Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson both downplayed the leaked offensive code words, even suggesting they may use the leak to their advantage.
Last week, Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs posted a photo to social media of teammate Jermar Jefferson. More notably, in the background was the terminology of some protection calls for the Lions offense.
The photo went viral this week, and it has led to a lot of reactions from shrugging of the shoulders to downright anger.
Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked about it several times over the past couple days. The first time, he claimed he didn’t know about it. Then he offered “no comment” on Sunday. However, he finally relented during a radio spot with local radio station 97.1 The Ticket on Monday.
“We might as well just put everything out there. I don’t really give a crap,” Campbell said. “If we’re going to lose because of code words, then we’re not good enough anyway. So I think we’ll just post the whole freaking playbook and code words we’ve got. It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna hurt us. It won’t affect us, and it’s all good.”
When asked if Gibbs will face any punishment for leaking the calls, after sarcastically saying he’s going to bench him, Campbell noted they’ve already joked about it.
“We’re fine. As a matter of fact, I joked at him about it yesterday. I messed with him,” Campbell said. “So it’s good. I’m not even worried about it.”
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson also downplayed the leak, even joking that they may have put it out there on purpose.
“So now we know what they know,” Johnson said with a smirk. “No, listen, each week we like to try to keep guys off-balance, teams off-balance, opponents off-balance, and we certainly don’t want them to know when a play is coming.”
Johnson then pointed to a play from their Week 9 game against the Green Bay Packers on their first offensive drive. On a third-and-5 in the red zone, Jared Goff checked at the line, and you can see Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark make the universal sign for a run play after the audible. Clark was right, but the Lions rushed for 9 yards on the play anyway.
“Even if teams know what’s coming, it’s still challenging to stop us,” Johnson said. “That’s the mentality we take. We don’t use those code words at the line of scrimmage a ton, but we’ll make any necessary adjustments we need.”
