The Detroit Lions’ most important newcomer isn’t going to make a single play when the team kicks off its NFL preseason opener at Cincinnati on Thursday, Aug. 13.
He won’t catch a football or make a tackle. He won’t even be on the field. And honestly, after the game, it will be hard to size up how well he did his job.
That’s because the most important newcomer is offensive coordinator Drew Petzing – the Lions’ third OC in three seasons. His importance is outsized because how far the Lions go will largely be determined by how good he is at working with coach Dan Campbell and getting the most out of the offense, which remains by far the team’s most potent strength.
“I think more than anything … it's more about he and I,” Campbell said Tuesday, Aug.
11. “So he learns my communication with him, what I'm looking for, this is what I mean when I say this. I think more of those things. And then I get a feel of him a little bit.
“Now, he won't have all his guys in there, but you can kind of get a feel of where he's at and the way he thinks in-game flow. I think it's more of that than anything, us just kind of getting familiar with one another in a game setting.”
For all the hand wringing that goes on over positional battles in training camp, the most important position up for grabs is Petzing’s. Because if he doesn’t come through by giving Campbell what he wants out of the offense, Campbell will have to step in again, like he did last season when he took away play-calling duties from John Morton in Week 10 at Washington. Like he did when he took away play-calling duties from Anthony Lynn in Week 10 in 2021.
But the preseason is also a strange entity. It’s largely an evaluative tool that teams use to figure out which depth players they want to keep on the back end of the roster, and even those players are hardly safe from the roster churn of the regular season.
Because of that, these preseason exhibitions are a far cry from resembling real games. That means it’s harder to evaluate new coaches like Petzing, who will be sending in plays to rookie quarterback Luke Altmyer or new signee Josh Dobbs and not five-time Pro Bowler Jared Goff.
When you account for the vanilla factor of bland offensive game plans in the preseason, it’s even harder to evaluate Petzing as a play caller, even though he was the Arizona Cardinals' OC the past three seasons. Campbell likely will be looking for how smoothly and efficiently Petzing runs the offense Campbell expects to see. If the confusion is kept to a minimum as player rotate in and out without too many procedural penalties, that should be a good sign.
The only problem is that good signs in the preseason might not be enough to give Campbell a clear idea of what he’ll get out of Petzing in the regular season. That much was clear when I asked him Tuesday if last year’s preseason opener gave him any idea of how Morton would work out.
“No, I mean, I think that's always going to be a work in progress,” he said. “No, not really, but that's normal. I mean, I didn't feel great with Ben (Johnson) either the first preseason game. I mean, it's a work in progress.
“And so it takes a minute to learn each other and what you mean, what you're looking for. And the only way to do it is go through games together. So it'll be good. It's all part of the process.”
If nothing else, Petzing has been getting ringing endorsements from his players so far in training camp, especially from Goff, who said his comfort level with Petzing is “really good.”
“I think the last four or five practices,” Goff said Monday, Aug. 10, “it's really started to come together nicely where we're running stuff that looks the same but is different and able to mess with the defense in certain looks and do a little bit more than just call the play on the paper. So it's been great.”
Somewhat like Campbell, Goff stressed the symbiotic nature of his relationship with Petzing that requires learning what each other wants through constant communication.
“Telling him what I like, what I don't like,” Goff said, “him telling me what he wants to do and what he doesn't want and constantly talking, constantly giving him suggestions.
“Some of them are good, some of them aren't. And that blend, it eventually blends into this thing that we both love and we're working towards that and we're doing a good job.”
It’s easy to say nice things and downplay any issues during camp, and Goff is especially good at avoiding controversial statements. Last year in camp, he said working with Morton was a “fun challenge” and “a good process.”
It will be a different story when the regular season arrives. That’s when we’ll see how much fun everyone’s having.
But I’ll give Campbell this much credit. Even though he knew demoting Morton was an indictment of his hiring ability, he didn’t put his pride and optics ahead of saving the season. He promised before last season started that he would keep close watch of the offense,unlike his first season, when he ceded too much control to Lynn.
I’m sure Campbell will approach this season similarly and continue to keep close watch of the offense under Petzing. For that matter, so will everyone else, starting with the preseason opener.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Drew Petzing's preseason debut is the most important for Lions
