2026 Detroit Lions Offseason Thread

[lordstanley]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

I would move Monken to the top of my list. My only concern is how does he work with a QB like Goff? 

I read a post on Twitter that supposedly one of the things that got Harbaugh fired was stubbornness to management about him not wanting to move on from Monken. So I suspect that Harbaugh, who will have his pick of jobs, will take Monken and Monken will follow him. 

Edited yesterday at 12:26 AM by lordstanley

[Motown Bombers]

Called it. 

 

[gehringer_2]

29 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

I read a post on Twitter that supposedly one of the things that got Harbaugh fired was stubbornness to management about him not wanting to move on from Monken. So I suspect that Harbaugh, who will have his pick of jobs, will take Monken and Monken will follow him. 

I would think autonomy over his staff choices becomes a matter of principle with any experienced head coach.

[Hongbit]

52 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Called it. 

 

No. No. No.  A million times No.

This team can not afford to have a first time OC to learn on the job calling plays and developing a game plan.  I don’t believe he’s done that at any level. 

Blough may end up as a great OC someday but this job is too much for him right now.

Edited yesterday at 01:44 AM by Hongbit

[MichiganCardinal]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I would think autonomy over his staff choices becomes a matter of principle with any experienced head coach.

He's been there 18 years and has finished with fewer than 8 wins one time. He would have been to the playoffs for the 7th time in 8 years this year, despite a slew of injuries, if his rookie kicker made a 44-yard field goal. He deserved autonomy over staff decisions. It takes some gall for the Ravens to fire him.

I think they will regret this decision. Who will they even replace him with? Stefanski? Minter? Try to be the smartest guy in the room and grab a coordinator on no one's radar?

This has all the elements of a decision that blows up in their face in three years when they haven't gone better than 8-9 and are trying to hire someone another replacement.

[Jason_R]

 

[MichiganCardinal]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

No. No. No.  A million times No.

This team can not afford to have a first time OC to learn on the job calling plays and developing a game plan.  I don’t believe he’s done that at any level. 

Blough may end up as a great OC someday but this job is too much for him right now.

If David Blough is 2022 Ben Johnson, isn't that good enough? I think this is just agent fodder from Blough's camp and won't materialize, but I'm not "hell no" on it. There are plenty of guys worse than a well-respected up-and-coming 30-year-old.

I think he is much more likely to come in as the Passing Game Coordinator under an experienced play caller. Maybe become the OC in waiting.

[Jason_R]

17 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

He's been there 18 years and has finished with fewer than 8 wins one time. He would have been to the playoffs for the 7th time in 8 years this year, despite a slew of injuries, if his rookie kicker made a 44-yard field goal. He deserved autonomy over staff decisions. It takes some gall for the Ravens to fire him.

I think they will regret this decision. Who will they even replace him with? Stefanski? Minter? Try to be the smartest guy in the room and grab a coordinator on no one's radar?

This has all the elements of a decision that blows up in their face in three years when they haven't gone better than 8-9 and are trying to hire someone another replacement.

Also, they lost a couple of tough games early — that ridiculous heartbreaker against Buffalo in Week 1 and against Detroit in Week 3, in which Derrick Henry had costly fumbles. Without the Henry fumble against Buffalo, in retrospect, there is no chance Buffalo would have come back, and an extra win in the Ravens column would have put them in the playoffs. Maybe the Detroit game would have ended differently without his fumble. Then they got ravaged with injuries. Harbaugh didn’t make Henry cough up two early wins, but he somehow kept them together to have a chance at the postseason. It’s a tough game. 

[Jason_R]

 

[sagnam]

Hearing that Campbell would retain play calling is super disappointing and helps explain why he’d lean that way over a real offensive coordinator. No way a real OC comes in and doesn’t call plays. It’ll be another year of overwhelmed coaching making suspect clock management and personnel decisions. This team works best when Campbell is leading the entire team and making executive level decisions.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[MichiganCardinal]

2 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

As a note of context, teams can only block "lateral" interviews. They cannot block "promotional" interviews. And the NFL treats their coaches in three tiers: Head Coaches / OC & DC / All Other Coordinators and Position Coaches. So the Commanders could have blocked Blough from interviewing for the Lions (presumably soon-to-be open) Passing Game Coordinator role, but could not block him from interviewing for the OC role.

[Motown Bombers]

25 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

As a note of context, teams can only block "lateral" interviews. They cannot block "promotional" interviews. And the NFL treats their coaches in three tiers: Head Coaches / OC & DC / All Other Coordinators and Position Coaches. So the Commanders could have blocked Blough from interviewing for the Lions (presumably soon-to-be open) Passing Game Coordinator role, but could not block him from interviewing for the OC role.

Right, I was posting more to show that other teams have been interested in him. 

[1984Echoes]

12 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

If David Blough is 2022 Ben Johnson, isn't that good enough? I think this is just agent fodder from Blough's camp and won't materialize, but I'm not "hell no" on it. There are plenty of guys worse than a well-respected up-and-coming 30-year-old...

I agree with this.

And if they hire him as our OC...

One additional point would be:

Our O-Line will be in transition next year. No matter how they try to fix it... there will be new guys, and already-Lions at new positions... IMO.

Which means it may take a few games for our reconstructed O-Line to gel.

