The Detroit Lions may have just won an offseason chess match against Ben Johnson — but that doesn’t mean the game is over.
As the Chicago Bears search for a new offensive coordinator following Declan Doyle’s departure to the Baltimore Ravens, all eyes are on head coach Ben Johnson and how he’ll respond.
And according to league chatter, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell may have already complicated those plans in a very personal way.
The Lions recently hired Drew Petzing as their new offensive coordinator — a move that quietly sent ripples through the NFC North. Petzing isn’t just another rising offensive mind.
He’s a longtime colleague of Johnson’s, a former Boston College coworker, and even served as a groomsman in Johnson’s wedding.
Around league circles, Petzing was widely believed to be one of Johnson’s top — if not the top — candidates to replace Doyle in Chicago.
From a football standpoint, the fit made too much sense to ignore. Petzing and Johnson share strikingly similar offensive philosophies.
Both emphasize a physical run game, aggressive play-calling, and heavy utilization of tight ends.
Their systems mirror each other so closely that many viewed Petzing as Johnson’s ideal right-hand man — someone who could seamlessly plug into Chicago’s offensive structure without friction.
Instead, Campbell swooped in.
Detroit’s move effectively removed Petzing from Johnson’s potential candidate pool, and whether intentional or not, it put the Bears’ head coach in a bind.
The irony? The Bears actually interviewed Petzing for their head coaching vacancy last year, but at the time, he was firmly entrenched in Arizona, making a lateral move unrealistic.
Now that door is officially closed.
But this is where things get interesting.
If the Lions think they’ve shut Johnson down completely, they may want to think again. There’s another name that has long been connected to Johnson’s vision for Chicago — and it happens to belong to someone currently on Dan Campbell’s staff.
That name is Hank Fraley.
Fraley, the Lions’ offensive line coach and run game coordinator, was rumored last offseason to be Johnson’s top choice to bring with him to Chicago.
Detroit responded by giving Fraley a hefty raise to keep him in-house. At the time, that seemed to settle the matter.
Now? The calculus may have changed.
With Petzing off the board and Chicago still searching, there’s little preventing Fraley from at least taking a call from the Bears — unless Detroit once again steps in with another financial or positional incentive to keep him put.
In the hyper-competitive ecosystem of the NFL, this is how rivalries extend beyond the field. Coaching hires, blocked moves, and subtle power plays often shape seasons long before kickoff.
Dan Campbell may have thwarted Ben Johnson’s plans once.
But Johnson now has options — and motivation.
And if he does pull Fraley out of Detroit, the Lions may find that their offseason victory comes with a price when NFC North play rolls around in 2026.
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