The expectations by pretty much everyone in the football world is that Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is believe to be the most sought after head coaching prospect in all of the NFL this coming offseason. A price for Johnson’s services has reportedly been floating around the league and it’s very high.
How high is that? That would make Johnson one of the highest paid coaches in all of U.S. sports. That’s right I said U.S. sports. not just football.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is currently the highest paid coach in all of U.S. sports with an annual salary of $25 million. Broncos head coach Sean Payton is right behind him at $18 million. Then we get to the $15 million range. Only three coaches are making that right now. Spurs coach Greg Popovich, Rams coach Sean McVay and Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
All of the coaches listed above have something in common. They’ve all won championships. While there’s still time for Johnson to do that this season, he hasn’t done that to this point in his career. He’s also never been a head coach before. All the guys that are at $15 million or more right now got there on their second, third or fourth contracts.
Teams want to win and Johnson has shown that he’s a great offensive coordinator, but do teams want to risk that type of money on a first year coach. Does Johnson want to be the guy that could become the highest paid failure? Not saying that he would, just saying that it’s hard to coach in this game. Especially when you’re bound to start from the bottom in the new role.
Here’s the section of this story where I think out loud. Johnson may not want to leave Detroit. Pricing yourself out of the market is a pretty good way of making sure nobody hires you. Some guys just want to be coordinators until they’re definitely ready. This is all moving very fast for Johnson. I would personally have some trepidation if I were in his shoes. You rarely get a second shot at being a head coach if it doesn’t work out. You have to make sure that it’s right.
My other out loud thought is that the Lions paid him a lot to stay. That number isn’t out there for the world to see, but if he’s pricing himself at $15 million, you can assume that he’s making more money than any coordinator in the NFL. So there’s a either comfort level with what he’s making and he doesn’t want to leave, or he wants to make sure it’s worth leaving what he has before he does.
We’ll see where things go during the offseason. But this kind of ask is no joke.
Update: Ben Johnson’s agent Richmond Flowers III has stepped in to dispute Anderson’s report and called it false.