PHOENIX — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell — a few minutes late, sporting longer hair as he arrived for a breakfast roundtable — sat down at the NFL’s annual meetings to address the moves the team made this offseason, and his vision for the season ahead.
It was an insightful 30 minutes with Campbell, who said he’s been so busy this offseason he hasn’t had time for a haircut.
“Yeah, man, we’ve been going,” Campbell said. “We’ve been going. It’s been fun. Brad (Holmes) and I have been, we’ve been back in the bunker just going at it. It’s been fun. It really has. Kind of a little bit of a rebirth, actually.”
Here’s why.
Campbell on leadership losses and the next wave
The whole grit and culture persona this organization lives and breathes doesn’t work the same without a presence like Campbell at the forefront. He and GM Brad Holmes look for players who embody what they believe is the right fit for them. Players with strong work ethics, players who will battle for their teammates and lay it on the line for the sake of the team.
The Lions had a lot of those players. Guys like Taylor Decker, Graham Glasgow, Alex Anzalone, Kalif Raymond, Amik Robertson, David Montgomery, Roy Lopez. Then they let a lot of them walk in free agency.
How does Campbell feel about it?
“When you fall short, and you feel like you’ve got these pieces in certain areas, then you identify why were we not able to get over the hump in some of these games,” Campbell explained. “… You’ve got to look at it in totality. I look at myself. I look at the staff. And then certainly, the players. Where can we get better? Do we need to get younger in some areas? (I) felt like we needed to get younger in some areas. That’s just the nature of this league. We had some really good production and a lot of things from these players that we really counted on, and those guys, man, they helped us a lot.
“Look, it’s hard to lose guys like Alex and Deck and Leaf and Muhammad. I mean, those guys have been really good. … But that’s the nature of the beast, too. That’s kind of where we’re at. We’re in the next kind of phase of this. And then it’s about what we’ve done finding the next wave of guys that fit St. Brown, fit Sewell and Goff and Branch and Jack (Campbell) and Hutch. They complement those guys. In that sense, it’s exciting.”
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell speaks with reporters Monday in Phoenix. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)
A couple of takeaways: Campbell said he felt like the Lions needed to get younger. Mission accomplished, considering many of the players listed above were 30 or older. And while he made sure to say he appreciates what those guys brought to the table, at the same time, there’s a part of Campbell that is excited by some of the turnover. It gives the Lions a chance to learn what they have in the core players they’ve invested in. It’s why they’ve built it this way.
“These guys weren’t just good football players coming out of college that fit us,” Campbell said. “These guys have leadership qualities. Don’t be something you’re not. But we feel like these are the guys, whether it’s vocal or it’s just I lead by example, these are guys that people will follow and they’re about what we’re about. To me, we may be taking the handcuffs off of some of these guys if you ask me a little bit. It’s time for these guys to grow and take ownership of this. I think it’s actually going to help us in the long run.”
Party like it’s 2022
One thing Campbell has mentioned, throughout the offseason, is getting back to some of the things the team did in 2022. He hadn’t revealed what he means by that, though, leaving his definition up to interpretation.
Until Monday.
“You want to make sure you get guys that fit what you’re about, and they got something to prove,” Campbell said, when asked if signing hungry players was part of the free-agency strategy. “Because that fits the rest of those guys in that locker room that we know are gonna be here long term. That’s kind of what we’re about and getting back to a little bit of that. Look, everybody wants talent. We all want talent, but it’s always nice to have a little bit of saltiness to you over the talent that lacks saltiness, because that’s kind of what we were in ’22. That’s a little bit of it, and in part of ’23. We had talent, but we had some salty guys, and we were highly competitive and we were willing to make it work, figure it out. And so just a little bit of that edge back.”
I’m of the opinion that if you gave Campbell truth serum, he’d tell you the 2022 and 2023 teams were his favorites. Reading a bit between the lines, it almost seems like Campbell believes the Lions lost some of their hunger in 2024 and 2025. Injuries have played a factor the last two seasons, but the Lions lost their one and only playoff game as a 15-win team in 2024 and saw their win total decrease six games in 2025, en route to a fourth-place finish. At times, it felt like the team went into weeks expecting to win because of their talent. Now it feels like Campbell is trying to course-correct this offseason.
I followed up and asked him to elaborate.
“I think it’s a little bit, like, let’s focus on winning games,” Campbell said. “Let’s not beat ourselves. … Look, I don’t want to get too far into this because you gotta see what kind of team you have, where you go. But I guess what I’m saying is, man, I want to go back to what we did a little bit. Let’s get our confidence back up, let’s not beat ourselves. Let’s make sure that our calling card is what we said. It’s about grit, and everything starts with grit. And then we’ll work from there. Now, once we’re able to get a little lethal and be more potent in some areas and be more aggressive, we’re going to do that. But I just want to make sure that we’re saying what we are, that we believe in what we really are and it’s not lip service. That’s all.”
