I’m missing the unknown Ben Johson on your list of hires.
I did that on purpose - yes, Ben Johnson was an exceptional OC and early returns indicate a very good HC as well. I’m not a math genius by any means, but 1 out of 3 right is ~33.3%. Would you consider that a good hiring success rate in your own business?
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I think this is it in a nutshell. We aren’t good enough against the better teams to just lineup and win. Risks need to be taken.
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Seems like the Barry era and the calvin era and now the Ben Johnson era end up being a waste. Lions have wasted some good opportunities with some really good people.
I agree on the Barry and Calvin eras, the Lions were just not a good organization back then - I think we can all agree on that. As for Ben, I don’t think we blew that opportunity. The first year was still us developing and needing more talent. You could see things coming together as the year went on, just needed a bit more talent. Not being able to catch balls, a fumble, and a secondary that had to start Vildor blew our chance at the SB.
Last year, injuries on defense cost us. Nobody can convince me that even if we beat the Commanders, we were getting by Philly with the defense we had to roll out there. I don’t think the ‘Lions’ wasted the Ben years like they did in the Barry and Calvin eras.
I still believe the Lions are set up for long-term success. The OC and/or DC hires have to be better. Shep is a new DC, he needs mentoring. We have lost that piece now from our HC because he stripped play-calling duties from his failed OC ‘play-calling’ hire. Dan has to be better moving forward in those hires.
Philly is 1 for their last three. There aren’t that many good OCs so it’s either retreads or projections. This is why everyone wants the offensive play-calling head coach.
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I’m with you Curious. The Morton hire was so painful because with Dan having to take his play calling duties away, he presumably has less time to provide input/mentor Shep. I believe this has to go 1 of 2 ways moving forward:
- Be the long-term play caller on offense, which I think he can be effective at, but then you have to have someone as DC that runs that unit pretty much on his own (Schwartz, Joseph, Fangio).
- Don’t be the play caller, and hire a ‘retread’. The next best thing is hard to find and agree that it’s probably more miss than hit in that scenario. And if you do hit, they’re gone in no time. Hire a guy like Daboll (assuming he doesn’t want/have an opportunity to be a college HC) and that’s fine. Think of a situation like CLE or PHI where they hit the jackpot with a DC that probably won’t ever be a HC again. I think Daboll fits that mold on the offensive side of the ball.
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I agree. The minute the Giants let Daboll go, I wanted him here. Maybe some fresh ideas are needed. We’re getting stale. Dan is play calling like we still have the best OL in the league. We don’t.
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How many long developing routes did he call yesterday?
not many but we got stuffed alot.
I’ll preface this by saying I’m a big fan of Campbell. Love the guy.
However, I believe as many others do, he should have taken the points and trim the deficit to a 1 score game. Keep the pressure on GB.
The clock was even working against us at that time. The way Dallas is playing, it will be tuff for us again next week. Ugh!
This hurts to admit, but I agree. Dallas is legit. Back-to-back wins over last year’s SB teams isn’t nothing—even if those squads aren’t quite the same this season. If Dak plays clean, they’re as dangerous as anyone in the NFC. And with the way our defense has looked the past three weeks, all signs point to another tough one next week.
But we still have one of the top offenses. So it is a valid comparison. Besides, back when our entire team was bad, we did the same thing.
Look, I think I would have taken the field goal, but Dan is probably going to keep doing this. I’m just going to enjoy having a crazy coach who wins a lot more than he loses, and a gm who makes more good picks than he misses……the whole “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater“ thing. I can live with an occassional hindsight bad decision.
We can probably save this thread title and just reuse it every year…..because I think this is how Dan operates. Might as well just get used to it
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Faced with the same situations like yesterday, he will do the exact same things he has been doing. He’s not going to change. And the Lions will just keep sinking.
I hate to say it, but I’m over Dan at this point. And I am now imagining other guys as HC.
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Stubbornness and unwillingness to adapt will only hurt the team
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I’ve been posting about his “go for everything,” since the very beginning. I’m not going to go back years and find my posts because I really don’t care if you believe that or not. I’ve never liked it and I am not a results oriented person in the least bit.
I knew it was going to be a problem from the beginning. You simply cannot maintain that level of success gambling…and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
and I feel it has to be said because I’m not suggesting being ultra conservative at all. But your job as a HC is to recognize situational football. We play in the 2023 SB if Dan understands that. I thought that would be the tipping point for him learning and adapting. But that day is still yet to come. And because he hasn’t changed one bit, almost all of our losses have at least one or multiple reckless decisions that put the defense in ridiculous positions to bail him out. We have a loaded roster. We don’t need coaches reckless decision making to beat good teams. Situational awareness…Dan either doesn’t have it or doesn’t care. And that’s a major problem. Success rate in those situations don’t matter at all. Because it’s the ones that don’t work out that directly lead to losses.
another thing that needs to be said. Dan Campbell is absolutely the right guy for the Detroit HC job. He represents everything right about this city and franchise. I love him and have no desires to have him replaced. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have things to work on. If he doesn’t learn situational awareness, he will always hold this team back. And that’s the last thing a coach should ever do. Especially when your team is LOADED.
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100% agree. Has to quit that 4th down going for it s- - t all the time. We take the points. Going for it is o.k. once in a while, but not as much as he does.
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I don’t think everything is Dan’s fault, last year this team was tough, STRONG, they fought and clawed to 15 wins. THIS season, the players are far more fragile-always getting hurt, missing time, not playing at a top level, both lines are lesser-than, neither is doing that great, Since Morton got here our whole tough swagger has turned into mush, we have kept getting bad news: St was injured, LaPorta was injured, and we began running like an old school bus, rather than some brand new truck. Dan needs to coach-not call games-we started sliding when he tried calling plays, nevermind the O-line was already damaged. I don’t hate Dan, but he is no game caller. we have been hitting the field half-assed all season, and it shows, we got to be smarter with who we bring to this team!
I think I soured on Dans play calling after this last game, I mean the dude went for it on 4th down what 7 times I thought I read ? The same thing every time run it up the gut. I thought it was @stepenboyd calling the plays Lol
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