Allen Park — Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell met with local media on Monday. Here are the newsworthy items from that session.
Laundry list of issues
Campbell came to the podium on Monday, for the first time since Thursday’s loss to Buffalo, and immediately provided an update on safety Avonte Maddox, who will miss the remainder of the season.
We’ll come back to that momentarily, because after telling us Maddox needs surgery, Campbell went four additional minutes breaking down everything his team isn’t doing good enough to start the season.
Instead of paraphrasing, here are the coach’s words, in full from that introductory statement:
“I think the big thing — just talking to the team this morning — most important thing is keep things in perspective (with) where we’re at. The good news is it’s only Week 2. The bad news is we’re already going into Week 3. So, we’ve gotta have urgency, but keep it all in perspective.
“We’re 1-1 here. And more than anything, it’s, man, be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there and do it with urgency, across the board. I don’t care what position you play. Don’t beat yourself. Right now, that’s where we’re hurting ourselves a little bit, just where we can clean up a number of these things.
“"So, overall, go back and look at us just collectively over two games, and the most obvious that we gotta clean up is third/fourth-down conversion rate, on both sides of the ball, offense and defense. And the crazy thing, I told the guys, ‘I’m like, look, man, we’re No. 1 right now, our defense is, in (getting opponents in) second-and-7+.
“Nobody’s played second-and-long (more) than we have. We’re putting them in tough positions right now. That’s the whole point of why we do what we do. But we’re losing them, because they’re converting 66% of the time. So, all this that we’ve gained on first down, we are losing on second and third down.
“It’s literally one small detail here that trickles into the next guy, that trickles into the next guy, and our faith gets crumbled with one another a little bit. So we just gotta get some trust back, guys doing their job. Do what you do, do what we’ve done in camp for six weeks here.
“Run game efficiency, offense, defense is up and down, it’s too inconsistent right now. New Orleans, pretty good, man, both sides of the ball. And then, we get into this game and we don’t run it well enough on offense. And then, defensively, obviously gave up a lot of yards, gave up 80 to that quarterback, 40 on the first drive, loss contain three times. That’s discipline. And then, really, we had a couple of guys that were responsible for the other hundred that can get cleaned up, will get cleaned up, but everybody else is doing their job.
“So we’re working on that. We will get that cleaned up.
“Explosives, we’re losing the explosive battle. We’re not explosive enough on offense right now and we’re bleeding them out on defense. Same thing, man, be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there, do it with urgency. You gotta trust the rush is gonna get there, plant your feet where you’re supposed to plant them and trust (that when) the quarterback throws it, it’s a pick or he’s getting sacked.
“Red zone is not good enough, way too much on defense. And offensively, yeah, it’s OK, it’s good. But then when you go first-and-goal at the 1-yard line versus New Orleans — we should be 90% (success rate), at worst right now, after two games. It changes the dynamic of these games.
“And then penalties, we talked about it. Right now we have 18 penalties. Fourteen of those to me, they’re not OK, man. They’re not OK. Four false starts, we got three offensive holdings from poor fundamentals, three defensive holding, poor fundamentals, one defensive offsides, a blatant face mask, a delay a game, that was off of we’re seeing if they get them to jump, they jumped and we don’t react. Then, you know, the landing zone infraction, we missed the landing zone and they wasn’t even close. So those are unacceptable, you know? The other four, hey, it’s cost of doing business. And those are all correctable, every one of them is correctable.
“And, then, our coverage unit has gotta be better on special teams. What I mean by that is really particularly like punt coverage. Man, we gotta get out of there. Our interior, our core, we’re getting hung up too much, we’re tripping on each other, we’re not shooting our way out. And then we’re leaving a lot of meat on the bone in kickoff returning right now.
“So, those are the most notable, but it’s all correctable. So, that’s what we’re gonna do, and that’s what we’ve been doing today. Correct it, I’m giving the guys off tomorrow, then we come in Wednesday, like a normal week, we get ready for the Jets.
Did you get all that?
Individual defenders aren’t doing their jobs, causing trust-related breakdowns, the run-game efficiency is bad, the Lions are losing the explosive play battle on both sides of the ball, red zone efficiency isn’t good enough, especially on defense, there have been too many unforced penalties, and kicker Jake Bates even caught a stray for a poor kickoff in the season opener.
No one can accuse Campbell of sugarcoating the team’s myriad of issues. And while it’s the coaches job to point out warts with all three units, there is undeniably heightened concern with the team’s defense from outside the building after a dismal performance against the Bills that was littered with execution errors and mental mistakes.
I asked Campbell how concerning it was to see that many fundamental breakdowns after spending an entire offseason working on the basics, as well as how much responsibility falls on the coaching staff.
“The bottom line is when it looks like that, we are responsible as coaches.
Campbell said. “I'm responsible. So, it's up to us to make sure we put the right guys in positions to where they can be trusted to do what they do. And then they have to do it when they're in the heat of the moment. Even our most-trusted players, just trust it one more time.