Vision for the defense
At the combine in February, Campbell revealed that he sat down earlier in the offseason with defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard — in an effort to review each and every aspect of the defense. In Indianapolis, Campbell didn’t reveal what he learned or what he wanted.
He did Monday.
“I told you guys at the combine, I was back there with the defense, we were going through all those cutups last year with Shep and the staff,” Campbell said. “I love that staff. There’s so many things that you take in, you’re like, ‘All right, what did we do well? What did we not? Where did we go from here? This is who we lost. Here’s some pieces that we added. What do we need?’ And so really, the way Shep’s done it — which I love — is we’ve kind of given ourselves options, we’ve got kind of three options a little bit as to where we can go with this.”
As Campbell explained, the Lions want to have options based on what the offense is showing, the personnel the Lions have added in free agency and the personnel they’ll continue adding in the draft next month. Reading between the lines, it sounds like those three options will be a 4-3 defense, a 5-2 defensive look with a sam linebacker lining up outside of a big end and their 4-2-5 package with a nickel. Campbell said the time spent looking back helped them get here, and much of the installs are already in place.
“Are we more of this four down?” Campbell said, thinking out loud. “Do we become more five down? Do we become more nickel? So, we’ve got some flexibility here ready. Like, it’s already built into the install for Shep, like, ‘All right. I can go three ways here with my personnel.’ It’s still the same install, but now we’ve got the pieces to put where we want, whether that’s a nickel, it’s a big end, it’s a linebacker. So we’re kind of flexible here. We got some flexibility. So, yes, we love base, because it dictates, but not if we don’t have the personnel to play base. … We’ve still got work to do, too. There’s no secret there.”
This is a good draft to add flexibility to the defense, which would allow Sheppard to seamlessly transition from those looks. I left Campbell’s breakfast meeting of the opinion that the Lions will need to attack Day 2 and Day 3 of the draft looking for defensive help. That’s the sweet spot for versatile edge rushers, linebackers and hybrid defensive backs. That’s the best way to maximize this vision for the defense.
Quick hitters
• Sure sounds like Penei Sewell to left tackle is in motion. Here’s what Campbell had to say: “Very confident,” he said, when asked for his confidence level in a move like that. “That’s easy. I’ve talked to him. We’re ready to do that, if need be. … It’s a little bit like riding a bike for him. … If you’re asking me, I’d like to move him. I would. I would like to move him to left.”
• Campbell was asked about CB Terrion Arnold’s off-field news this offseason: “We got all the information that says he wasn’t involved,” Campbell said. “That’s what we know, that’s all we know, and I mean, that’s really all I can say. We’re monitoring what’s out there — I mean, as of a month ago, this was nothing, you know? So, I have no idea what this is. As far as I know, it’s still not a big deal. It seems like he wasn’t involved with this.”
• Worth mentioning in the event Arnold’s situation intensifies: Campbell said the Lions still view Ennis Rakestraw Jr. as an outside cornerback, not as a nickel, despite the loss of Amik Robertson.
• Campbell on getting center Cade Mays: “Yeah, it was big. He and (Tyler) Linderbaum, we thought, were the two. So, we were fired up to be able to get him. That was big for us, man, being able to get that centerpiece. We feel like Mays can anchor. He can keep the pocket clean for Goff up the middle, and we don’t feel restricted in the run game. We do feel like we can do the pin and pulls, the wide zones, the gaps with him. We think he’s got enough versatility and all that, and he’s an ascending center.”
• Campbell on Isaac TeSlaa: “We really like TeSlaa. We feel like he’s taken off. We feel like he was one of those guys that really — you’d be hard-pressed to say that he didn’t make the most growth of a rookie. Now, Tyleik (Williams) did a great job. We thought (Tate) Ratledge got better. But man, I really thought TeSlaa — it’s not easy for a receiver. It’s not easy for any of them.”
• Campbell was asked about the injury concerns of NFL players playing flag football in the Olympics. While he admitted he’s not losing sleep over it, he did acknowledge that it’s a real possibility and that it’s going to be worth a conversation.
• Campbell said the Lions were able to add three players in free agency with the money they saved by releasing Taylor Decker. He said he plans to reach out to Decker eventually, but not at the moment.
• Campbell said the Lions view D.J. Wonnum as a true defensive end in a four-man front, but not necessarily a guy who can play the big end in Detroit’s base defense looks with Derrick Barnes on the outside of him. He openly pondered the addition of another edge in the draft.
• He said the Lions will not be conducting joint practices this year.