{"id":45245,"date":"2025-07-29T14:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/45245\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:17:07","slug":"6-takeaways-from-lions-oc-john-mortons-informative-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/45245\/","title":{"rendered":"6 takeaways from Lions OC John Morton\u2019s informative press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Detroit Lions<\/a> coordinator John Morton took his spot in front of the podium Monday morning before Detroit\u2019s seventh training camp practice. Looking a bit more comfortable in his position, Morton gave a lot of informative answers to reporters’ questions. Here are my biggest takeaways from his session. <\/p>\n

Morton put off vacation plans to self-scout all spring and summer<\/p>\n

Anyone you ask\u2014including his mentor, Jon Gruden<\/a>\u2014will tell you that Morton is extremely dedicated to his job. We\u2019re talking \u201csleep in the film room\u201d kind of dedication to his job.<\/p>\n

Along those lines, Morton admitted he passed over spring plans to self-scout and make sure he had everything he needed to attack training camp and the 2025 season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really didn\u2019t go on vacation this year, until the last 10 days. I was just in here looking at what we did in OTAs and things like that, and looking at our defense,\u201d Morton said. \u201cI basically game-planned our defense. I want to put this guy here, I want to put that guy there. We want to do this versus that, because I think that\u2019s important. I want them to see where I\u2019m coming from, what I\u2019m going to do during the season. So, if that means me getting here early like I always do, so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deep shot is coming <\/p>\n

In his previous two decades (plus) of coaching, Morton has gained a reputation for his love of the long ball. While that hasn\u2019t been a staple of Detroit\u2019s offense recently, Morton believes Detroit has the players to make this a feature of his offensive attack. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m isolating guys. I want to give them the chance, so I\u2019m taking more shots,\u201d Morton said. \u201cPlus, I want to see who can do it and then make the corrections, whether it\u2019s a technique error, something like that. I\u2019m all about that because we have the guys that can do it. So, if you got them, utilize them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sound you hear is Jameson Williams\u2019 stock crashing through the roof. <\/p>\n

Morton plans to call plays from the booth<\/p>\n

Unlike his predecessor, Morton noted that he plans on calling offensive plays from the booth rather than the sidelines. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be upstairs, so I can see it all away from all the chaos,\u201d Morton said. <\/p>\n

To be clear, Morton was referring to the preseason. There was no indication it would be different during the regular season, but I do think it\u2019s worth pointing out that he was specifically asked about the preseason. And, remember, there are about 30 extra players on the sideline during the preseason, so it\u2019s a bit more chaotic.<\/p>\n

Many have wondered about Morton\u2019s play-calling skills, given his limited experience. He only regularly called plays during his one year as the Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2017. However, Morton expressed confidence in his abilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good. I feel very comfortable this second time around,\u201d Morton said. \u201cVery confident. I get the plays in and out, I\u2019m on it. I\u2019ve learned a lot since then, so I feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He likes Graham Glasgow best at center<\/p>\n

While the Lions opened training camp with rookie Tate Ratledge at center, they\u2019ve run the last four practices with veteran Graham Glasgow at that position\u2014sliding Ratledge to his college position of right guard. <\/p>\n

While that decision hasn\u2019t been finalized, Morton certainly seemed to imply that he prefers Glasgow at center. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s more natural for him, because that center and quarterback, that needs to be right,\u201d Morton said. \u201cThe quarterback has got to feel right right there. I do like the way it\u2019s going right now. It\u2019s still early, the more we do it, the better we\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late last week, coach Dan Campbell indicated that they still plan on getting Ratledge some work at center, but we haven\u2019t seen it since the Lions made the switch in the middle of last week. <\/p>\n

He liked what he saw from Tate Ratledge at center<\/p>\n

Despite the change, Morton praised Ratledge\u2019s work at center during the first three days of practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love how smart he is. He\u2019s just going to continue to grow,\u201d Morton said. \u201cI thought he did an exceptional job when he was at center, I mean, that\u2019s a lot mentally. Different snap counts, and audible. It was a lot, I thought he did a pretty good job. I\u2019m real happy where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if we\u2019ll see any more significant play for Ratledge at center in camp, but it sure seems like the team still believes in his long-term potential there. <\/p>\n

The trick plays aren\u2019t going anywhere <\/p>\n

By the end of the 2024 season\u2014particularly after a failed Jameson Williams pass in their playoff loss\u2014some Lions fans grew tired of Ben Johnson\u2019s trick plays. However, when asked if the trick plays were still going to be here, Morton seemed to default to Dan Campbell and suggest they are going to remain as aggressive as they have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to do what Dan\u2014whatever he wants. But we\u2019re going to have everything,\u201d Morton said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have everything, so we\u2019re going to continue to do those things, because it has worked. We\u2019re going to run things\u2014whatever was working, we\u2019re going to continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Detroit Lions coordinator John Morton took his spot in front of the podium Monday morning before Detroit\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[6381,2120,4992,4993,664,424,35822,13913,2121,35821,35820,573,10148,2129,419,99,2298],"class_list":["post-45245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-conference","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-from","tag-front-page","tag-informative","tag-john","tag-lions","tag-morton","tag-oc","tag-of","tag-press","tag-pride","tag-s","tag-sports","tag-takeaways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}