Getty Amon-Ra St. Brown warms up before a Lions game in 2022.
The Detroit Lions got offensive coordinator Ben Johnson back in what was a big break for their 2023 hopes, and the team’s fanbase has been revved-up about it for the better part of a month.
Of course, it’s been reasonable to assume that players share the excitement just as much. Quarterback Jared Goff admitted to being fired up by the return of Johnson already, and that was a sentiment shared by plenty of others.
Speaking with Dannie Rogers of DetroitLions.com, the trio of wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown, Goff and center Frank Ragnow discussed Johnson’s comeback while at the 2023 Pro Bowl a few weeks back. Not surprisingly, the reviews were very positive.
I knew MY reaction when I heard Ben Johnson was coming back to the @Lions as offensive coordinator after multiple head coaching interviews. . . I was sooo curious to hear how his own players reacted ➡️
As far as St. Brown was concerned, he was happy just to hear from Johnson again considering he felt as if he may be departing and set to keep him out of the loop. In the end, that was not so.
“I was really super, super happy. I thought he was for sure gone. He told me at the end on the last day of our exit meetings, I showed up kind of late, said bye to him. He’s like ‘you know, I’m gonna give you a call, I’m gonna call you after this.’ Go home, no call. Damn. I start going and seeing stuff, he’s going to interview. I’m like ‘oh he’s
gone’ and then a week and a half later I found out he’s staying so I gave him a call and we talked. It was awesome,” St. Brown told Rogers in the interview with a smile.
For Ragnow, the excitement over the news was so much that he ended up using a rare means of communication with his quarterback in order to share his excitement over the news.
“I can’t say enough about the guy. I FaceTimed Jared. I was pretty stoked. I sent Ben a
gift. I can’t remember what it was, and we exchanged gifts. We were excited, but I can’t say enough good things about the guy so I’m pretty stoked,” Ragnow told Rogers.
Excitement is a natural theme for Johnson’s return, and with as impressive as he is, its easy to see why the players are so ready for him to come back in 2023. To a man, Johnson has earned their respect in the locker room, which makes him a key figure for the team.
Their responses prove how much Johnson is valued across the organization.
Johnson Discusses What’s Next for St. Brown
In terms of the love, recently, the coordinator shared plenty of it for St. Brown. Speaking with Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com on the Twentyman in the Huddle podcast, Johnson dished on what it’s like to coach the rising wideout.
As Johnson said, St. Brown is everything he wants because he’s a multi-skilled football player first that is willing to do anything and everything asked of him, and teams can never have too many players with that mindset.
“We just want the best football players that we can find and that’s what Amon-Ra (St. Brown) is. He’s a phenomenal football player. Take the receiver part out of it. He is just a natural football player and we can’t get enough of them here. I mean, we want to line him up as the lead blocker, we want to line him up with the ball in his hands, we want to have him running,” Johnson admitted.
Specifically, that ability to move St. Brown around might be a big advantage for the future. Johnson even dropped a potentially interesting nugget about getting the wideout involved differently within the offense.
“He’s an ultimate chess piece that is fun and we’re going to continue to push the limits with him. I think he’s made it well-known he wants to get that deep ball going a little bit this year, so we’ll see what we can do,” Johnson said.
Predominantly, St. Brown has been seen as more of a speed or a slot guy, but hearing that he wants to take his game to the next level with some deep passes should be a delight for fans. With that in his arsenal, St. Brown could potentially become the best receiver in football very soon.
With Johnson back, the duo can begin to work on ways to unlock the talent he possesses even further.
Johnson Praises Lions’ Offensive Line
Given his reaction, there’s no doubt that Ragnow was excited about Johnson’s return. Interestingly enough, the same can be said about Johnson knowing he has the team’s offensive line to rely on next year.
As he explained to Twentyman, the fact that the offensive line is intact and coming back is a huge variable for the team this coming year. Not only will the group be back and healthy, they are elite as well considering the push they are able to generate to set the tone up front on offense.
“We did the run game (video) last week. I kept saying it over. Surge, surge, surge. It didn’t matter what scheme we were running, displacement of the line of scrimmage was happening on a regular basis. That’s a testament to them. They’re phenomenal,” Johnson said. “Coach (Hank) Fraley does a great job with them and there’s still room for growth in that room. We’ll coach them hard when they get back and we’ll continue to take that next step not just from a run blocking standpoint, but from protection. We were one of the least sacked teams in the NFL last year, which is once again on them first and foremost.”
Ragnow, playing at a Pro Bowl level in 2022 at center, was a big reason why that was the case. He’s the centerpiece of the line, so a lot of that goes through him first and foremost at the position and for the group.
At both spots, key Lions players are fired-up for Johnson’s return. He seems just as fired-up to get a chance to work with them again, as well. It appears to be a match made in heaven for Detroit heading into next season.