Grading Dan Campbell as a Head Coach

Being a head coach is a very hard job with a ton riding on your shoulders for a roster of ~100 people including coaches and trainers.

I’ll attempt to break down all the primary aspects of being a head coach and give my opinion on how Campbell does on each of these aspects.

Off the Field

  • Preparing Coaches:
    11+ coaches and assistants on a team. They need to know clearly their responsibilities for each day of the week. They have to be ready to review the film and get their players better across a myriad of metrics.
  • Effective workouts and health management:
    Players have to get stronger in a smart and building way without sustaining injury over a grueling 16+ game season and off-season. It’s important to keep players engaged and stimulated while giving enough different drills and scenarios to help foster growth in players old and new.

Overall this has been a spotty portion of the club under Campbell. A lot of penalties and miscommunication. They are playing a ton of young guys so that contributes. They’ve adjusted to their injuries fairly well as they are down to 6th players in depth at many positions and are still competitive.
Health has been poor. Is that guys putting in their all for DC? Lack of depth making guys take too many snaps? Turf at Detroit? A lot of injuries here just like the 49ers. Off the field he also needs to decide on his coaches. I like that he brought in a lot of former players as coaches but it doesn’t seem to be helping in preparation. His biggest test will be in the coaches he changes in the off season (see boardroom).

I’d give him a C- but it’s only his first year so I’d give him another year to prove he can make this better with more experienced players and effective coaches.

In the Locker Room

  • Team Culture:
    Establish a mindset for the team to get better and how to handle adversity. What is the common goal everyone is working towards? Do actions follow words?
  • Handling Difficult Players
    Toxic personalities must be suppressed or removed. Distractions must be minimized or redirected.

It seems like this is a real strength of Campbell. The team is playing hard. They’ve gotten rid of guys that didn’t want to be here. Young guys are showing up hungry to play. This is an A- score and the biggest reason to keep Campbell so far.

In the Press Room

  • Controlling the Narrative
  • Avoiding the Traps

Overall Campbell is pretty good in the pressroom. He gives out praise and more often then not takes blame first. He is pretty good at coach speak.
He’s show a lot of emotions and personality but it doesn’t appear to have been a distraction to the team. Give him a B on this, the probably least important part of being a head coach. Bellichick would get a D on this and it hasn’t hurt him.

In the Board Room

  • Hiring Coaches
    Who do you hire? Friends? Proven Winners? Former Players? Upstarts?
  • Draft/Trade Planning
    A head coach has to have an identity for the team. What type players do you want on your team? What will you sacrifice in favor of? Speed vs Strength? Youth vs. Experience?
  • Contracts
    Head coaches need to communicate their vision for how they want the money allocated. Who to keep and pay and who to let walk or trade.

It was clear from day one that Campbell and Holmes wanted to get younger and better with their contracts. He said he wanted gritty players. There was a certain type Holmes drafted for that have a chip on their shoulder but also showed +athletic ability for their position. Most of the guys selected are ready to play with upside. No projects. Aman Ra was perhaps the most polished without the same athletic upside. Same went for UDFA where they got +athletes but guys with less proven college production. It’s worked out very well in my opinion considering one draft.

The next draft has way more draft picks and caps should increase. Likely the same in 2023 when they will also have a ton more cap space.

Campbell added a lot of veteran leadership, which is no easy task for a first year HC in Detroit. I think he will have to make some coaching changes in the off-season where this team can improve the most. For the draft, I’d like to see more of the same with Homes having even more information on the team and more to work with.

Giving a B- here.

Game Day

  • Inspiring Leadership
    Help your team be their best. Help them play hard against the best and easy teams.
  • Decision Making
    Use metrics or gut, but make the right call most of the time. Put your team in the position to win.
  • Adapting to Opponents
    Understanding their game plan quickly and adjusting. Understanding the coaches across the field and knowing if they will go for it or not.

This is perhaps the most mixed bag of Campbell’s coaching. He is a terrific motivator and the team has come out hungry in all but 2 games.

On the flip side, there are a lot of questionable play calls. They can’t pull away from opponents that are struggling so every game has been close. The team has been unprepared at the end of games to close them out. A lot of miscues.
Dan needs to find an OC he trusts so he can focus just on the overall management of the game. Play calling is not a strength and it distracts from other things he needs to focus on.

On game day, I feel like he is a C with room to grow quickly here.

