LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
January 26, 2024
On if he has a checklist that he goes through on game day to make sure he has taken care of everything: “Yeah, I mean I think you do that every game. You want to have a list of things that you’ve looked out for. I would say it’s more early in the week you have those and then as the week goes on by the time you get two hours before the gametime, you want to have checked every one of those boxes. So, it starts early, it’s a long list and you make sure you go – because look, there’s a lot of things that don’t get closed out until literally two hours before the game. You finally have I guess dotted your I’s and crossed your T’s. Everything is where it needs to be. That’s really in all regards. I think that’s offense, defense, and for me too, the gameplan in all three phases.”
On if he thinks ahead of time about what he will say to the team pregame: “Yeah, no I don’t – every once and a while there may be something, a theme or something that hits me, but most of the time it’s just things come to me. And it could be – I could be watching film, or my wife sends me something or – and something just hits me a certain way and then it just kind of goes from there for the most part. So, I may have an idea, but I don’t write things down or – I just – something that I guess inspires me and then I just go from there.”
On if his pregame message will be larger or more thought-out given the magnitude of this game: “No. No, this is – listen, we’re right where we need to be. And the minute you start trying to make this greater than it really is, which is another football game right in front of you and you prepare the same way, you practice the same way, you put your socks on the same way, that’s when you – I think you run into problems. It’s the next game and they’ve done this all year. Our guys have done it all year. We’ve done things right. We understand what it’s going to take, and we respect the opponent and know what they’re capable of. And we know exactly what we’re capable of. And you go into it.”
On what the week has been like for him and how the team has handled it: “Yeah, this is any other week. Just like I said early in the week, the problem is all this, and so as long as we just stay – and our players know that, and we made that point early. The football stuff is no different than like it was getting ready for Kansas City in Week 1. It’s identical. And so, I feel like we’ve handled it well, but that’s all of it. I feel like we’re handling that well, that portion of it.”
On how Lions C Frank Ragnow has progressed throughout the week with his injury: “He’s good. You know Frank, Frank’s doing well. And Frank will be ready to go. I mean you’re not going to hold him out of this one, and he gets better every day. So, he’ll be ready.”
On Lions QB Jared Goff’s competitive nature: “I mean he’s very competitive. And I think when you –what’s the best way to say it? I think when you test his – when it comes time to read coverages, put the ball where it needs to be, identify the type of look that we’re seeing, what needs to – the looks that he needs to make a check or get us into. I think everything that deals with what he does well, his superpowers, it really shows up. It does. And I mean it didn’t take – I can tell you this, I found out how competitive he was the first spring we had him here out here in the 7-on-7 when it was raining, against our defense. And that’s when I was like, ‘Wow, OK. That’s good to see.’ And just watching him throw the football and tight window throws and it was heated. And he was not going to lose that day and he just got better and better and better, and his confidence was at an all-time high. So, you may not always see it outwardly, but believe me, he’s very competitive. And you can’t play the way he’s played if you’re not competitive.”
On what Lions QB Jared Goff’s ‘superpowers’ are: “Goff’s superpowers are, let’s see here, what have I not said before? I’m trying to think of something else I haven’t said. His ability to read a defense, his ability to stay calm, stay resilient, his ability to be – make an accurate throw, off-platform throws, to move in the pocket, to get us in the right play, to – I guess resiliency is the same thing as if things don’t go well. You get in the second half, he’s able to adjust and bounce back and those are his superpowers. He’s not (Ravens QB) Lamar Jackson. He’s not going to take off and run for 50 if he needs to. He does other things that he really leans on to help him out and he does them well.”
On if having former NFL players on the coaching staff is helpful and if that was something he looked for when hiring his coaching staff: “Yeah, look, I think it helps as long as you’re getting the right guys. That’s important, it’s not just that you’re ex-players, they have to be the right players that are ex-players. Just like just because a coach has not played in the NFL doesn’t mean he can’t coach, he’s not a damn-good coach. He’s got to be the right coach. So, it’s about the right person who is the right coach. And yes, it does. Now, if you’ve played and they’ve got it and they understand, but you’ve still got to earn your respect. You have to earn the respect of the players. You have to – there’s got to be a certain way that – look, every player just wants to know you can help him, right? I feel like you’re genuinely trying to help me. You’re trying to make me better. And as long as they feel that, I don’t care who you are, they’re all in. But the minute they feel like, ‘I’m not getting anything out of this,’ or, ‘You don’t care about me,’ or, ‘You’re fake,’ or ‘you’re –,’ yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to follow those guys. So, I feel like everybody I’ve got on staff is that way. I think they do have credibility because they’ve earned credibility. I think they understand – they understand football. I think they understand people. I think they’re motivators, teachers, communicators. And I think they, more importantly, they all mesh together. We have a really, really good chemistry in the staff, which is one of the greatest things I learned under (Broncos Head Coach) Sean Payton, man, it’s – compatibility is more important than coachability, which doesn’t mean coachability is not important, it just means compatibility is the most important thing with that group.”
On if he wants to pull the team back emotionally for this game: “I don’t want to pull them back. We’re not pulling them back. No, we’re going, we’re going. They’ll adjust on the fly, but we’re going in. And they’ll be ready.”
On if he has to say anything to Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson ahead of this game with his history of trading trash talk with 49ers WR Deebo Samuel: “Yeah, no plaque, no personal fouls and that’s all you’ve got to say. He’s good. He knows how to toe the line without crossing it.”
