The Detroit Lions officially lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs to start the 2025 offseason.
Former OC Ben Johnson is now the head coach of the Chicago Bears and former DC Aaron Glenn is the new head coach of the New York Jets. It’s not the first time the Lions lost a coordinator to a head coaching job, but it’s been a while.
Legendary football coach Don Shula joined the Lions in 1960 as the team’s defensive coordinator. In 1963, the Baltimore Colts hired Shula, then 33, as their head coach, the youngest coach to take the top job in league history at that point.
The Colts had a 73-26-4 record under Shula before he left to take over the Miami Dolphins. He amassed 347 total wins over the course of his career, and his Dolphins famously had the only undefeated season in NFL history.
There’s no guarantee that the Bears or Jets will have anything close to the type of success with their new hires, but if a decades-old trend for Lions coordinators can continue, they’ll likely be happy with the results.
