaching carousel than Ben Johnson, who drew interview requests from all but one team looking for a new head coach, interviewed with five teams of those teams and had a second interview with Washington scheduled for today in Detroit.

He was Washington’s top pick for that job, according to The Athletic, and remained in the running for the other available opening in Seattle. There was so much expectation that he was in his final days in Detroit, Jared Goff was asked on Monday about Johnson “probably leaving.”

“I don’t know if he’s leaving,” Goff said. “We’ll find out.”

A day later, we’ve found out all right.

Johnson has informed Washington and Seattle that he’s staying in Detroit, according to NFL Network.

“He wants to take another shot at bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Detroit,” the report said.

This is the second straight season Johnson, 37, has rebuffed interest in him as a head coach. He interviewed once with his home-state team, the Carolina Panthers, and was expected to get on a plane to interview in person with that club last offseason.

After a conversation with his wife, he decided to withdraw his name from consideration.

“Talked to my wife about it, and we just came to a really good decision of, ‘Hey, you know, we’re happy where we are. We love where we are. We love being in Detroit, love the people here,’ and just decided then to go ahead and put the brakes on it right now,” Johnson said. “Just wasn’t the time for us.”

Why not?

“I think some people — I can just speak on a personal level — some people, they really want to climb as fast as they can,” Johnson said. “I know particularly young coaches want to do that. That’s not been the case for me, per se. I want to be around football. I want to win football games. I want to be around good people. And when I finally had a chance to step back and take a deep breath and look at it, that was the most important thing.

“I love Dan Campbell, I’ve known him for a long time. I believe in the direction of this organization. And so that truly was the biggest drawing point for me to come back, was what we have here, what we’re building here, is something I want to be a part of. I’ve been a part of a number of losing seasons in my 11 years in the NFL.”

Now the Lions have built one of the best teams in the NFL, and certainly one of the best offenses. Johnson has led back-to-back top-five units in the league, and was named a finalist for assistant coach of the year after both seasons.

This year, they won their first division title since 1993 and first playoff game since 1991, then won another to advance to the NFC championship game. The Lions blitzed San Francisco for 24 first-half points in that game, but collapsed in the second half of a 34-31 stunner against the 49ers.

The missed opportunity will hurt for a long time, but Detroit looks loaded for another offensive assault next season, with an experienced group back that is led by All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, All-Pro center Frank Ragnow, All-Pro tight end Sam LaPorta and Pro Bowl running back Jahmyr Gibbs. The only starters not under contract are receiver Josh Reynolds and guards Jonah Jackson and Graham Glasgow.

The biggest loss was expected to be Johnson himself, the architect of one of the greatest offensive runs in franchise history. Now he’s back too, setting the table for another run at the Super Bowl next season.

Johnson has become one of the hottest names in coaching since joining Detroit in 2019. He was hired by then-head coach Matt Patricia as an offensive quality control coach, then was promoted to tight ends coach a year later. He kept his job when Dan Campbell took over in 2021, and impressed the new guy so much that he was promoted to passing game coordinator later that season.

Then Jared Goff immediately took off, finishing that season as one of the hottest quarterbacks in the league.

A year later, Johnson was promoted to offensive coordinator.

On Tuesday, he told the Commanders in the middle of their flight to Detroit that he still wasn’t going anywhere.