BREAKING NEWS: Former Lions coach has interviewed to replace Ben Johnson as offensive coordinator

The Lions have interviewed an outside candidate to replace Ben Johnson that lands as obvious upon a deeper dive.

The search to replace Aaron Glenn as defensive coordinator has come to an end, so now it’s on to candidates to replace Ben Johnson as the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator. According to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, Denver Broncos passing game coordinator John Morton has emerged as a candidate to watch for the Lions offensive coordinator job.

The report added that Morton recently interviewed with head coach Dan Campbell.

Morton’s name may sound familiar. That’s because he was on the Lions’ coaching staff in 2022 as a senior offensive assistant. He also interviewed for the Lions’ offensive coordinator job when Campbell first came in as head coach in 2021.

Last year (h/t to Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit), when asked about current passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand, here’s what Campbell said about Morton.

“John Morton, man, Johnny was – Johnny’s a superstar now and there’s a number of things that he did for us last year that are things that we’ve kept,” Campbell said. “And I really feel like that helped Tanner as well. And he took a lot of that, and he learned from that, and he’s grown from that.”

John Morton is an easy candidate to replace Ben Johnson as Lions’ OC

Days before Rapoport and Pelissero’s report, John Maakaron of SI.com noted Morton as someone to watch as a candidate to be the Lions’ next offensive coordinator.

Outside of four seasons (2007-2010) at USC, Morton was worked in the NFL continuously since 1998. He started as an offensive assistant with the Oakland Raiders, followed by notable stops with the New Orleans Saints (passing game coordinator 2006; wide receivers coach 2015-16) and San Francisco 49ers (wide receivers coach 2011-14). He has been an NFL offensive coordinator once, with the New York Jets for one season (2017).