New Lions offensive coordinator John Morton took to the interview podium for the first time in training camp on Monday morning. Morton offers quite a divergent personality and presence from his predecessor, now-Bears head coach Ben Johnson.
A measured, at-ease Morton fielded several questions and offered quite a bit of insight into his view of the Lions offense. Morton noted that longtime NFL coach Jon Gruden would be in attendance for Monday’s practice and spoke highly of Gruden as the man behind why he is now running the Lions offense.
“I’m excited,” Morton said. “Jon Gruden is gonna be here today. He’s been a big influence and mentor in my life. He’s the one who got me started, and he’s influenced a lot of other coaches too.”
Morton was asked about Gruden’s influence.
“He gave me my first start as a coach (with the Raiders),” Morton noted, tracing the path from being a training camp player with the Packers while Gruden was coaching there to Gruden hiring him when he took over with the Raiders.
On a more football philosophical level, Morton gave great credit to Gruden’s innovation in expanding the West Coast offense into a more attacking style.
“Everything about the game,” Morton stated. “Jon was like, the West Coast offense of Bill Walsh and Mike Holmgren’s of the world. He was the first one to kind of venture off, still running the West Coast type of principles but with different formations, shifts and motions and things like that. It opens your eyes to the whole aspect of everything.”
Those concepts have been evident in the first few days of Lions training camp. Morton is installing more vertical passing options and pre-snap motions, experimenting with different packages and alignments.
Gruden’s offenses in that Raiders era were formidable. They finished in the top eight in both scoring and yardage for three straight seasons (1999-2001), primarily with Rich Gannon at quarterback operating a balanced attack that focused on ball control and exploiting matchups when given a shot.
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: John Morton credits Jon Gruden for opportunity and schematic influence