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Even when that includes a run at the history books.
"I've seen (it before), both he and Randy [Moss], one of two receivers that have had 1,600 yards and 16 touchdowns,” Linehan said. “I've seen those kind of things. You really don't get caught up in it. You follow it because you hear about it.
“That receiving number. ... We're not about individuals, we're not trying to put a game plan around guys getting individual records, but certainly would love to see it.
"Nobody better than Calvin to be able to have an opportunity to help our team win while he's getting in position to maybe break history.”
Johnson is chasing the single-season receiving yards record of 1,848 set by Hall of Famer Jerry Rice in 1995.
Johnson has 1,428 yards on the season and needs to average 105 yards per game to get the record. Johnson is currently averaging 119 per game.
Johnson has been on some kind of tear through the first 12 games of the season, but his gaudy stats haven’t been secluded to just this season.
The last 16 times Johnson has taken the field (including last year’s playoff game at New Orleans), he has 122 receptions for 2,199 yards (137.5 avg.) with 11 touchdowns. He’s averaged 18.0 yards per reception, and he has 24 catches of 25 yards.
In those 16 games, he has 12 100-yard games, 10 125-yard games, six 150-yard games and four 200-yard games.
“I don't think anyone thought there were going to be three or four 5,000 yard passers in one season,” Linehan said of the possibility that Johnson could get to 2,000 receiving yards this season.
“I think it's becoming more realistic now. I just think it's really hard for Calvin because of how many people are covering him on every play. I don't know if that's always been the case. Defense's are very in tune to where he is from the start of the game to the finish. They're still doubling, tripling him. For him to be this productive considering… to have a game like that knowing that we were down in receivers in a lot of spots, just really says a lot about him.
“Our goal is to win the next four games and along the way it would be great if he could give it a run."
Considering Johnson has 661 yards in the Lions’ last four games, it seems downright likely he'll make that run.
And as Profootballtalk.com's Michael David Smith suggests, not because the Lions are trying to get him the record but because they’re running out of options.
The Lions’ second, third and fourth receivers are all done for the season, with Nate Burleson suffering a broken leg, Ryan Broyles suffering a torn ACL and Titus Young essentially placed on injured reserve for having a bad attitude.
Of course, as Smith added, that also means opposing defenses can focus even more on stopping Johnson. And when the offensive coordinator is openly talking about getting Johnson record-breaking numbers, that provides that much more motivation for the other team’s defense to stop it.
But that is obviously easier said than done.