LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/GENERAL MANAGER BRAD HOLMES QUOTE SHEET

Opening Statement:Executive Vice President/General Manager Brad Holmes: “Good to see everybody. It was good to see our 53 out there during practice. It was good to see the – let’s call it the new additions via trade, claim, practice squad, signees, and acquisitions. So, that was good to see out there. Obviously, it’s still fluid. So, there will still be additions and changes that will be ongoing, but that’s a good start for where we are at today. From a roster standpoint – I’ll start off with this, Dan and I said from day one that we are going to add – or we will have players that we love. We will have players that we’re excited about that we see the vision for, that we see fit. When we say, ‘We see fit,’ it’s not just schematic and scheme base. It’s we want to make sure that we have guys that are gritty, high-passionate football players, that respect the game and play the game the right way and go about things the right way. I think we stuck to that. We accomplished that up to this point with the decisions that we had to make from a roster standpoint. It was actually rather easier due to the process. We always say, ‘It’s one pride and it’s one team and everything has to marry up.’ It starts – the coaching staff is doing an amazing job coaching these players, accelerating their development, having them prepared for these preseason games and it equated to excited practices through elite teaching. Over to the personnel department, those guys having a sound evaluation process and them grinding all day and all night to search for the best football players and make sure that we have the best guys for our team. So, all of that married up and so when Dan and I made those decisions on the roster and who was going to make this football team, it was, actually, rather easier than what I initially thought it was going to be going into it. I’ll say this, Dan and I are always on the same page, we’re aligned, and so because we see things the same way in terms of what we see the vision for our football team, the players we want, it was a pretty seamless process.”
On the decisions made for the kicker position:(Holmes): “We had Randy (Bullock), we initially had Matt (Wright) and then we brought Zane (Gonzalez) in just to keep going – had an ongoing process and the competition, and we felt that the competition wasn’t actually settled. So, that’s when we went ahead and added Austin (Seibert) via claims. It was a guy that we all felt collectively good about as a group. So, we’re happy to have him. But just to still be able to bring Zane back on the practice squad, we just felt good about that decision process. If you want to call it a competition – but it’s just we made a decision just two kickers and have one on the practice squad.”
On what set K Austin Seibert apart from the kickers available on waivers or free agency:(Holmes): “Well, he’s got a lot of pop in his leg. He’s done it. He’s been consistent. He’s got experience. Again, we don’t make the decisions about, ’OK, this is the guy we want.’ We sit down as a staff and a group and have it go through a process. Austin was a guy that, looking throughout across the League, ‘Will he be an available option? He might not be. We’re not sure.’ When it happened, then it just made sense for us. But we felt really, really good about it as a staff.”
On the additions of WR KhaDarel Hodge and WR Trinity Benson and the wide receiver position numbers:(Holmes): “We felt like it was the best seven. Now, the two new additions, obviously, I had previous experience with KhaDarel Hodge back with the Rams. It actually was a tough decision back with the Rams that when we tried to get him through practice squad, old (Senior Personnel Executive) John Dorsey just went ahead and claimed him and got usage out of him. It was good to bring him back. He’s a guy that can play outside, he can play inside, he can run, he’s got length, he’s got speed, and he’s another body that when you get into the depth of the wide receiver room, he can contribute on special teams and he’s been a good special teams contributor. Then with Trinity, credit to our Director of Pro Scouting Rob Lohman, he comes to me and says, ‘Have you seen this Denver receiver?’ I said, ‘Who?’ And he said, ‘Trinity Benson.’ I had the same response as probably everybody else had and I said, ‘Who the hell is Trinity Benson?’ When I first watched the tape, I was like, ‘Wow.” He just popped off. He had juice, he had explosiveness. His upside as a route runner gets you really excited for a young guy. Then the more work you do from an intangible standpoint, he’s a tough kid that’s a hard worker, he’s smart, does things the right way. So, that’s kind of when I called (Denver Broncos General Manager) George (Paton) and kind of see if we could get something worked out. Credit just to the process because even identifying Benson, it was still – he had to go through a process where he was compared to a lot of other wide receivers across the League and on our own football team. It wasn’t that, ‘Oh, yeah. You just saw some guys that are making plays in a preseason game.’ No, let’s see if he truly is the best fit for us and we felt that way.”
