I was fortunate to grow up in the San Francisco Bay Area and be exposed to some of the great Rock and Roll bands. Bill Graham produced shows at Winterland, the Fillmore Auditorium and later Days on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum that featured great artists in the golden age of Rock and Roll.
Now, I enjoyed the music, but wasn’t as keen on the behind the scenes activities as some of my friends. They would know seemingly in advance which bands were having issues with their members and often predicted breakups before they occurred. When the splits happened, the bands almost always dropped off the charts in a hurry.
David Crosby was a driving force in the most successful years of the Byrds. Once Stephen Stills abandoned Buffalo Springfield, that top band was gone in a flash. The Hollies had some hits, but once Graham Nash hit the road the band hit the skids.
Now, those three artists combined after leaving their previous bands to form Crosby, Stills and Nash, which was like the great football teams that win with triplets in key skill positions. The Dallas Cowboys with Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin come to mind. Great years in San Francisco featured Joe Montana directing an offense that included Jerry Rice and Roger Craig.
Three seems to be the magic number for success.
Now, while I wasn’t a true student of Rock and Roll, rather just enjoyed the music, I am a student of my game, the National Football League. And like a great band, in recent years the Detroit Lions had a trio of coaches as good as any team in the league. Read that as better than any team in the NFL.
Head Coach Dan Campbell had two outstanding assistants in defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. Glenn joined Campbell’s staff when the head coach was first hired by the Lions in 2021. Johnson took over as offensive coordinator in 2022.
In the three years this trio worked together the long-suffering Lions franchise went from a team that was rumored to be losing the annual Thanksgiving Day game because of poor play to a playoff team with real Super Bowl aspirations. While together, the Campbell, Glenn and Johnson partnership earned three winning seasons with regular season records the past two years of 12-5 and 15-2 while winning the NFC North Division title.
Yes, they worked very well together.
But, like a band where one or more of the members sees a better opportunity away from where they established their success, Glenn and Johnson left Detroit this year to become head coaches with the New York Jets and Chicago Bears respectively.
Can’t blame them. The dream of most NFL assistant coaches is to get the chance to move into the top position on a staff … even if it requires leaving the team with the best record in football for a couple teams that have struggled mightily in recent years.
Of course, head coaching positions are going to open up on losing teams, it is why after all there is a vacancy.
So, Glenn heads to the Jets hoping to get the team up and running while in contention for a playoff spot, and the same goes for Johnson in Chicago with the Bears.
How’s it going?
The trio that sparked the Lions resurgence had a lot of trouble in first week action. The Bears appeared on their way to a Soldier Field opening win for three quarters, then allowed J.J. McCarthy, making his first NFL start, to lead his Minnesota Vikings to three fourth quarter touchdowns enroute to a 27-24 victory. It appears Johnson would have benefited from a defensive coordinator like Glenn.
The Jets offense looked significantly improved in Glenn’s first game with New York but couldn’t outscore a defense that allowed Aaron Rodgers and company 34 points.
Okay, neither Glenn or Johnson won their openers with the teams they are looking to rebuild, but how did Campbell and his Lions do in the wake of his coordinators abandoning the organization.
Not well.
Detroit suffered a double-digit road loss to the Green Bay Packers while scoring only 13 points. Last year, the Lions led the league in points scored while averaging 33 a game and never scored as few as 13 points with Johnson orchestrating their attack.
They were one hell of a trio, but like a band that goes their separate ways we might find out they were much better as a group than playing solo.