On the runway Lions Principal Owner and Chair Sheila Ford Hamp gave him and Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager Brad Holmes when she hired them: “Yeah, well, I think it’s exactly what she told us from day one, when we had our first interview. She laid it out. I mean, she told us exactly what she thought the issues were before, what she was looking for, what she wanted and that we were going to be tasked with handling that responsibility, that job and working together, the GM and the head coach. And that she was not going to do anything – she was not going to do anything to keep us from doing those jobs. She wanted to be a resource, a sounding board. She – and she’s been that. She wanted us to be ourselves and so she’s – look, there’s things about Sheila that – she’s got some stubbornness in a great way. I mean that – I think we all have a little bit of this confidence, this stubbornness and when I mean that, there’s things that go down, we’ve got to go to these spring meetings and when it comes time to – things that Brad and I believe in and she’s making the vote, she’s got our back 100 percent. And the harder you push her to try to talk her out of it, the worse it’s going to get for you. And I respect the hell out of that about her because not everybody will do that. And – but the most important thing is that she’s got our backs. And so, that makes me want to have her back anytime, anywhere.”
LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET
January 26, 2024
On if he heard that the crowd chanted ‘Jared Goff’ at the Red Wings game last night: “Yeah, it was sent to me last night by a few people. And yeah, pretty cool, pretty fun to be a part of a city that cares so much.”
On if he was at the Red Wings game last night: “I was not there, no.”
On if the spread of fan support is surreal and if he experienced this when he played for the Rams: “Not like this, no. No, this is a little different. And obviously, the circumstances of it all kind of feeds into that. But yeah, these fans are unbelievable. I expect to see a lot of them this weekend as well, it’ll be fun.”
On how this week of practice went: “It was good, really good.”
On how quickly he is able to build chemistry with Lions TE Zach Ertz with the amount of experience he has had in this League: “Yeah, he’s picked it up extremely fast. He really has. And really impressive, not that you didn’t expect that from a guy like him who’s been around for so long. And I’ve known him here and there throughout the years and just hearing about how smart he is and how well he can pick up things, he’s done it really well this week. And yeah, it’s been good.”
On how valuable it is to have veteran voices who have been in this position before in the locker room: “Yeah, it is cool. It is good having those guys around. I mean, (Lions TE) Zach (Ertz)’s another one. Like you said, he’s won a Super Bowl and having him around for games like this and being able to know that the moment isn’t too big for a guy like that and being able to have guys see that on the field every day is fun.”
On the ‘superpowers’ he sees in Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell: “Oh boy, yeah. I mean, again, I could probably go for a little while here. But obviously, I think the number one thing that I think about with him is his emotional intelligence, how well he can read the room and know people and that’s maybe characteristic number one of being a leader and why he is so good at that. But he knows when to push, when to pull, when to tell you he needs a little bit more from you, when to love you up. He’s got such a great feel for all that, which is why he’s so special.”
On if Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell’s leadership ability is one of the reasons why he was able to lock into the organization from the start: “Yeah, I think not just me, we all respect him because he tells us how it is and he’s sat in our seats before and understands on day 15 of training camp that we’re tired and it’s hard and we know he gets it, but at the same time he’s going to push us. And when a guy that knows it is still pushing you, you kind of trust that a bit more. And yeah, it’s a good way to be as a head coach and it helps us.”
On what he makes of the ‘cosmic forces’ that led him to play against his former team and his hometown team this postseason: “I don’t know, yeah, they’re the one seed and that’s who’s up next. I don’t think it has anything to do with me. But yeah, it’ll be fun. It’s exciting and yeah, it’s cool for me to go back home, but at the same time, it’ll be a tough game.”
On the similarities and differences between when he was in this position with the Rams compared to now: “Yeah, a lot of similarities. On the road, certainly will be the similarity of that one against a good team. It’ll be a tough matchup regardless of how the game goes. It’ll be a four-quarter game. Yeah, as far as the ins and outs of the team, not much. But yeah, I think it’s certainly being a road NFC Championship game.”
On if he had to hold off on getting the offensive linemen gifts until the postseason ends or if he has to give them a bigger second gift: “Their gifts? They got their gifts at Christmas. Yeah, you do it before the season extends. But those guys, I’ll make sure they’re well taken care of.”
On if he has to give the offensive linemen a second gift for making it this far into the postseason: “No, I may have to. That’s a good idea. I’ll have to think about that, yeah.”
On what it is about his personality that has allowed him to improve programs at California, the Rams and now the Lions: “Yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s – all three of those situations have been very, very much about the people that were there. Certainly, I had a hand in it, but for me, I’ve always had a lot of pride in trying to be the same guy every day. And whether it’s hard, whether it’s great, whether it’s fun, whether it’s not, how do you show up every day and be that same guy? And I think that, certainly, helped me get through it. And maybe it’s rubbed off on some other guys along the way. But yeah, that and optimism, eternal optimism. You’re always knowing, thinking the best situation.”
On if the drive to better the situation at California was part of the reason why he chose to go there: “No, both my parents went there. It was one-of-three scholarship offers and there it’s the number one public school in the world, so made it pretty easy.”
On if there is something about how he was raised that pushes him to have an optimistic outlook on the world: “No, I don’t know. I had great parents, so that probably had something to do with it. But I can’t point to any one thing they’ve pointed to me. I think I’ve talked about this in the past, but my dad played professionally and always just preached to have fun, enjoy it, doesn’t last forever. And that’s certainly carried me through a lot of the hard times.”
On the steps he takes to mentally prepare for a game of this magnitude: “Same things I do every week. No different. Wednesday-Friday, do the gameplan and study it up and get ready to go.” |
