According to FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell plans to retain offensive play calling for the remainder of the 2025 season.
“He told me yesterday this is a permanent move,” Glazer
said on Sunday during the FOX pregame show. “He’s going to do this for the rest of the season. He said, ‘Look, I’m still kinda getting my feet wet how I’m doing this, schedule wise.’ But Johnny Morton, who he replaced, has been doing a fantastic job helping [him] get acclimated to this. But this is Dan Campbell the rest of the way.”
Earlier in the week, Campbell left the door open for offensive coordinator John Morton to reclaim play-calling duties either in 2026 or potentially sooner. Campbell compared Morton’s situation to that of Ben Johnson in 2021, when Campbell took over play-calling duties in the final half of the season, only to give Johnson the keys to the offense the next year.
“I called whatever that was, eight or nine games—I don’t remember what it was—in ’21 while [Johnson] helped me. But he watched, he learned, he saw how I ran it, how I wanted to run it, what I was looking for. And then it evolved, he evolved it from there. He took it, he knew exactly what I wanted and by the middle of ’22, I didn’t have to say a word,” Campbell said. “So, that’s kind of where John is right now, that’s all. It’s good. And sometimes that’s the best way to really know what somebody’s looking for is just going through that.”
Under Campbell’s play-calling, the Lions set a season-high in yards last week against the Washington Commanders and put up 44 points. This week, he’ll have a much bigger challenge against an Eagles defense that currently ranks 10th in scoring (21.3 point per game).
Meanwhile, Morton will still have an essential role in preparing and assisting the offense, particularly in the passing game.
