Ben Johnson SAID WHAT about the Detroit Lions Tight Ends?

got to jump right back into Detro Li's training camp Ben Johnson he had so he had a really great press genius Ben Johnson yeah yeah yeah go check out the Detroit Lions YouTube watch the whole press conference it's great we're going to touch on a couple of the clips um but the whole thing is great you just really get to see how confident and how how much savier Ben Johnson is even as a coach like you can see him taking the steps to be a head coach one day I always thought part of the reason obviously the the situation on field everything about being in Detroit works for him he could have gone and been a head coach but I think he has a self-awareness to hey I want to learn how to be like d like get get some more out of Dan Campbell that that the trust that the players have in him but he was talking yesterday about this tight end room you know rookie All Pro Sam lorta Brack Wright who they matched his qualifying offer that he signed with the 49ers the Rival the buddying Rivalry uh he talked about this room and how strong it is when someone ask about that number three spot so check out this clip of Ben Johnson talk about the tight ends yeah uh listen it's the best room that I've been around um in 13 years now from top to bottom one to six these guys they've all played ball in this league and you can tell it with their approach and and really how they uh block how they run routes out on the field it's been very impressive so that room uh the competition is is lights out right now in terms of the third spot I really I think Coach Campbell myself uh Brad we all that spot needs to be able to wear a ton of hats because you just don't know you got leapa with his skill set you got Wright with his skill set and that third spot needs to be smart enough to fill in either spot if need be um and so the versatility is at a premium uh FIP certainly needs help there on special teams and so that plays a part also but we need a smart player that can wear multiple hats um it's a bonus if we can get some back field work if he can if he can do some fullback type jobs or if he can split out wide the more you can do uh increases your value right there there it is man there it is talking about not just the depth of the room but the versatility versatility the competition for that three spot and what they value in tight ends it's not not everyone can be Sam leapor but he's the pro he can do so many things they're looking for multiple traits out of their entire tight end room so we're we're talking FL we're talking James Mitchell's in the running for that third spot Shane zra um uh we got Brock Wright Shane zra Shawn mcken and Parker hes Parker hes has been having a good training camp um according to just about every beat writer I've talked to in every article I've read Parker has this coming on someone has to explain to me what are the Lions cooking up right now because when I look at their team I'm like you know what those we haven't really paid that much attention to it up until now but those the tight end room is solid the first four names up there obviously you want Sam laort in he's he's one of the best players in the NFL as a pass catcher period but after that I'm comfortable with any of these other uh tight end in there especially with the schemes that they can cook up that's where my mind is defensively and offensively they have so much versatility they're moving players to positions that were're like yo that's going to put them in a in a spot where they can call or show one look and absolutely fool a defense or fool an off and do something completely different because the the people that they have the Personnel they have is just that versatile it is it is and and the second highlight I'm going to show you of of a play touchdown against Green Bay actually St Brown's touchdown will will show that so actually let's I I have three short clips for you only one we're going to break down in depth but can you play JB this first one just all in the camera damn Justin you normally bear CW this the one day you don't want to Bear crawl that's crazy bro it's wild let's look shout out to that dude Justin St his first touchdown last year first touchdown of his career week three against the Falcons I I want you guys to see this because this is this starts to show what what you we were going to expect with L leapor coming up we see St Brown uh motion across the middle a lot of this is is due to the the respect that S brown has to has to demand but they're in a two tight end set they got leapa and they got Brock W over on the left side of the line This forces the Falcons defense which if you pause it and slowed it down you'll see they got 10 guys in the box and there's one safety that has to come down closer to the line of scrimmage wondering what leaport and Brock wri are going to do and then St Brown he comes motioning across the line so they're focused on on St Brown and that allows Sam leapa to hit this move looking like a vet this is game three of his rookie year already starting to develop that trust fantastic play that's just to set up this next slip this is the very next week against the Packers and this is the one I want to dig into a little more with you guys because there's so much what you were talking about how they can how they can uh um put so many different types of players whether it's two running backs two tight ends four ride receivers you put so many looks for a defense and the NFL is about matchups it's about it's about making the defense have to choose between two players it's about makings yeah and the defensive coordinator have to figure out how to scheme something up that keeps them available to to follow all the different things that the Lions could do so you're going to see on this there's two back-to-back plays one's like the end of a highlight but it's a a nice pass and catch from leaport that helps set up the touchdown pass to St Browns so we see this over the middle a fantastic pass uh a catch and run after the catch U from Sam laapa and then it sets up what looks to be just an easy touchdown here this is where um comra St Brown he looks like he's going to hit a little stick route the safety or the DB who's covering maybe it was the nickel he bites he bites because when you look at it and maybe the next time it runs through JB if you could pause it like right when it gets to the same like right about here okay so it's paused you see two running back so it's an empty set there's no running back in the back field you got two running backs two tight ends and St Brown normally when you have an empty back backfield you got three or four wide receivers out there because Jared gf's got to get the ball out quick right like you're looking for them to to to you're looking for Jared G to get the ball out quick but they can now deploy this with David Montgomery jir Gibbs on the right side you got Brock Wright and Sam lto on the right side of the line and when you look at look at the safety above where St Brown is sort of lined up just to the left of the line I think that's uh yeah we got David Montgomery and then Aman ring Brown Montgomery is going to go out to the flat you're going to see the safety have to start to creep down he's looking at St brown but he sees Sam leaport on the other side coming down the seams he's looking at Sam lorta this whole time and starts to go towards lorta when St Brown runs his stick route he hits that and the DB covering him comes up St Brown breaks his ankles heads to the left corner of the end zone Jared gof just gives him a lob up but that's all set up and it all looks so easy because of what leapa did the play before because that they can put leaport and Brock right out there they got Gibbs