On the make-up of the wide receiver position group:(Holmes): “We’re just compiling the best 53 football players, regardless of – we’re not going to eliminate a good football player because it’s overkill at a position. When you look down, you get to Tyrell (Williams) and Kalif (Raymond) and (Amon-Ra) St. Brown and then you get to (Quintez) Cephus, then you get to Tom Kennedy, and it’s like – Well, Tom Kennedy, he’s had a hell of a camp. It’s not like, ‘Whoa, you got Tom Kennedy. You can’t keep him because now you’re at five and six.’ No, Tom Kennedy earned it. He had a great camp and he made plays. You guys saw the preseason games. He did it all out there in practice. We’re not going to avoid – now there’s tough decisions you got to make, obviously, we know that. We’re not going to just go less because we have to proceed to go less.’
On the comfort level Head Coach Dan Campbell and Executive Vice President/General Manager Brad Holmes has in the defensive line:(Holmes): “I love where we’re at upfront heading into it. We knew coming down to it that we would be relatively deep there. Obviously, with the development and again, credit to the coaching staff, but how quickly that an Alim McNeill quickly got developed, how Levi (Onwuzurike) when he was kind of able to get back out there more, he just kept getting better each week and then each game it showed up. When you draft these guys and they’re rookies, it’s like you hope that they can contribute, but you don’t know how quickly that they’ll get acclimated. Alim actually earning a starting role for us and then Levi seems like he’s going to be a contributor for us, at least at this point. We feel good and then the other guys, (Michael) Brockers, we know who Brockers is from a veteran presence. We feel good about the direction that he’s headed heading into Week 1. You’ve got guys like Kevin Strong that had a good camp. John Penisini, he’s been a solid rotational contributor at the nose tackle position. Even Jashon (Cornell) when he’s able to come back. We felt really good about. We know it’s a deep group, but we know we might have had to make some tough decisions that were good football players for somebody else.”
On how they fairly evaluate QB Jared Goff with the wide receiver position group: “(Holmes): That’s a subjective view from a wide receiver standpoint. I get what the outside narrative is. That’s not what Dan and I see on a regular basis in practice and when we evaluate the guys. I do think that Jared – that you can fairly evaluate him because he’s throwing to some guys that are getting open, that are creating separation, that have explosiveness, that are making tough catches, that are being where they’re supposed to be. Jared is a very accurate quarterback. You have receivers that are getting open and at the end of the day, that’s what the receivers job is to do is to get open and catch the football. So, I think been – I think it’s been easy to evaluate Jared up to this point.”
On what Head Coach Dan Campbell and Executive Vice President/General Manager Brad Holmes learned about each other through the process of narrowing down the roster:(Holmes): “Well, I will say, I think Dan may have mentioned after the Indy game that there might have been an arm-wrestling competition, but I wasn’t going to try that, first of all. I would say working through it with Dan, again, just because we’re cut from the same cloth and we see things eye-to-eye, it was a very seamless process. It was a very smooth process. We might have had some longer discussions on two guys, maybe two to three guys. But, again, I don’t view disagreement as a negative. I always viewed it as a learning experience to get better because you hear different views, different opinions, different viewpoints. We’ve always said we’re taking the ego out of it. As we go through this process with the ego removed and our intuition along the way, it’s been an easy process. I may hear a different viewpoint from Dan, and I’ll say, ‘OK, I didn’t see it that way, but hey, I’m glad you brought it up,’ and vice versa.”
On if potential future acquisitions will lean more toward the youth movement on the roster:(Holmes): “That’s a good question. It’s hard to predict the future. We like where we’re at right now, but because we can’t predict the future, we’ve just got to see how things shake out in a lot of different areas. There will be roster movement, that’s just the life of the NFL. But with the youth movement—we didn’t set out and say, ‘Man, we’ve got to get young. We’ve got to get young. Let’s find the youngest.’ These young guys just happened to perform well, and they were part of the youngest, best 53 players that we decided on for the football team. With the additions, we’re not going to add and say, ‘These better be young. You better be young.’ If it’s a veteran player that’s a better fit and he’s the best guy, the best fit for us, then that’s what we’re doing.”