“What happens is you get hit on a couple of things, then all of a sudden somebody tries to cover for you just because, and now you created the ripple effect,” Campbell said. “Unfortunately, I've seen this a number of times with offense, defense, special teams, and we got to get our trust level back. We got to start back from ground level, get back to the basics of what we do. And man, just do your job. Trust it.”
Despite the concerning defensive performance to start the season, Campbell expressed confidence in coordinator Kelvin Sheppard and the defensive staff to turn things around.
“He knows what he's doing, man,” Campbell said. “…I believe he's got a real good grasp of what offenses are trying to do. I think he's got a good grasp of his own personnel. I think he's doing a lot (with) the way we want to play here. And you know what? It didn't work the other night and we didn't coach it up good enough. We'll adjust a little bit. We'll adjust and we'll get this thing back to where we need to get it. And it's not going to all happen overnight, but as long as we just tighten a few things up and play a little bit better and a little more sound, that'll go a long way.”
Additionally, Campbell isn’t concerned about the morale of his players on defense.
“I feel like they're locked in and ready to go,” Campbell said. “I mean, they're frustrated, we're all frustrated, but I don't feel like there’s a we're doomed (mentality). …It's not good. It's a wound, but you clean a wound, you stitch it up, you bandage it and it'll heal just fine. We'll be all right.”
Shuffling the deck
Regarding Maddox, the Lions are already on the hunt for a potential replacement.
It’s been reported that the team is working out a number of safeties on Monday. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Lions are signing Jalen Mills to the practice squad after Monday’s tryouts. He was briefly with the Lions at the end of last season.
“We need to bring in some fresh players and get a look at them,” Campbell said. “And, look, we're going to do a couple of things defensively. We're going to move some guys around. We're going to give some guys some more opportunities to play here and shake it up a little bit, because they've earned that. We've got some guys in here that have earned some play time that they deserve a chance to do more for us. And then like I say, Brad's bringing in some more guys in the immediate and we'll see what they can do. The faster we get them here, the faster we get a look at them and they get acclimated with what we do.”
Regarding the shuffling of the deck in the secondary, Christian Izien seems to be a likely candidate for a role adjustment. Coming off a preseason groin injury, he was limited to a handful of nickel reps against Buffalo. But with a pressing need for safety depth, Izien is a logical choice after previously working there with Tampa Bay, and in Detroit earlier this offseason.
I asked Campbell if cornerback Ennis Rakestraw and defensive lineman Ahmed Hassanein could be in line for playing time after both were healthy scratches the first two weeks.
“I mean they could,” Campbell said. “That’s one of those things we kind of have talked about and I thought about over the weekend. It’s like, ‘Man, who deserves an opportunity here? Who’s going to give us the best chance? Who do we need to get a look at?’ And so yeah, I mean right now I’m open to everything. I’m open and we’re looking at everything. And so yeah, there is always a chance.”
Reading between the lines, it doesn’t sound like either Rakestraw or Hassanein are immediately in line for playing time.
Cavalry delayed
Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch, who are on the physically unable to perform list, are eligible to begin practicing this week, but that’s also not in the cards.
“Yeah, I don't see it for either one,” Campbell said, before acknowledging Branch (Achilles) is probably closer to returning to action.
That’s update is concerning for Joseph, who has been out of action nearly a year with a non-specified knee injury.
Asked for more details, Campbell didn’t provide reason for optimism.
“There is nothing I'm going to say is going to make anybody feel better about anything,” Campbell said. “I just know we were strengthening the knee, and it wasn't a setback, but there was a little time there where we weren't able to do everything we needed to do. And so now we're back at it. And until we can get the knee to a certain point to where it feels strong, as strong as we can possibly get it, and he feels comfortable, we're not going to put him out there until he's ready.”
Presumably, the disruption of Joseph’s rehab was tied to when he left the team during training camp to attend to a personal matter. Regardless, he doesn’t sound close to returning, furthering concern the former All-Pro might not contribute at all this season.
I still think the "O" can carry the Lions into the playoffs...especially with the Bears, Minny and The Pack all having their troubles. But in no way is this "D" battle hardened for a playoff run. I keep looking at the Seahawks with a bunch of no-names getting it done.
Never seen Dan Campbell look so down in the mouth and obviously frustrated. Almost like he's not sure what to do next because they just don't have the players.
That's on Mr. Holmes and his personnel team. I would expect that Dan Campbell is a part of that as well- when he has the time. But while we have a slew of high profile, high quality players, we are not strong throughout. On defense we're bandaids and fill ins. With a DC who is learning how to do this on the job.
It's a tough situation: 2-3 bad drafts in a row, topped with free agent signings that either didn't pan out due to talent, or due to injury. (What was the entire point of the Greg Dortch signing?).
There is no easy way out of this. I still see the Lions as a middling team this year. A lot of changes will have to take place over the next year or maybe two, to do a rebuild on the fly while we have those key players on offense, and a couple on D signed to extensions.
Hey...if I'm wrong and they take the NFC North and get into the playoffs- great. But I don't see this as a playoff team. Not currently. And not with that defensive back end.