In the offseason, the Detroit Lions underwent massive change as they saw offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn leave for head coaching opportunities.
Given how the last few years have played out for the Lions, it was only a matter of time before both guys became head coaches. Glenn took over the New York Jets, while the Chicago Bears scooped up Johnson.
As you can imagine, the Lions and their fans probably weren’t excited to see Johnson staying in the division, given the talent already on Chicago’s roster. That said, the challenge for Detroit will be to defeat their old coach twice this season, which won’t be easy as he knows them very well.
However, the Lions also know Johnson’s tendencies as well, especially on the offensive side of the ball. In fact, Lions star Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs pointed that out in a recent interview with Kay Adams.
"It's funny watching the same plays that we ran"
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) August 18, 2025
Amon-Ra St. Brown & Jahmyr Gibbs' takeaways from the Bears preseason offense under Ben Johnson 👀@heykayadams | @Jahmyr_Gibbs1 @amonra_stbrown | #OnePride pic.twitter.com/KnrzcMAnbb
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs Just Tipped Off the Rest of NFL About Ben Johnson
On the latest edition of Up & Adams, Kay Adams asked Gibbs and St. Brown if they watched the Bears’ first drive and wanted their thoughts on it. St. Brown responded with, “We watched it.”
The standout receiver played coy in his follow-up to Adams, but said, “I mean it looked. It looked good.”
Then Gibbs followed up by stating, “It’s funny watching the same plays that we ran.” St. Brown also added, “Hopefully, it only looks good for two more weeks.”
If Gibbs and St. Brown noticed some of the same plays already, we can only imagine that other teams who played the Lions last season and will face Chicago this season will try to look at last year’s tape.
Now, that being said, Johnson could easily throw in some new wrinkles into the Bears’ offense to throw off the Lions, who they will play in Week 2 (Sept. 14). However, even if that’s the case, a lot of the concepts could be the same, which might benefit the Lions especially in their first matchup.
After that first matchup, we should expect both teams to be vastly different when they play later in the season. But all eyes will be on that first matchup, which will be must-see TV as Detroit will be looking to send a friendly message to their ex-coordinator.