Despite the Lions' 45-31 loss in Saturday night's divisional round clash with the Commanders, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson showed why he is a top candidate for head coach, as a play stunned Tom Brady on FOX.
The former quarterback, of course, is also a minority owner of the Raiders, who interviewed Johnson and have been heavily linked to the 38-year-old for their head coaching vacancy.
And after the Lions made a very creative play against Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brady was very impressed.
'That?! I've never seen that in my life!' he exclaimed after the receiver received a shovel pass from running back David Montgomery, to whom the ball had been thrown.
And since Brady himself attended Johnson's interview with the Raiders, many fans had the same reaction to the moment.
“The Las Vegas Raiders are hiring Ben Johnson as their new head coach, league sources tell ESPN,” one wrote in X playfully.
Tom Brady smiled at one of Ben Johnson's plays on Saturday night.
Johnson has interviewed for the Raiders head coaching position and is considered one of the top coaching candidates this cycle.
“That's my head coach,” a Raiders fan saying.
NBC10 sports anchor John Clark also weighed in.
“The pretty wild Tom Brady is calling this game and may hire Ben Johnson to be the Raiders' next head coach,” he said. saying.
While the shovel pass to St. Brown led to a 20-yard gain, another trick play went horribly wrong later in the second half.
That time, St. Brown received a pass from Goff before returning it to Jameson Williams to throw downfield, but the receiver forced a pass to Jahmyr Gibbs and was intercepted.
The Commanders then drove down the field and scored to push their lead to 17 points, which would be too much for the Lions to come back from.
In the first quarter, Brady's FOX broadcast partner Kevin Burkhardt recognized the elephant in the room and asked his colleague what he took away from attending coaching interviews with Johnson as well as Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.
'It's just been a great learning experience. “What you realize is that the league is full of great potential,” he began, refusing to divulge any specific information about Johnson or Glenn.
“And what I believe, the resumes, the accolades, they're all earned by what people do on the field.”