Dan Campbell is once again looking for a new offensive coordinator.
The Lions fired offensive coordinator John Morton on Tuesday, the team announced, ending his tenure with the franchise after just one season. The longtime NFL assistant was hired to replace Ben Johnson a year ago after Johnson left for the head job with the Chicago Bears.
The Lions finished the season with just a 9-8 record with Morton leading their offense. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022, which was quite the falloff for the team that earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC last season and reached the NFC championship game two years ago.
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The Lions entered Sunday’s game against the Bears having lost five of their past seven games, which dropped them well out of the NFC North race.
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Campbell, who just wrapped his fifth season leading the Lions, gave himself a “freaking F” on Monday when asked to grade his season.
“It’s hard to believe that this is it,” Campbell said. “It’s going to be a hard pill to swallow watching these teams in the playoffs. But I think you’ve got to watch them. You’ve got to force yourself to do it because that’s a drive to want to be there, be a part of it.”
Morton has been an offensive assistant in the NFL for more than two decades, and has held stints with the Oakland and Las Vegas Raiders, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, New York Jets and Denver Broncos. He was also USC’s offensive coordinator for two seasons from 2009-2010. His job with the Lions marked just his second season as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. He spent one season as the Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2017.
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Though they missed the playoffs, the Lions offense wasn’t horrible under Morton’s watch — at least on paper. They averaged 373.2 yards per game, which was the fifth-highest output in the league, and trailed only the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams in passing yards per game. They averaged more than 28 points per game, too, which was tied for the fourth-highest output in the league. Campbell did take over play-calling duties from Morton in early November, however, and the team rolled to a 22-point win the following week.
With the Lions not turning those yards into nearly enough wins, Campbell and the Lions decided it was time to move on offensively.
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