The Detroit Lions parted ways with Jim Bob Cooter in favor of veteran play-caller Darrell Bevell as the team's new offensive coordinator this offseason. Bevell is still figuring out what Detroit's new offense will look like in 2019
"I hope it's one that scores points," Bevell said Monday at a Lions season-ticket holder Q&A, via the Detroit News. "That's the first thing we need to do. But right now, it's still something we're trying to build. It's easy to say what we want to do in the run game, what we want to do in the pass game, but we need to build around our players. We're going to do what Kerryon (Johnson) does well, we're going to do what our wide receivers do well, what Matthew (Stafford) does well.
"At this point, to make big, bold statements, it's a little bit early because we need to discover a little bit more about our personnel."
Lions coach Matt Patricia indicated in the past that he desires a run-focused, ball-control approach to the offense, so we expect Bevell's offense to feature a lot of Johnson.
Bevell's work with Matthew Stafford will be key to the OC's success in his first season. The signal-caller is coming off one of the worst seasons of his professional career in what looked like a neutered offense, particularly after the Golden Tate trade and injuries wiped out playmakers.
Bevell specifically noted that he wants to push Stafford in 2019.
"In my conversations with him, we want to make sure we're doing the things he's been successful at, but I talked about with him stretching him a little bit, maybe putting him in positions that he hasn't been before and being able to push our offense to new heights," Bevell said. "I'm really excited just to build this thing. I don't even know where we're going to go, who we're going to be, yet, because we're going to build this around our players."
The Lions are a prime team to add weapons at tight end and receiver to go along with Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones in the passing game this offseason.
It's not unusual for a new coordinator to be fleshing out his offense at this stage. It is not even Valentine's Day yet, after all. In the next few months, when players don shorts and light pads, and into late August during training camp, we should get a better idea of what Bevell plans for 2019, and how that strategy plans to get the most out of Stafford.
