Thou shalt not freak out if the Detroit Lions lose Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn

For today’s sermon on the mount — and by that I mean, the mountain that is the NFL — let’s turn to the 10th commandment.

Old school. King James version: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Good stuff — but, um, that commandment does not exactly apply to the NFL.

Because the NFL has a far different commandment: Thou shalt rummage through thy neighbor’s house and copy plays, steal ideas, swipe concepts and snatch coaches — it is a copycat league, after all — but thou shalt never, ever criticize the refs (even if Taylor Decker reported).

Because, as it turns out, thievery is the sincerest form of flattery in the NFL.

You wanna know what the NFL really thinks about the Detroit Lions?

Here’s the King James version: Thy neighbors are coveting the heck out of the house that Dan Campbell has built.

More specifically, the coaching staff Campbell put together.

Six teams have requested permission to interview Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson for head coaching jobs, while defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has interest from four.

CARLOS MONARREZ: With football gods smiling on them, Lions can't blow it against Bucs on Sunday

The interviews are expected to take place on Friday or Saturday, or whenever these guys come up for air after spending all week trying to prepare for Sunday’s playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, before we get into freak-out mode — what the heck is going to happen if they leave?

This is a tremendous compliment to Campbell for the staff that he put together.

When you start listing off all the reasons why this franchise has changed so dramatically — a change in culture, an influx of talent and grit, a head coach who connects with players and can motivate them to run through a brick wall, and a perfect alignment from ownership to the front office to the coaching staff to the players — there is something else you have to add.

Tremendous assistant coaches.

“Oh man, well, they’re all unique — they’re both unique,” Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp said of Glenn and Johnson. "They’re a little bit different in their own ways, but I would say first and foremost, man these are just — they’re incredible people. They’re great people. They’re friends of mine and I think they — I don’t know. They’re great people, they have a great approach to life. They’re obviously super talented as coaches, too.”

What this says about Dan Campbell

[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Carlos and Shawn" your go-to Detroit sports podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ] 

When evaluating Campbell’s decisions, we often confine it to in-game management.

Should the Lions kick a field goal or go for it on fourth down?

But I contend, in the bigger picture, the most important decision Campbell has made is who he has hired for his staff.

When Campbell took over, he hired Anthony Lynn to be the offensive coordinator.

OK, so that didn’t exactly work out, and Campbell quickly moved on from it.

Give him credit for cutting bait and realizing it wasn’t working.

Then, Campbell made a rather bold decision to promote Johnson, who was a tight ends coach, as the new OC.

This was insanely risky. Johnson had never been a coordinator. He started out as a graduate assistant at Boston College in 2009 and he climbed to assistant wide receivers coach with the Dolphins in 2016-17. Not the WR coach. The assistant to the WR coach.

After getting the wide receivers coach job in Miami, he jumped to the Lions, first as a quality control coach, and then the tight ends coach before eventually taking over the passing game.

But after Campbell got rid of Lynn after the 2021, the head coach recognized talent and gave the then-35-year-old the keys to the Ferrari.

And Johnson has proved to be an extremely talented offensive coordinator.

More than that, he has connected with Jared Goff and gotten him to improve.

YOUR NUMBER 1! History? Not quite. Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield not only No. 1 picks quit on too early

“Ben’s an incredible play-caller,” Fipp said. “He sees the game with great vision and perspective.”

Glenn took a different route.

He has more than a quarter century of experience in the NFL, first as a first-round draft pick in 1994 and a 14-year playing career. Campbell and Glenn had coached together in New Orleans for five seasons.

Campbell gave Glenn a far different challenge: We are gonna build up our offense, throwing most of our resources into scoring points, and I’m gonna trust you to coach up this defense. To make some lemonade out of lemons. We are just gonna try to outscore everybody.

But it has worked.

And the rest of the NFL has noticed.

MORE FROM SEIDEL: Meet 4 Lions fans who have had a front-row view of organization's rebuild

Glenn doesn’t have a great defense — the Lions haven’t committed enough resources into the defense to make it elite — but he certainly has respect from his players.

The NFL Players Association polled more than 1,600 players, asking them to rank coordinators on a 1-10 scale, and Glenn finished in first among defensive coordinators in the league.

This says so much about the way he communicates, how he teaches, the way he treats players, the relationships he has built, how he develops them, how he leads men and how he motivates them — the things that make a great head coach.

“AG’s a great motivator and leader and enjoyable to be around,” Fipp said of Glenn. “I think, as a coach, for me, you’re trying to learn from everybody that you’re around. And I’ve learned an awful lot from both those guys.”

Is it time to panic?

So what happens if one or both leave? What if they each take a Lions assistant with them, which wouldn’t be unusual?

Campbell has proved that he can build a staff. He can identify the qualities that make a good coach, not to mention a good coordinator.

He has proved that he can groom a young coach and promote him to coordinator, like he did with Johnson.

Maybe, Campbell could find replacements on staff.

Maybe, they would come from the outside the Allen Park facility.

But at this stage, one thing is clear about Campbell: This guy knows how to build a coaching staff.

He has built up some serious street cred.

Here’s the King James version if both guys leave: Thou shalt trust in Dan to find replacements.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions may lose coordinators, still have Dan Campbell to fix it