Eleven months ago, there in the tunnels of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Dan Campbell was left to grapple with the sudden reality of his team’s magical postseason run coming to an end. His mind took him to his past.
As a second-year tight end, Campbell was part of a Giants team that reached the Super Bowl, but lost to the Ravens. They went into the offseason with the belief they’d be back. The next year, they went 7-9 and missed the postseason. As an assistant coach, he helped the New Orleans Saints win four consecutive NFC South titles from 2017-20. They never even reached the big game during that run, let alone won it.
Campbell knows better than most how hard it is to win in the postseason. It’s all he could think about after that loss.
“I told those guys this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said on Jan. 29. “Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. And it’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality.”
Campbell is often prophetic in his comments to players and media alike. But even he couldn’t have possibly predicted the type of season the Lions would have in 2024. A 12-1 start. An 11-game winning streak. A team that could beat you with its offense or its defense, showing few, if any, holes. Only to watch player after player limp off the field and onto injured reserve, before getting a chance to see what a Lions team at full strength could do in the postseason.
Most would look at the Lions right now and feel sorry for them, as injuries have taken a toll, amid a tightly-contest battle for the division and No. 1 seed unfolds. By the end of the week, the Lions will have 22 players on injured reserve. Aidan Hutchinson, David Montgomery, Alim McNeill, Alex Anzalone, Carlton Davis III, Marcus Davenport, Derrick Barnes, and Malcolm Rodriguez, to name a few.
GO DEEPER
Super Bowl odds: A new tier emerges without the Chiefs
But there’s something hard to describe about Campbell and the Lions unless you’ve been around them. I have, for three seasons now. What I can tell you is that there’s an authenticity to this group that feels…different. That’s probably the best word for it. They play for the guy next to them. They talk in unison when they’re apart. They understand their situation, and that the only thing they can do is strap up and compete like they do every week. It’s all they know.
“We just lost, man,” Lions defensive tackle DJ Reader said, after the Lions’ 48-42 loss to the Bills at home on Sunday. “I think that’s what it is. It happens. It happens in this league. S—, we’ve been kicking everybody’s ass for 12 weeks and this week it happened to us.”
That doesn’t just happen. It takes 53 like-minded individuals. It takes a coaching staff that’s seen it all and passed down lessons learned. It takes a front office that doesn’t deviate from its process. It’s all by design, and it starts at the top.
Lions principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp hired Campbell and GM Brad Holmes almost four years ago. The decision was met with criticism and confusion. But she trusted the men she chose to lead the franchise she inherited from her father and mother, vowing things would be different this time.
Her belief remained during a 0-10 start and a 3-13-1 finish in 2021. Back then, the Lions were focused on acquiring the right mix of talent and temperament to become pillars for the team that would turn things around. They scouted meticulously along the way, passing on players who didn’t fit what they were about. It wasn’t enough to be skilled — you had to be wired like a Detroit Lion. If you’ve followed this team since 2021, you know what that means. Those running this franchise defined it, based on the players they brought in.
The next year, following a 1-6 start in 2022, Hamp publicly backed Campbell amid calls for his job and doubt about his coaching chops. In her mind, he was hired for this exact reason. Campbell was the pick because of his ability to lead and preserve the attention of his locker room when things weren’t going their way — an inescapable reality in the NFL.
“I knew where we were at last year, I know where we’re at right now and I know where we’re going to be,” Campbell said in October 2022.
Those are the moments where Campbell’s star power shines brightest. The Lions have never had a coach like him, with an innate ability to inspire. He provided the city of Detroit with proof of concept, winning eight of their final 10 games in 2022. It set the tone for everything that would follow. He has since proven to be the right coach at the right time for the organization. But he now faces his greatest test yet.
The man praised for his locker room speeches and masterful motivation tactics is tasked with uplifting a team as many onlookers are ready to abandon a bandwagon that was empty just three years ago.
If you have to ask how he might respond at a moment like this, you don’t know Campbell.
