What's Your Reaction to Campbell as Head Coach?

I need to see the coordinators first.

If they land 2 outstanding coordinators i like the hire. If they don’t, I’m scared about the next 3 years.

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I don’t know enough about Dan Campbell to have a real opinion. I don’t discount the value of having a coach guys want to play for. Not after Patricia. And there have been too many coaches hired the last few years that I thought were head scratchers when they were hired, who turned out to be great. He could be an outstanding leader. Just like our GM could be an outstanding talent evaluator. Let’s hope so.

But I come out of this whole process with less confidence in our ownership and front office than when I came in. This whole thing sure feels like a Rod Wood and Chris Spielman production—slapping together the franchise leadership based on the gut feelings of people who’ve never done it before. All three of our top football people are now guys who will be learning on the job. The top voice in the organization is a bean counter with a track record of failure, who’s somehow come out the last five years with even more power to dictate the future of this franchise.

This doesn’t read like a strong organization with a vision to me. It reads like a by-committee approach, where nobody on the committee actually does this for a living but is figuring how hard could it be? It’s a weird multi-headed monster of a franchise. And maybe that can work in a place with a real established culture or strong leadership at the top, but we don’t have those things. I hope Holmes and Campbell are so incredibly brilliant at their jobs that all the rest of this weirdness fades into the background. But they’ll need to be, because this organization is not constructed for success.

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I’m excited to see some change. I’m not gonna pass judgment on any of the hires until I see what kind of product they put on the field. All I know is I’m happy Patricia is gone. I will say I went and watched almost every interview of Campbell on YouTube and I don’t see a Marinelli type as some would suggest. He seems to understand player development and motivation which is the exact opposite of what we just had. I don’t see him coming in and causing any rifts with the players. I like the fact that he had some history here to along with Speilman. Maybe a couple Lions who understand this franchise’s failures know what this team has been lacking since the fifties.

Well it can’t get much worse than Patricia n Bob, so that’s nice.

I’m just wondering was campbell plan a, b,c d, e,f and on. I have a feeling he wasn’t lion’s top choice at all. I wanted experience, having. Rookie head coach hasn’t worked for us.

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I believe the Lions took a different approach. And I can live with the results. I don’t know enough about Holmes and Campbell to predict how effective they’ll be in their roles. But I am curious to find out.

At this point I trust the experts. Pundits highly praised the McVay hire and they were right. I trust that ownership admitted that they had no clue. Then, went and found help from people who did. Also found people who care about the organization. And that is different than what we’re used to.

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My feelings exactly.

I’d say I fell between disappointment and meh.

But I voted disappointed because I really believe they had the opportunity to land Saleh, Lewis and possibly Arthur Smith if they wanted too and I feel all 3 were far better options.

Obviously none of us never know if a candidate will succeed or not but if you told me Dan Campbell was the best candidate we could find then I’d have insisted we didn’t look very hard.

I don’t understand the negativity. He is not a flashy name, but what does that mean as far as being the right HC for the Lions? Until you actually get to meet people and find out what makes them tick, the superficial “narrative” of who they are is a mirage. I have hired many people that did not “look” like leaders or high level producers who certainly turned out to be just that. Many times having that extra hurdle pushes them to work harder and be more substantive. The best hire I ever made was a single mother of 5 making 13k/yr in South Dakota as a school counselor with no knowledge or experience in technology. She turned out to be the best Salesperson in Cellular I had and today lives in Palm Springs on a beautiful golf course. Had I not hired her I suspect someone else would have found her eventually. She was not young or beautiful or an amazing talker, just the substantive qualities I was looking for.

I am usually optimistic when someone is hired who doesn’t look the part. I see a tell of substance.

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I do not know much about him admittedly , he gets his fair shot to either sink or swim to. We will find out what the NEW GM and HC bring to the table more in 2022 I think, after they have been here awhile and running things how they see fit.

but we’ll see.

Campbell is known as a high-character players coach, and as tight ends/assistant head coach, he potentially has several players to talk to, on each side of the ball.

It’s a classy move by Campbell and illustrates his efforts to put the players first and emphasizes how he cares for each of them.

“He’s a guy who played a long time,” Saints QB Drew Brees told ESPN’s Mike Triplett. “So he’s got a level of respect coming from guys for how he played — he’s a tough, physical guy. He just really cares about his players. You can see that in the way he talks to us, talks to his position group. He’s just got a lot of great leadership qualities in that way. And I think he’s just a good person.

“So you combine all those things, and then he’s a person that you want to follow. And a person you believe in and you know he’s gonna be honest with you.”

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For sure no goose bumps this time . May be when we win a meaningful game in my life time

At first, for me, this was a bit of a meh hire. Admittedly I was more excited about Patricia. Oh how wrong I was. So the pendulum swings the other way. I’m OK with that. I had concerns about Campbell and his acumen for Ex’s & Oh’s, so I’m waiting to see who he hires as coordinators. However, if what the Lions have done with respect to the GM front office roles, and they apply a similar philosophy to the coaching positions, then I think there’s potential here. I like, no absolutely love, that they are defining roles to create a team environment in the front office creating culture that could become much more healthy in the future. We’ll see what happens!

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I am most interested in his staff. That could tip me one way or another.

Here is Dan talking about some Saints stuff. He doesn’t come off as a position coach. He comes off as a head guy who happens to be in a lower rank at the time, but he’s fully aware of everything involved at the top.

The whole thing could easily be a dumpster fire. Or it could be the magic bean.

Those who hate Spielmans involvement… why? He cares. He wants to win, and equally important, HE WANTS THE LIONS TO WIN…

Real world question. You guys realize this a job right? Not a devoted religious missionary, but a job for these guys.

It’s tough to process given how much many of us fans care, but that’s hard truth.

Do you think Dimitroff, Smith, Saleh, Art Smith, Marv Lewis etc had 60 years of pain and disappointment on their minds? Do you think they watch 30 hours of game tape on Stafford, maybe watched Kerryon to see if he still has some burst? Because if you believe that, the. You have to believe they all did that for 5-7 different teams.

Truly formed opinions on each team. Who to keep, cut, extend. Half of us have a better pulse on the state of the Lions, their needs, who needs to stay and go, than most GM candidates would.

I’m an exec at a pretty big firm. I have a great team of amazing people, and because of that I’m blessed. I get recruiting call every week from competitors wanting me to poach my team and move it over to them, or simply come solo and build.

The funny thing is I have no interest in moving at all, but if I did, I can’t imagine taking these interview/recruiting sessions seriously. I’ve built a team in metro Detroit, and companies want to hire me to run 6-7 states and travel. I have little ones and won’t travel. I don’t know anyone in any other states.

My current success and qualifications don’t necessarily translate to another firm or bigger role. How do we know Saleh could succeed without Bosa, Bucker, Armstead, Ford etc?

We saw them go from 49 sacks and SB to 30 sacks
and last place due to a trade and some DL injuries. They did still have 2 first rounders healthy in 2020, and still struggled.

I get nervous about coordinator hires. McVay seems ready to break up from his bestie Goff already.

Patricia was obsessed with finding patriot way players for his D.

I feel like a lot of coordinators can’t help but chase players to fit their scheme and can’t let go of their side of the ball.

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