On the challenges they may face with the youth in the secondary position groups:Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell: “Well, look, I’ve said this before but Brad just said it, we’re not looking for the youngest guys possible. Certainly, if you have talent and you’re young and hungry, it’s hard to ignore those guys. That’s what we feel like we’ve got a lot of. We’ve said it before, we were looking for the right guys for us and the way we want to be built. Look, there again, from a coaching perspective, you’re going to have some growing pains sometimes, you will. But the important thing is, when mistakes are made, they’re not repeated. If you do that and they stay young and hungry and they’re eager and continue to put the work out—I think we have coaches that can develop them—good things will come sooner or later. I would rather make that move than I would some guys that maybe know what’s going on, but they’re past their due, they don’t have anymore. It’s not worth it. That’s where we’re at.”
On if they tried to make a statement with the roster decisions at wide receiver and if they want to prove everyone wrong about the receiver corps:(Holmes): “No, I wasn’t trying to make a statement, really to say, ‘Hey, these are the guys that I want to put together. Here’s the point I’m trying to make.’ I just think the players that were already on the roster, the players that we went after in free agency through the trade-claim process, we just felt like, again, those were the guys that stood out against other players, that they would be the best option. That’s just how the decisions were made. We feel really, really good about it. I know they say these aren’t the superstars that are jumping off the table, but Dan (Campbell) and I see the narrative probably a lot, definitely than probably the outside. We feel really, really good and we have faith in the group that we have.”
On if they are still searching for offensive line depth:(Campbell): “I think—and Brad can back me on this—there again, we kind of already alluded to the fact that these guys have been scouring these transactions. If we deemed that somebody is more valuable and makes more sense, it’s something that we’d be willing to do. We’re not in any rush right now, but if it presents itself, certainly we’d take a shot at it.”
(Holmes): “Yeah, we like the process that we have in place in terms of searching for that OL depth. It’s not like a lot of these guys are just growing on trees and hanging out. You’ve got to be pretty strategic and pointed. You’ve got to make sure you’ve got a sound process in place to get those guys. We feel good about the process that we have in place, but yeah, we’re still looking.”
On if there are players that they think are better now than they initially did at the start of training camp:(Holmes): “I’ll start at the running back position. We have some young guys there, and obviously we all well know (D’Andre) Swift and Jamaal (Williams) and what they bring, but we drafted Jermar (Jefferson). He was a seventh-round rookie that we felt really, really good about in the process, but he’s still a rookie. We weren’t quite sure—now, look, I think any late-round guy or any undrafted guy is going to have a hell of a chance with the coaching that they’re going to be receiving with (Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs) Duce Staley and (Offensive Coordinator) Anthony Lynn but you don’t know for sure, for sure. But Jermar has improved every single week to the point where it’s like, ‘OK, the pass protection has gotten better. What he’s supposed to do has gotten better.’ He’s got natural vision, but to actually see it come to life in practices and those games makes you feel really, really good and better about the position. Then, Godwin (Igwebuike)—Godwin’s story is probably about the best story that I could think of that occurred throughout this entire preseason and camp. A guy that was at safety and A. Lynn saw something in a special teams drill with the ball in his hands and brought up the idea of him switching. Credit to him, he bought in, didn’t bat an eye at it and took it in stride and worked at it. He worked really, really hard and got better every single week to the point where he earned a spot on this football team. I’d say that the youth at that running back position has been really, really impressive.”
On their expectations for RB D’Andre Swift this season:(Holmes): “I expect him to be a weapon, that’s what he is in both phases, run and pass. I’m not trying to put a number on how many plays he’s going to play or how much time or all that. We’ll let that stuff play itself out. He’s had a good week of practice. He looked good out there today. He looked explosive. He’s got juice, and he showed that playmaking ability in practice. We’re really excited about him.”