out to the right and Montgomery who was having a huge game at this point this was his like 32 carry game they have to also keep an eye on him out on the flats and what it leads to JB if you run it is just a nice easy like watch St Brown here and watch the safety above him he's going to run a move break his ankles and then all of a sudden St Brown is wide open the touchdown because they're focusing on everybody but the allpro wide receiver that's why they drafted Sam leapor that's why they're drafting Gibbs because they can run out so many different sets that this defense doesn't know what to do so so the question I asked they're already doing it's just they have that much more personnel and depth this year than they did last year to be able to run these sets even more like that's the thing it's like that's a crazy set bro yeah like of course he's going to score I'm sit you're like wait wait wait you run your wide receivers out to the flats and out out to the to to the wide receiver slots realistically because you know I still have Brock Wright Sam freaking leapor and Amar S brown out there we're still cooking with this offense yeah I think back on on past Lions teams and I'm like can you imagine that you you're taking out you're running what Calvin Johnson pedigree and then one of the running backs that are not getting 100 yards ever for Matthew Stafford yeah out to the out to to the running backs POS I mean out to the wide receiver positions hey where we are right now is so crazy and Ben Johnson is a maniacal mad man yeah and they're able to run this and get him to jump like that because because they're expecting shorter throws from Jared G they're expecting him to try to get it to Lea or St Brown on that stick route but Ben Johnson is Savvy enough all right we we know they're going to come down on this let's run this and just know yeah g can handle the pressure and they trust their offensive line to give G and St Brown that extra half half a second to full second to be able to run that play everything everything is in unison and I wanted to show these plays because this is another reason why we don't need to worry as much about the wide receiver depth like we're trying to figure out who's going to be the number three or if it's khif Raymond who's going to be the four dpj or and they only have one wide receiver in that set yeah two running backs two tight ends and one wide receiver like offense is just we have to look at it differently than we're used to like like it's not traditional things it's Unique because of their drafting of leapa over a Michael Mayor or a musk like not to to on those guys that what Sam leapor can bring what he's already shown in his rookie year sky's the limit for this offense and with Ben Johns another year with Ben Johnson and the same offense what you had Kevin zitler a pro bowl offensive lineman you know what it's showing us too is that we underestimated Ben Johnson when we see certain picks we were wondering like jir Gibbs uh um Sam pora we were wondering like what's what's going on at that time we felt like maybe we could trade back there a lot of people who wonder what are they doing now looking at just that one play that you just showed it's like oh that's why they went that R they they're making sure they have what they need to run the schemes that they have because think about how off Kilt you keep a defense defenses go off of Trends they know what they did last year they know what like like what okay Jared G is going to have kind of this favorite type of player you know when he drops back this way but with a Ben Johnson it's almost like he's not allowing this team to kind of get stuck in the ruts or to or to fall back into some of the things that you're used to how do you scheme for this Detroit Lions team right now and that's what I do believe also gives them that Advantage this year next year and during their Super Bowl window because Ben Johnson like that one play encapsulates everything that I was trying to effectively say and it's like to know that they've added more talent to that base yes they're going to be cook it's wild and and we can have the Jared golf discussion another day but but what is he the best in the NFL at and has been for several years it's the play action pass yes sir like that factors into it too where you're now taking his best skill or or you know he's the best at doing that one of his top skills to be able to incorporate that into an offense that has a strong running game has a strong it it all fits well and I we won't go into depth on this last clip but that those two week three and week four you start to see see the trust build between Golf and Lea by week eight like only a couple weeks later the Raiders game if you remember kind of dominated the Raiders but it wasn't like that all game it it took a it took a half to get into it with 31 seconds left in the second quarter we're going to see this touchdown pass it to S Sam leapa and if you can see they they'll pause it and maybe the second time through JB if you can if you can time it like when we get the back view of right when Jared GF sort of pulls his arm back um you can see the trust built between jerro G and Sam lto and it's like this with other players too but we see it from a rookie tight end look when he throws this ball he's throwing right as Sam leapor he hasn't even gotten into his break yet you see a line two linebackers one covering lorta one across the middle gof not only trusts his arm to get it to lorta but the ball place like their accuracy is one thing giving the tight end giving your pass catchers a chance catch the ball yeah it it's completion to completions but ball placement this is going to look like it's behind Lea but it's thrown behind Lea on purpose to avoid the interception the point I wanted to make is the trust that GF has in Le pora by week eight to be able to let this one fly just before the half when they could get a field goal I think it was like second and first and 10 second and 10 he let it fly and there was a touchdown you go into the lock rooms with all that momentum and yes now they got to figure out what to do in the third quarter but this is how they ended it it it these three plays showed me so much um about that relationship with the tight end all the different things they can do um like this just he's throwing it right now like that's wild and we know it's going to be a big part of the tight ends are going to be a big part of this offense especially what didn't um they match the the the contract offer for Brock Wright right yeah during the off season we all thought at the time man we like Brock Wright I remember we were on this show talking about it like yo are they going to match this thing it didn't look likely then when they did because when when we were discussing it from a perspective of you know what they might not match it broer was a little hurt kg was a little hurt like you know what I don't know how this going to affect this Brock Wright is probably a little bit underrated because of how Good Sam leapor was as a rookie last year but then they matched it and we instantly you know what to do what they do with Lea like they need Brock right and the difference tight sets and such extra blocker so then the next week I think they had a byee after that and that was Monday night football by the way in front of the nation by week they go play the Chargers remember that throw go to laa over like this all sets up like weeks in advance they're doing these things to the pora or to St Brown and then when you least expect it including the Jets game back in 2022 oh Brock right hey he he's here too yep it's it's it's this chemistry from top to bottom that's something that Lions fans should be excited about [Music]