Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson isn’t the only Dan Campbell assistant who will be in demand next month. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn will be in the interview cycle, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising for the Lions to need two new coordinators in 2025.

Glenn interviewed with the Atlanta Falcons, Tennessee Titans and Los Angeles Chargers last offseason. He has strong ties to the other two teams besides the Chicago Bears that currently have openings.

The two-time Pro Bowl cornerback spent the first eight seasons of his 15-year career with the New York Jets. He finished his playing career with the New Orleans Saints in 2008 and was a defensive backs coach for them from 2016 through 2020 before the Lions made him coordinator. He has had other head coaching interviews, including with the Jets in 2021.

Glenn’s work this season — and it’s difficult to measure with statistics — is the most impressive of his coaching career. The Lions have been crushed by injuries, and missing so many frontline players on that side of the ball could prevent them from chasing the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

Fewer injuries to key players has crippled other teams in the past, and at 13-2 after beating the Bears 34-17 on Sunday at Soldier Field, the Lions are finding ways to stay in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

How bad has it been? In the first two series against the Green Bay Packers in Week 14, the Lions used four players on defense who joined the team that week.

Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, defensive tackle Alim McNeill, cornerback Carlton Davis and linebacker Alex Anzalone are big pieces to lose. Add linebacker Derrick Barnes and defensive end Marcus Davenport, and that’s a long list. Really, that’s just the beginning. Others have gone down too.

“We’re 12-2 and the sky’s falling?” Glenn said during his news conference Thursday. “We’re going to the playoffs. We’re in the tournament. Why in the hell is the sky falling for us? What do we have to sit back and be sad? We let you guys do that.”

Glenn, 52, hasn’t changed what the Lions do scheme-wise to account for all of the lost talent. He has turned to the next man and the next man and the next man, and if the Lions can make the NFC’s path to the Super Bowl go through Ford Field, maybe they have a chance.

“The next guy’s got to come up and play — that’s the reason why they’re here,” Glenn said. “And I’m not going to disrespect any of the players that we have here because they work their ass off just like everybody else. … Our personnel department does a really good job of finding guys that fit who we are, and we’re going to put them on the field and we’re going to play.”

The Lions entered Week 16 ranked No. 1 in the league on third down. Yes, they’ve been hit for a lot of points lately by the Buffalo Bills and Packers, but they have the firepower on offense to play in games like that when required.

“We’re in Week 16 and I think our stats … are better now than what it was early in the season,” Glenn said. “And that has a lot to do with the players. Our players understand exactly what our play style is.

“Even the new guys coming in, that’s been the most impressive thing to me is they’re saying: ‘Coach, we haven’t seen guys practice like this. We didn’t practice like this. This is why you guys continue to improve on the things that you need to improve on.’

“And I like to hear that because it lets me know how other teams are operating and it lets us know as an organization that we’re doing things the right way. … Each week we look forward to the challenge of each team that we play and we don’t want to take a step down as a defense. And I’m sure that the offense feels the same way.”

It’s not a decision between Johnson and Glenn for the Bears. They very well might want to speak with both of them about their coaching job.

Johnson is a more prominent name right now because he’s on offense — offense is always in demand — and the Lions have major firepower.

But Glenn’s work is helping hold this team together, and he has a personality that brings some swagger as well.

The possession to begin the fourth quarter summed up the Bears’ funk.

They had first-and-5 at the Lions 22-yard line and came away with a Tory Taylor punt. How do you go from one to the other? A quick pass to DJ Moore for a 1-yard loss and a false start on fill-in left guard Jake Curhan made it third-and-11 from the 28. Then Caleb Williams was sacked for a 9-yard loss by ex-Bear Al-Quadin Muhammad.

From there, the Bears punted.

They trailed 34-17 at the time and it was highly unlikely they were going to claw their way back into the game. But that’s the kind of thing you watch and wonder, “How the heck did that just happen?”

Lions defensive end Za’Darius Smith has gotten a good look at the Bears for a while. Detroit traded with the Cleveland Browns for Smith to fortify their pass rush.

Smith played for the Minnesota Vikings in 2022 after a three-year run with the Packers. So this is his third team and fifth season in the NFC North.

His teams, including the Browns last year, are 11-0 against the Bears since 2019. Smith missed three of those games because of injuries.

“Hopefully one day Chicago will get it fixed,” Smith said. “Detroit went through the same thing for a lot of years. The Lions got it turned around. Hopefully the Bears get it figured out.”

I asked Smith if he believed Williams could be the quarterback to help the Bears turn the corner back to relevance and he didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “They get great guys around him and he starts leading a new group, he will be perfect.”

That will require a lot of work this offseason. There are too many instances week in and week out when you see things that are confounding. Punting after having first-and-5 at the opponent’s 22-yard line fits in that category.