On if the young defensive back position groups is a testament to their confidence in Defensive Backs/Pass Game Coordinator Aubrey Pleasant:(Holmes): “I’ve always said that AP is one of, if not the, best DB coaches that I’ve been around. He’s extremely impressive in the way that he teaches it in a very digestible manner that allows players to learn quickly and learn fast. The energy he brings to that group, it correlates and resonates with the players. He just relates to players on the field and in the classroom. The other thing about Aubrey is that the players like playing for him because he cares about them as human beings. It’s not just about what you can do on the football field. I think that sparks a lot of pride with it. But, yes, we feel great about him and the young secondary. Again, we didn’t go out and say, ‘We have to be the youngest secondary. We have to go young.’ But it is a projection of youth that we went out and we feel really, really good about. When we signed Jerry Jacobs and A.J. Parker as free agents, we didn’t go in there and say, ‘Yep, this guy’s going to be the nickel.’ No, it was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Credit to Aubrey and his teaching, coaching and (Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG as well.”
On what the strength of the team should be and if it’s a unanimous thought:(Holmes): “Well, I would say that we have some strengths on both sides of the ball. We do see it eye-to-eye, but I’ll say I think our offensive line would be a strength. I think our running back position is a strength, and I think that we want to be able to run the football, but I believe that we have the staff in place and the personnel in place to have those expectations. On the other side of the ball, our defensive line – we’ve got some dogs up there up front, man. I’ll say – look, the development of the rushers at outside linebacker, Shep’s (Outside Linebackers Coach Kelvin Sheppard) done a heck of a job. When you’ve got Dom Capers – those guys, when we added them when we first came in – there were some question marks. We didn’t know. Obviously, Romeo (Okwara), we knew what Romeo is, but even Romeo looks even better this year. Charles Harris, when we signed him in free agency, I mean watching him practice today, I mean, he’s gotten better. I’m not sure if it’s the scheme, but I do think it is the coaching staff. And then obviously we talked about the youth in the secondary, but our safety duo, I feel really, really good about it. Will Harris, I’ll say the acceleration of his development, how quickly it’s gotten to in terms of knowing him when he came out of B.C. (Boston College) and then seeing him early on. You’ve got to be really, really excited about that. So, I think there’s strengths on both sides of the ball, in my opinion.”
(Campbell): “Yeah, I mean he pretty much nailed it. That’d be everything I was going to say. And I agree; it is a young secondary, but those corners are coming along pretty good and Will Harris and Tracy (Walker), they’ve had pretty good camps, now. Will may have grown – Will and Amani (Oruwariye) may have had two of the best camps of anybody on our roster, as a matter of fact.”
On where the team is most concerned about the roster:(Holmes): “We’ll see Week 1.”
On how T Penei Sewell is progressing:(Holmes): “I believe that he will be ready for Week 1. I think he’s ready now. Yeah, he’s going through the normal process that a rookie would go through, regardless of where he’s drafted. That’s a tough position to play out there on that island, and he’s sat out for a year. So, what he’s done – now, I know it’s magnified about what might be perceived and seen as a hiccup here or there – but there’s so much other good stuff that may be kind of hidden when you deep-dive the film, little subtle nuances that he’s doing that is going to make a big difference. I think he’s gotten the work that he needs to get, both in the preseason games and in practice. Going up against Romeo (Okwara) every day, again, I was just talking about it – Romeo looks even better after we paid him. And we felt good about him when we paid him. And now it’s like, ‘Wow, he’s really (good).’ But every day, he’s getting him better. The other night versus Pittsburgh, he’s going up against a real guy, and that’s work that he hadn’t experienced before. But it’s just going to make him better going forward.”
On how the team feels about the roster overall and how it’ll compare across the League this fall:(Holmes): “Look, we wanted to be the most competitive roster that we could put on the field, starting Week 1. I was just talking about it; we want to be better in Week 2. We want to be better in Week 3. We felt really, really good about the roster. It’s young. It’s a gritty group that they love football, they’re eager, they’re tough, and like I was saying at the beginning, these guys are fits for what we want to do and how we want to build it. Credit to the players themselves. They went out there and performed and earned it, and that’s all really we can ask for and then we’ll just see where it falls.”
