MIAMI GARDENS — The last time Dan Campbell coached a game at Hard Rock Stadium, the venue was still known as Sun Life Stadium and didn’t even have the overhead canopy installed.

Has it really been that long since the Miami Dolphins’ “Man Campbell” season of 2015, when Campbell filled in after Joe Philbin was fired, inspired the team to a pair of convincing wins to start the run but ultimately went 5-7 to cap a 6-10 season?

Former Dolphins executive Mike Tannenbaum has said Campbell was close to getting the full-time job. Instead, Miami went the way of Adam Gase. Then, Brian Flores. Then, Mike McDaniel. And now, the combination of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley, in their first year leading the franchise.

In that same time, Campbell went back to coaching tight ends, like he did from 2011 to 2015 with the Dolphins, and was assistant head coach of the New Orleans Saints. In 2021, the Detroit Lions hired him as head coach. As a sidenote, Tannenbaum’s successor in Miami, former general manager Chris Grier, is now a personnel advisor in Detroit.

When Campbell became coach of the Lions, it was clear the former rough-and-tough NFL tight end, who probably still needed some seasoning in 2015 and maybe even in that moment, was unconventional. His introductory press conference in Detroit raised eyebrows.

“We’re going to kick you in the teeth, all right? And when you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you, and when you knock us down, we’re going to get up. And on the way up, we’re going to bite a kneecap off,” Campbell said then.

“And we’re going to stand up, and then it’s going to take two more shots to knock us down. And on the way up, we’re going to take your other kneecap. And we’re going to get up, and then it’s going to take three shots to get us down. And when we do, we’re going to take another hunk out of you.

“Before long, we’re going to be the last one standing. That’s going to be the mentality.”

It was an extreme way of highlighting that physicality and toughness would be at the forefront. Outside of three seasons under Flores, the Dolphins tenures of Gase and McDaniel were mostly marked by finesse.

But now, as the Dolphins (1-6) host the Lions (5-2) in a 1 p.m. kickoff Sunday, Sullivan and Hafley might be trying to stir up a recipe that has a little bit of Campbell in it.

“I probably never would talk about biting people, but I think it’s pretty cool that he did,” Hafley said this past week. “That’s how I want to play football — and let me retract that — that’s how we are playing football.

“If you watch us right now — and I think every coach has said it and everybody who watches us, whether it’s on TV or whether they turn on our tape and I get texts or phone calls — that’s what’s showing up on tape right now. And while it’s disappointing that we’re 1-6, the foundation of that with young guys, that’s really important to us. When you see the physicality and the toughness and how hard guys are playing, it means that they’re playing for each other and that they’re bought in and that we’ve brought the right guys here. That’s very, very important to me and it will continue to be.”

Physicality. Toughness. Players playing for each other — and their coaches. Players bought in. These were characteristics seen in the 2015 Dolphins when Campbell took over for Philbin. They’re trademarks of Campbell’s Lions. And now they’re appearing again in 2026 in Miami under Hafley.

The Dolphins, in years to come, will strive to compete year in and year out the way Detroit has under Campbell, reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2023, being the No. 1 seed in 2024 and back on the rise this season after a down, injury-plagued 2025 season.

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But as for Sunday, while the present-day Dolphins have similar traits brewing, there’s a lot on paper the Lions have that the Dolphins don’t.

Detroit’s No. 1 offense features players among the best at their position in left tackle Penei Sewell, running back Jahmyr Gibbs, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and tight end Sam LaPorta. Quarterback Jared Goff knows how to distribute the ball to all those playmakers, a group that also has dangerous, speedy wide receiver Jameson Williams.

“They could hit you from a variety of different angles, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game, and it is going to be a challenge and I view that as a challenge that we look forward to,” Hafley said.

The pass defense taking on that challenge is a unit that is last in the league in passer rating against and completion percentage allowed, with just nine sacks on the season. Hafley and defensive coordinator Sean Duggan like to take away an opposing offense’s top threat. The problem with Detroit is there are multiple players of that caliber.

“When you talk about defense, it’s always you just got to take away their best threat,” said Duggan, who faced the Lions multiple times each of the past two seasons with Hafley in Green Bay.

“When it comes to Detroit, they have good players everywhere. So playing those guys four times in two years, you just can’t help everyone every single play, right? So you kind of got to stick and move a little bit and not give the offensive coordinator an idea of I’m going to do this on every single down or, every single third down, this is what we’re going to be in. You kind of got to change it up on him and then you got to change it up on the quarterback.”

While the sacks have been slow to come in, Dolphins edge rusher Chop Robinson leads the NFL in pressure rate, according to Next Gen Stats.

An effective counter to Detroit’s explosive offense could be a ball-control offense that keeps possession away from the Lions for long periods of time. Miami would like to have another 100-yard rushing performance as a team after having a streak of five such games snapped in last week’s loss to the New England Patriots.

Detroit has a top-10 rushing defense, although that defense will be without middle linebacker Jack Campbell after a scary neck injury last week. But the Lions are dead last in the NFL in pass defense, so there could be opportunities for quarterback Malik Willis to connect with the rookie wide receiver trio of Caleb Douglas, Chris Bell and Kevin Coleman Jr., along with tight end Greg Dulcich.

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