Notes: Ben Johnson ranked best play-calling OC in NFL

Seems a little low.

The Detroit Lions community collectively rejoiced when Ben Johnson announced he’d be staying in Detroit for another season.

Part of the hard feelings over the loss to San Francisco in the NFC Championship was knowing, in all likelihood, the highly regarded offensive guru would not return. While he won’t be leaving the Motor City just yet, all eyes will be on him more than ever.

In a ranking of the best offensive play callers in the league, Pro Football Network declared him fourth-best in the NFL.

Johnson is about as highly ranked as he can be considering the names ahead of him (at least the latter two). You’ve got Sean McVay of the L.A. Rams, Kyle Shanahan of the Super Bowl runner-up 49ers, and Andy Reid of the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Not bad company. Also keep in mind — they’re all head coaches.

While it’s now almost guaranteed Johnson won’t stick around in 2025, there’s no harm in starting the bad rumors early to fend off poachers (a reddit joke I can’t get enough of.)

And onto the rest of your notes.

• ESPN+ ($) offers the best team fits for the top 50 players in free agency, sending Jonah Jackson to the Washington Commanders, while suggesting Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller may be a fit for the Lions. While we’re talking about Jackson, be sure to check out his free agent profile by Morgan Cannon.

• Lions media team are hopefully taking a break, but still providing us with some good stuff:

• Our friend Mike Payton is offering a few free agent prospects for the Lions at each position. On Monday he did edge rushers. You can check out the full list below but if you go to his page, you can find a detailed breakdown on each player as well.

• Can’t believe we’ve made it to February and the mocks are just now kinda coming out. Years past, you’d see them in November.

• Some of the few Lions free agents this spring made CBS Sports rankings — Jared Dubin ranked Jonah Jackson at 25th (of 25) and Cody Benjamin put C.J. Gardner-Johnson on the honorable mention list if you’d like to take a peep.

• Summer camp tickets are going on sale soon!