On how aggressive the defense will be in Week 1:(Holmes): “I mean on both sides of the ball – ultimately, we want to win. Regardless of where that statement’s made, whether offense or defense, we feel confident on both sides of the ball (with) where we’re at. But yeah, we want to be explosive on both sides of the ball, whether it’s shutting down or dictating offensively. That’s the ultimate goal, but we feel confident about that.”
On the reaction to how Head Coach Dan Campbell has worked with the media and the attention it brings to the team:(Holmes): “Well, he’s got – I’m trying to think of the best way to sum this up…”
(Campbell): “Just say, ‘Next question.’”
(Holmes): “I’ll say this – I don’t like following him up. I’ll say that. That’s probably the best way that I can say it. Starting back to, like I always said, our introductory press conferences, I was glad that I went first. I didn’t have to follow him up. Look, Dan is 100 percent authentic and honest, and he doesn’t BS anybody. That’s very, very refreshing and you appreciate that.”
On if the team has enough at the tight end position:(Campbell): “Yeah, we do, because (Darren) Fells is a veteran, knows how to play. He’s come on the last week and a half or so. You feel pretty confident about him. We know he can block (the) perimeter, pass protect. He plays big, he can catch those stick-routes and sit-routes and things like that. We know what (T.J.) Hockenson can be for us, and then we kind of have the emergence of (Jason) Cabinda. Cabinda is a fullback, but yet, there’s some things we think he can do for us outside of that. And then Brad (Holmes) did a hell of a job getting us some guys on the practice squad that we think can help us a little bit. We got Jared Pinkney yesterday and we’ve got Brock Wright back. We feel pretty good. We’re going to line up with the best personnel group that we can for San Francisco and whatever gives us the best chance to win, we’ll do it and we’ll use those guys.”
“Let me say this, too – this was from an earlier question – but as it pertains to Brad and myself, we are, and we’re fortunate that we see things very much alike. But he mentioned this – one of the best things about it is even when we have these rare moments where we may not agree, both of us can sit there and listen to the other’s view point and understand for a minute, ‘You know what, let me sit in his chair. If I was in his chair, and I’m thinking like he’s thinking, knowing that he deals with personnel, and not just now but long term, what would I do?’ And he has the ability to sit where I am and if I’m trying to get things done now and I’m trying to put out the best team out on the field, what would he think? I think that goes a long way, and not everybody does that. He said it; we try to keep the ego out of this, which we’ve done. And man, that’s how you get results. That’s how you get results. So, it’s been awesome. It really has. It is, that’s how you get the results that you want to get.”
On if the team considered using former CB Mike Ford as a trade piece for WR Trinity Benson with Denver:(Holmes): “Benson – so, as we’re stacking wide receivers across the League that we think may be available or may not be a team’s No. 1 wide receiver or whatever the case is, obviously he popped off in the games. When we started stacking him, he kept rising as No. 1. As he kept rising as No. 1, that’s when I called (Broncos General Manager) George (Paton). But Mike Ford, he never came into the discussion or conversations in our negotiations. We threw out a player here or there, but George never asked me about Mike Ford and I never brought him up.”
On if the team didn’t want to risk not getting WR Trinity Benson:(Holmes): “Yeah. We just felt that confident about him. It was like, ‘Hey, look, let’s just get him. He’s got a bright future, he’s got a lot of upside. He’s young.’ Again, as we kept stacking – it’s a collaborative effort. It’s not just me and (Director of Pro Scouting) Rob Lohman who thought that he was the best. No, it’s me and the rest of the personnel department. It was (Wide Receivers Coach Antwaan) Randle El saying, ‘Yes, he’s the top guy.’ It’s Dan (Campbell) looking at him and saying, ‘Oh yeah, I really love this Benson.’ It’s a collaborative effort. So, it’s total buy-in to make you feel really, really good about it and say, ‘Hey, look, maybe you can just sit back and wait and put in a claim and see if you get lucky.’ But no, we felt confident enough to say, ‘Let’s just go ahead and see if we can make something happen to go get him.’’