One Underrated Hire That Could Pull Detroit Back Into the Super Bowl Picture

The Detroit Lions were supposed to be the class of the NFC last season. They had the best record in football in 2024. Then the wheels came off, and not just because of injuries.

Yes, the defense was banged up. Yes, key players missed time. But the biggest problem was on offense, where the playcalling went from elite to broken almost overnight.

Ben Johnson left for a head coaching job, and John Morton got the coordinator gig. It didn’t work. Morton’s system left running backs running into walls and offensive linemen looking confused. Dan Campbell had to step in midseason and take over playcalling himself, which is never a great sign.

The offense still finished top 10 in most categories, which says more about the talent than the scheme. Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta — that’s a group that can make almost any coordinator look competent if they get out of the way.

This offseason, Detroit quietly brought in Drew Petzing from Arizona to be the new offensive coordinator. It didn’t get a ton of national hype. But Connor Orr of Sports Illustrated thinks it might be the move that gets the Lions back on track.

“New OC Drew Petzing is, I feel, a highly underrated offseason signing,” Orr wrote. “After the Lions flirted with Mike McDaniel, settling on Petzing, the former Cardinals offensive coordinator, should help stabilize and make more sensible a run game and protection scheme that left some of the Lions’ best players hung out to dry under former coordinator John Morton.”

Petzing’s resume in Arizona doesn’t jump off the page. The Cardinals weren’t exactly lighting up scoreboards. But he wasn’t working with Goff or Gibbs or St. Brown either. He was running an offense around a banged-up Kyler Murray and a patchwork line. The personnel upgrade in Detroit is massive, and that matters.

Campbell trusted Petzing enough to hand him the keys. That says something. The Lions didn’t need a genius playcaller. They needed someone who could install a clean, logical system and get out of the way of their own talent. Morton tried to get cute. Petzing seems more likely to just run Gibbs between the tackles and let Goff hit St. Brown on slants until someone stops it.

The pressure is real. Detroit is supposed to win now. The NFC is wide open. If Petzing can deliver a top-five offense with this roster, nobody will remember the rocky Morton experiment. And if he can’t, the questions about Campbell’s staff decisions will only get louder.

For now, the Lions are betting that the quietest hire of the offseason turns into the loudest statement.