Ben Johnson Denies Rumored Friction With Lions Coach Dan Campbell

The Detroit Lions are officially on the lookout for a new offensive coordinator.

With Ben Johnson off to be the head coach of the Chicago Bears, the Lions will need a new voice to lead the offense. Johnson's move to the division rival has frustrated some fans, and left pundits wondering if there was friction amongst Dan Campbell's coaching staff.

On a recent episode of 'Big D Energy,' host Neal Ruhl explained via a source, “There was potentially some friction in the organization with Ben Johnson, with Dan Campbell, to the degree that he might not have been back regardless this year.” 

During an appearance on FS1's 'Breakfast Ball' Thursday, Johnson unequivocally denied that statement, when asked by co-host Craig Carton.

“No. I’ve never heard of that before in my life," said Johnson. "That guy is one of my best friends, he is a mentor of mine, and I view him like family.”

More: Six Takeaways From Brad Holmes' End of Season Press Conference

What went wrong against Washington Commanders

Though Johnson is settling in to his new position currently, he still feels the pain of the loss to the Washington Commanders in the NFC Divisional Round. He was quick to blame himself for Saturday's showing, explaining that there were play-calls that he would like back.

“I look at myself first, and anytime a play doesn’t work, I question why it was called, when it was called and whether those reasons are valid or not. I always look in the mirror and I’m always critical of myself, sometimes too much," said Johnson. "There’s certainly some calls that I want back. This year in the playoffs and last year, the season before, I really felt like we had a breakdown in fundamentals at times."

In addition, he pointed out Detroit's uncharacteristic lack of sound fundamentals in Saturday's game. Issues such as drops, inopportune penalties and turnovers were non-factors for much of the season, but on the magnified stage of the playoffs, they came back to bite the Lions.

"Last week, against Washington, we had five drops in that game, we had a couple of false starts and then of course five turnovers," Johnson explained. "Quite frankly, that’s just not winning football. We didn’t earn that win, we didn’t deserve it, and Washington did. You get what you deserve here in this league, and in the playoffs you don’t have that margin of error. Every team is gonna be good, and that’s what we found out.”