That also means, to me, that Blough would have a few games to refine his playcalling before this "new offense" got up to full speed. Call it... "working out the kinks". Both for the new guys/ new positions O-Line and for the new OC, Blough or otherwise...

[1984Echoes]

11 hours ago, sagnam said:

Hearing that Campbell would retain play calling is super disappointing and helps explain why he’d lean that way over a real offensive coordinator. No way a real OC comes in and doesn’t call plays. It’ll be another year of overwhelmed coaching making suspect clock management and personnel decisions. This team works best when Campbell is leading the entire team and making executive level decisions.

It wouldn't bother me if Campbell had "input" the first several games of 2026 until he is certain Goff and Blough (or whomever is the new OC) and himself, are all on the same page with what they feel the offense should be.

[Shinzaki]

Dolphins just fired McDaniel..our new OC?

[Motown Bombers]

I think it’s very possible he gets a head coaching jobs. Baltimore would be a good fit for McDaniel. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

24 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

Dolphins just fired McDaniel..our new OC?

Stefanski is still my top choice, but McDaniel would probably be number two on that list. I agree with the sentiment though that both are somewhat likely to get head coaching jobs. If not though, they are my first two calls. Seeing what Stefanski could do with a real QB and weapons like St. Brown, Williams, Gibbs, and LaPorta (?, maybe, if he's healthy) would be intriguing. I'm sure he'd love having access to guys like that too as opposed to Jerry Jeudy, Harold Fannin, and Quinshon Judkins being his best weapons in Cleveland.

[Shinzaki]

I wish the Lions had drafted Fannin...I like Teslaa...but Fannin is a dude as a TE/H back.  

Edited 35 minutes ago by Shinzaki

[Motor City Sonics]

18 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Stefanski is still my top choice, but McDaniel would probably be number two on that list. I agree with the sentiment though that both are somewhat likely to get head coaching jobs. If not though, they are my first two calls. Seeing what Stefanski could do with a real QB and weapons like St. Brown, Williams, Gibbs, and LaPorta (?, maybe, if he's healthy) would be intriguing. I'm sure he'd love having access to guys like that too as opposed to Jerry Jeudy, Harold Fannin, and Quinshon Judkins being his best weapons in Cleveland.

Not having Deshawn Watson around his neck like a concrete block would be nice, but he's the one that lobbied to get him to Cleveland.   But Stefanski would be a great choice.    Might be good to step away from Head Coaching for a year or two.  

 

Dolphins -  Middle of the Pack job right now.  Not clear on Tua's future.   Good job - you get paid millions to live in Miami during the Winter. 

Arizona -  Total rebuild.   Crap job.   This is one for a re-tread or really young coach.    Kyler Murray is a flashy bust.  He's not a winner.   He'll go to someplace like the Vikings or Jets and wow everyone with some great looking plays, but he won't win anything big.  

Cleveland  -  Sort of a **** Show.   They might as well make Deion their Head Coach because they took a really good coach like Stefanski and wasted him, so they might as well go for the sizzle.    If this team could ever figure out their QB mess they might be contenders.   The division winner was 9-8, the bar is not high

Atlanta - Other than Baltimore, I think this is just about the best job a Head Coaching candidate would want right now.   There is a lot of talent on this team, but they may need to upgrade at QB, but I think you can win that division with MPJ, but probably not much more.       

Tennessee - Second year of a long rebuild.  You can really start to see some improvement if Ward is for real.  Problem is, it's become a pretty tough division.   This needs to be a long-game hire.  If ownership can fairly give a coach a 4-year plan, then it's an attractive job.   But quick turnaround is not likely. 

New York Giants -  There is plenty of talent on the team.  They've just been kind of directionless.  Is Jaxon Dart for real?  Don't know.   It's a pretty good job to go for because the bar is low.   Daboll's first year they thought they had their guy.   As bland as Mike McCarthy is, maybe he is the stable kind of coach they need right now.   

Las Vegas Raiders -  Absolute dumpster fire.  I mean, there are only 32 Head Coaching jobs in the NFL, so they are all coveted, but if you have any self respect, do you really want this?   Because this owner is a stupid nepo baby with a bad haircut that couldn't land a real job at a Dairy Queen if he wasn't Al Davis's son and he has proven that he will stab you in the back the second it doesn't click.   Yeah, you can throw the window dressing of Tom Brady into the equation, but this team is a disaster.  Brady might end up being the damn coach.  

Baltimore Raves -  It's the best of the jobs.  A bad start and a ton of injuries and missed field goal cost Harbaugh his job (face it, he and Lamar weren't getting along anymore).   Lamar's got about two really good years left.   So this is a very attractive short-term gig.   I could see Belichick here, actually. 

Stefanski would probably do very well with Atlanta, New York or Baltimore, so maybe he doesn't want to wait for another chance.  But if he wants to wait for the perfect job for a while, he'd be a great OC choice.      It's really all about where John Harbaugh does first, then the dominos start falling into place.   If the Dolphins haven't hired Harbaugh already, I think the Packers could be in play if they lay an egg on Saturday.  

 

 

 

[Shinzaki]

Mcdaniel's greatest hits from Annie Agar

https://x.com/i/status/2009296981445779573

Edited 27 minutes ago by Shinzaki