With the announcement that the Detroit Lions are reportedly hiring Drew Petzing as their newest offensive coordinator came a bunch of reactions from fans and analysts alike. One of the more popular reactions was frustration that the Lions didn\u2019t land former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, a candidate widely believed to be the best offensive mind available this coaching cycle.<\/p>\n
McDaniel was a candidate for the Lions\u2019 job and interviewed for the position last Tuesday. Why didn\u2019t the Lions choose him? We don\u2019t have 100 percent clarity on that yet, but ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington provided some insight into Detroit\u2019s thought process with McDaniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf coordinator jobs that Mike McDaniel has interviewed for, the Lions gig was the least likely to materialize,\u201d Darlington tweeted on Monday. \u201cCampbell liked McDaniel a lot, but Lions didn\u2019t view it as quite the right fit for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s be clear about this quote, because I\u2019ve already seen some potential misinterpretations of this. That last sentence has some believing that Campbell wanted him, but he was overridden by others within the organization. I can see why that\u2019s a possible read on the situation, but I think Campbell could be included in the \u201cLions\u201d that didn\u2019t view him as a fit. You can like a candidate while also admitting he\u2019s not exactly what you\u2019re looking for. Jumping to the conclusion that Campbell didn\u2019t get his guy because of Brad Holmes, or Sheila Hamp, or Mike Disner is making a huge leap in logic.<\/p>\n
What would be more interesting to find out is why the organization didn\u2019t like McDaniel\u2019s fit. There is certainly a perception that McDaniel\u2019s offense is a little more gadgety and based on speed, where the Lions have shown they like physicality and power. Personally, I think McDaniel has shown some of those gritty football tendencies when the personnel is right.<\/p>\n
Maybe the personality fit wasn\u2019t right. Maybe McDaniel doesn\u2019t see play-calling the way Campbell wants him to. Maybe the connection with Jared Goff wasn\u2019t ideal. Maybe there was just going to be too much schematic and verbiage overhaul when the Lions are looking for more of a tweak.<\/p>\n
Whatever the reason, one thing appears clear from Darlington\u2019s reporting: the Lions rejected McDaniel rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the announcement that the Detroit Lions are reportedly hiring Drew Petzing as their newest offensive coordinator came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,37982,153,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-692779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroit-lions-coaching-news-rumors","11":"tag-detroit-lions-news","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115931028572671085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}