9 takeaways from Dan Campbell's league meeting media session: On youth movement, joint practices, Sewell, Decker & more
Phoenix, Ariz. — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell met with traveling media at the annual league meetings on Monday morning. He covered a lot of ground on a variety of topics, including this offseason’s roster turnover, some plans for returning talent and scrapping joint practices from the training camp routine.
Here are nine takeaways from the conversation.
Youth (and saltiness) movement
Last week, in a podcast interview with the “Lions Collective,” general manager Brad Holmes denied that there was a concentrated focus on getting younger this offseason. Campbell saw the team’s changes differently after going through a self-scout that fueled the approach.
“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 said. “What is it about this or that? What is going to help us get over that hump? And 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,” Campbell said. “We had some really good production and a lot of things from these players that we really counted on. Those guys, man, they helped us a lot. It’s hard. Look, it’s hard to lose guys like Alex (Anzalone) and (Taylor Decker) Deck and (Kalif Raymond) Leaf and (Al-Quadin) Muhammad. I mean, those guys have been really good. (DJ) Reader, now, Reader is still out there, we’ll see. (Roy) Lopez. But that’s the nature of the beast, too. That’s 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.”
But matching up with Holmes’ answer about not necessarily trying to get younger, but getting the right fits for the Lions, Campbell noted there was an emphasis on finding more guys that had hunger, a chip on their shoulder, and Detroit’s favorite attribute, grit.
“You want to make sure you get guys that fit what you’re about and they got something to prove,” Campbell said. “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,” Campbell continued. “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 and some of that comes with youth. Now with youth, you’re gonna have some of the stuff that gets frustrating, the mental (mistake)s, but we believe we can get them there as a staff and with the rest of the players we have now.”
Another aspect of replacing established veterans with youth is needing to backfill leadership. Campbell acknowledged that, but also expressed confidence in the next wave’s ability to take over in the locker room.
“I’m putting my eggs in the basket of Penei Sewell in that O-line room,” Campbell said. “He’s the leader. I’m putting my eggs in the basket of Jack Campbell in the linebacker room. It’s time. These guys weren’t just good football players coming out of college that fit us. 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,” Campbell said. “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. That’s nothing against those guys that were here, man. We had some really good years, and they are the ones who helped get us to where we are and where we’ve been. We’ll be forever grateful for that.”
Desired flip to the blindside
Campbell stuck to organizational messaging that Penei Sewell’s position for the upcoming season remains fluid, based on how the rest of the offseason shakes out. The coach said the topic of flipping Sewell back to the blindside, where he played in college, has been discussed with the player and there’s a high level of confidence in his ability to seamlessly transition back to it, if needed.