How Dan Campbell's introductory press conference helped lead new TE coach Tyler Roehl to Detroit

(Photo courtesy the Detroit Lions)

Allen Park — Nearly five years ago, Dan Campbell’s hour-long, knee-cap biting introductory press conference set a now-unmistakable tone for his tenure as Detroit Lions coach. More than 1,000 miles west of where Campbell was delivering those words, the passion and intensity of that messaging resonated with 34-year-old North Dakota State offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl.

When Campbell rolled into NDSU’s campus for quarterback Trey Lance’s pro day a couple of months later, Roehl sought out the Lions coach for an introduction and to share how much he was inspired by the comments.

“I just said, ‘Hey, I admire the way you handled your press conference and the messaging,” Roehl said. “That’s how I look at the game of football. I want to preach and play with that desire, that intent, that mentality. …Just hearing how genuine and from the heart that message was, shoot, I go back to those quotes, quite honestly, quite a bit.”

After that initial crossing of paths, the two remained in contact. Then, in 2023, Campbell reached out to Roehl to interview for a vacancy on Detroit’s staff, coaching the tight ends. The meeting went well, but the position ultimately went to Steve Heiden, an 11-year NFL veteran who entered the league as part of the same draft class as Campbell.

But after Heiden departed this offseason, joining former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn in New York, Campbell thought back to Roehl.

“Interviewed him two years ago, and I was close then,” Campbell said. “This year was the right year.”

When Campbell passed Roehl over in 2023, he was disappointed. The snub also added fuel to his fire. Roehl returned to Fargo, where he was born and raised, eventually playing running back for North Dakota State before going into coaching. He stayed with the program another year before deciding he needed a change of scenery and a new challenge.

Roehl has always preached to his players about the need to push themselves out of their comfort zone if they want to be their best. It was time for him to take that advice, so he jumped to Iowa State to serve as the running backs coach and assistant head coach to Matt Campbell, one of the most respected coaches in college football.

It was only a year, but the decision proved to be the right one. Roehl absorbed a lot watching Matt Campbell run a bigger program with a “CEO mindset.” The coach’s standards for excellence matched Roehl’s, and together, they helped the team achieve its best season in program history.

“It was so easy to see the alignment, how everyone was on a mission to do things better than they had ever been done before,” Roehl said. “A level of toughness that he wanted, a level of desperation that he wanted the team to have, the eagerness, the edge. That’s what I wanted to be associated with.”

Desperation is a word Roehl embraces. He understands it often has negative connotations, but not when you think of it as a synonym of urgency, a word Dan Campbell has regularly used as the coach of the Lions.

“Desperation is hungry and doing things with an edge,” Roehl said. “I think me not getting (the job in Detroit) made me even hungrier. So I just continued to be where my feet were and work.”

Roehl truly enjoyed Iowa State. He would have been content to stay there for a longer stint, much like the decade he spent coaching at North Dakota State. But when Dan Campbell came calling a second time, the lure of the NFL was too great.

“My family, we could have been really comfortable, but when you have the opportunity to coach the tight ends of the Detroit Lions, I mean, it’s something I sprinted towards,” Roehl said. “The vision here, the culture, the environment, what this all entails, it was just something that I was very grateful to get. (I’m) excited for this opportunity.”

Like most of the coaches Campbell has brought into Detroit, it’s easy to see how Roehl meshes. He’s got that grit, something he said was cultivated by delivering newspapers growing up, having to traverse snowbanks and temperatures that dipped well below zero during the North Dakota winters.

Then, as a player, he clawed his way into a more prominent role through his blocking.

“My goal was to be the hammer and not the nail,” he said.

Roehl even managed to parlay that mentality into an offseason roster spot with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted rookie before his professional career was prematurely ended by a torn ACL.

Now he’s bringing every ounce of that attitude to Detroit, to get the best out of Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright and whoever emerges as the team’s third tight end.

“There was always a level of, I need to have a level of grittiness to accomplish the task at hand,” Roehl said. “That’s just how I was brought up, and that was the standard. If you don’t reach the standard, then you’re not going to fulfill the mission. Just the things that were preached at North Dakota State, the level of physicality that you need to play with.

"...My goal for the room is to play with physicality, to play with the right intent," Roehl said. "My goal is to play with one speed and that one speed is physicality."