Final Thoughts and Grade
Overall Campbell has done a good job of creating a hungry culture and removing the dead weight. He is building depth for the future and keeping competitive in one of the hardest schedules of the entire NFL. I see the building blocks for a much better season next year.
A few red flags this year keep him from getting the B score. His game management is suspect, but he may also be compensating for the lack of a true OC. He made the decision to rebuild, which is great for the long-term but sucks for this season. Some of his teams hiring and acquisitions didn’t work out, so he needs to show that they were scrambling a bit in a compressed timeline, but now with a full season under their belt he can upgrade both coaches and personnel consistently. I can’t give him any more than a C at this point with no wins to their name, but I do see potential for a B next year and an A the year after with the right moves and record.

Topic Grade Weight
Off the Field 70 25%
Locker Room 90 20%
Board Room 80 20%
Game Day 70 25%
Press Room 85 10%
Total: 100%
Average Grade: 77.5 or C+ grade

Hard to do when they’ve lost every single game. I think they were within a stones throw of ~4 wins so far this season and they have a few winnable games left. If they were 4-7 right now then C+ would definitely feel right considering the gut job they did in the off season.

Scores you would change? I know it’s easy to give an F based on the record, but that to me doesn’t do justice to the effort and potential that is building for next season.

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Good stuff brother!

The fact they are still coming out and fighting is an A+ in my book!

Has he appeared (from someone totally ignorant to NFL coaching!) to screw up here and there? Yep! As we all do!! No one is perfect….

I hope we keep him for next year.

Do we move with a new OC? Maybe?

It sucks being winless but …. In the end so what as I always say, there is only one true winner at the end

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I legit feel sorry for Dan Campbell right now. I feel his pain.

Maybe I’m an easy mark, and that’s why I’m a Lions fan :joy: :joy:

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Capital D for DUMBASS ! :rofl:

This is a really great post….and probably a more thorough job description for a head coach than the Fords have ever used lol

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So damn, this was an impressive effort. You put a lot of work into this, way to go.

Personally, I think a lot of the grade is incomplete. A lot of stuff we don’t have access to, it’s behind the scenes and so a grade would be difficult to come up with.

Nonetheless Kudos to you for your effort and opinion on the matter……

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On a scale from 1 to 10 I give him 0.5 to match his win total.

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Great contribution, Bearly. You should be on the practice squad at the Athletic just in case Baumgardner or Burke go on IR. :cowboy_hat_face: :cowboy_hat_face: :cowboy_hat_face:

I’m all in with Daniel Allen Campbell in this, his rookie year as head coach. The Lions were dead to me in the wake of Quintricia’s malfeasance. Though no kneecaps have been harmed, I love the effort and energy he has squeezed out of this team. I think there’s a story yet to be told behind the Big Lebowski calling plays. I think another draft, a healthy season for key players, another year in the system, an easier schedule and more of my wishful thinking will transform the army of Negative Nancys bagging of Daniel Allen Campbell into Postive Penelopes.

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Well since I believe he is perfect I will give him a A++++ and will not listen to any kind of evidence to the contrary. :crazy_face:

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I would be much higher than most on his game-management. By comparison, I would likely have Reich lower than Campbell. There are absolutely calls that I haven’t agreed with, but there are many he’s received criticism for that I completely support. Reich’s affinity for analytics cost them a playoff win last year.

His ability to keep the team together is Caldwell-esque.

His communication to the local writers is A++ on player performance and injury.

Creativity is an F. Teams are teeing off on our OLine and we haven’t done anything to make them pay. Personnel is horrid, but still.

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I give him a S for shitty.

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He gets an I from me. (Incomplete)

It is a brutal year for us, but the team continues to fight even if there is little to no hope for this year. For the team to continue to continue to play hard speaks volumes.

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Excited Celebration GIF by Slanted Studios

I give him a “A” in Press Conferences

“D-“ in everything else except in-game decision making

“F” for in-game decision making

I’m gonna give him a hug :hugs:

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Great post. Fair breakdown. Agree with much of it.

Like Line, I’d give him higher game management grades than almost anyone else would. I’d also give him higher grades with the press, but that’s quibbling.

Everything else I pretty much agree with, Low B high C is very fair. Like alot of our young players, looking forward to improvement next year. He strikes me as the type of guy who will learn quickly from his mistakes, although I don’t think he’s made as many as the consensus here.

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Ok we all know the season and schedule is tough, Campbell has the confidence of all of us.
What is the limit of the team’s defeat, with the pre-season he collected 13 of them.
How many defeats are tolerated to say, this makes no sense?
Up to what number is acceptable?

I’ve been hoping the lions will start winning and end the season on a high. If they continue to lose close games by a field goal, that will negatively impact free agency and new contracts…

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I mean, does anyone honestly prefer that DC was like this dude? They handled the same issue completely differently……and some could say one handled it very very ooorly.

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C+ yes the continues to fight but Campbell has made some bone head decisions

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I am confused right now. What does DC have to do with this?