“What happens is you get used to eating filet — and I’m talking all of us — and everything’s good,” Campbell said, amid an impassioned speech to Detroit’s 97.1 The Ticket. “Life’s good, but you forgot what it was like when you had nothing and you ate your fu–ing molded bread and it was just fine, and it gave you everything you needed. Sometimes, you’ve got to get punched in the mouth and remember what it used to be like to really appreciate where you are, and we’ll do that.
“So, we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth. We got kicked around the other day, we lost a few guys, and you know what? It’s exactly what we needed. This is exactly what we needed. So, we’re going to bounce back. We’re going to respond. We’ve got guys that are about to have an unbelievable opportunity here, and we will play the game any way needed to win.”
Dan Campbell just dropped a speech that every @Lions fan needs to hear 🗣️
(via @971theticketxyt) pic.twitter.com/OayM4PWvPD
— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2024
This, plain and simple, was Campbell at his best. He has long been a coach allergic to coachspeak, but even this was different. It was almost as if he blacked out, indirectly speaking to the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. In the process Campbell delivered one of his best moments, navigating a pivotal point in his Lions tenure.
Expected or not, Campbell struck the exact tone this team needed from its head coach. Don’t feel sorry for them. Overlook them at your own risk. There are too many strong-willed players in that locker room ready to lay it all out for their coach and the guys lining up next to them.
They were just awaiting word. They now have it.
Quarterback Jared Goff said Dan Campbell’s impassioned speech on the radio was typical of how he speaks to the players. (Junfu Han / Imagn Images)
“It’s the way he speaks to all of us,” quarterback Jared Goff said of Campbell’s comments on 97.1. “And he’s telling the truth. He’s being honest, he’s being sincere, he’s being genuine and he’s right. If we reacted like everyone else outside of us, we’d have no chance.”
A chance is all they need, and they have one. The Lions clinched a postseason berth earlier this month — something they couldn’t accomplish two years ago. Many on that 2022 team wonder what could’ve been if they’d snuck into the playoffs, finding out before kickoff for a Week 18 Sunday Night Football finale against the Packers that they’d been eliminated from playoff contention. Most assumed they had nothing to play for, that they were content with letting Aaron Rodgers and the Packers walk over them and into the playoffs.
Yeah. Right.
“I think anybody that expected anything different doesn’t know the Detroit Lions,” left tackle Taylor Decker said then. “I think it’s that simple.”
Guys like Decker, the longest-tenured Lions, have been here from the beginning. Expect the team to lean on him. They’ve got a core of Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, Jameson Williams, an offensive line with three Pro Bowlers, DJ Reader, Za’Darius Smith, Jack Campbell, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, and others remaining on a roster that still boasts talent. Reinforcements could be coming before the playoffs, like Alex Anzalone, Ifeatu Melifonwu and more.
The Lions have a coaching staff with two potential future head coaches running the offense and defense. They have three weeks to determine the best path forward and what works with the group they have in place. Considering this team has not lost two games in a row in 26 months, there’s reason to believe in their ability to self-correct.
Even with the Eagles (12-2) and Vikings (12-2) hot on their tails, everything remains in front of this team. The Lions finish with the Bears (4-10), the 49ers (6-8) and the Vikings at home. It should come as a surprise to no one if they run the table, which would clinch the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
If they can pull it off, it will be among Campbell’s greatest feats as a coach.
“I don’t give a crap whether we gotta win by one point for the rest of the year, that’s what we’re going to do, and I’m going to be happy about it,” Campbell said on The Ticket. “We come out of the game with 50 yards of total offense and we win by one? You’re going to see smiles on my face. I promise you. If it’s the other way, defensively we give up 700 yards and we win by one point, you’re going to see a f—ing smile from my ear to ear, alright? I can promise you. So we’re going to find a way, and we’re going to get it done.”
Campbell is far from a perfect coach. He is often criticized for his overaggression. Folks outside of Detroit seemed to think his tendencies would cost this team a shot at a Super Bowl, even before the injuries. But the truth is, they wouldn’t be here without him.
He gives the Lions structure, even when it feels like things are collapsing. He is the heart and soul of a scarred franchise that needs him more than ever.
And the Lions need his latest words to be just as prophetic as they were 11 months ago.
(Top photo of Dan Campbell: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
