LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
August 25, 2025
Opening Statement: “Really not much to speak of. I mean, we’re in the middle of it, so today will be a tough day. That’s the best I can say right now. Appreciate those guys and all the hard work they’ve put into it.”
On what the roster cut down looks like for him and Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager Brad Holmes: “You’ve got to do it, right? It’s something you have to do. It’s something that has to be done, and you want to do it as respectfully as you can. You don’t want to lie to the player, you just tell them straight up, and it’s hard. But it’s the right way to do it. We do that, Brad and I met last night, and so we’ll try to do most of everything today. Hopefully by the end of the day there could be a couple we don’t get to, maybe last minute or tomorrow. It is what it is. Look, there’s nothing easy about it. It’s worse on them than it is us. I mean, it’s hard on us, but there’s no woe is me here. I feel sorry for those guys, but at the same token, this is what I’d tell them, ‘Man, use this as fuel and move on to the next step of this.’ Whether it’s another team or it’s another shot at it. Whatever that is, attack the next day and don’t let it shake your confidence.”
On if he anticipates using both Reserve/Injured – Designated for Return spots: “I don’t – we’re not there yet. We’re not there. We’re up for debate. I mean, we’re talking about everything right now.”
On if he has any clarity on where to place Lions EDGE Ahmed Hassanein: “Not right now. I know (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) is going to speak at the end of the week, so I think it’ll be a lot clearer when he gets up here.”
On if he has a positive outlook on what the practice squad could look like: “Oh, yeah. We love our practice squad, man. I feel like that’s another one of those things that we’ve done a really good job of here and found guys that fit us and that we can count on really over the last two or three years. I mean, those guys are a big part of what we do. So yeah, we feel pretty good. There will be a number of those guys that we’d be excited to have back that we trust, but at the same token, we’re looking at other rosters, too. We’re looking to see if there’s some guys that we feel like could upgrade us in other areas on the practice squad. So a little bit of both, guys you know you can trust and want to move forward with, and the others that aren’t in the building yet, but we need to get eyes on them.”
On if he thinks it makes it easier to tell cut players that there is a chance they might get called back to the team: “Well, I think it definitely brings validity to it. It’s not just lip service here. An example of it, two years ago, well I guess really it was a year ago, it was (Lions LB Anthony) Pittman. And hey, we wished him the best of luck, we moved on, and I said, ‘You never know, we may see you again because we know what you’re about and we know who you are.’ And sure enough, we get the injuries and he’s in Jacksonville, we bring him back. When we’ve been around these players, and we feel like there’s a need – the easy part is, they’ve been a part of our program. They know what we’re about, we know what they’re about. Man, you can sign off on that. Then it’s just about do they have anything left in the tank, and do they serve a role? Whether it’s special teams, offense or defense, or whatever. So, those guys are always going to be on our list because they’ve been through our program, which is big.”
On if he believes this year’s roster is the best and deepest going into his fifth season as head coach: “I feel really good about that. I feel like collectively, across the board, this looks pretty good. I would say yeah, year five, this is the best we’ve felt about it, kind of top to bottom. Now that being said, there’s still holes, but I bring this up all the time. Every roster has holes. You’ll never have it exactly where you totally want it, but from where we’ve come, year after year, this is – we’ve taken it to another level, and that’s a credit to (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes). What Brad’s done in the personnel department is outstanding, man. He’s just continued to elevate the floor. We know the ceiling, well, we don’t even know the ceiling. There’s still so many of these players that are continuing to get better and better that are really good players. But by doing that, the floor has really been raised. So, our baseline is pretty dang good right now. That’s a good thing.”
On how current injured veteran players affect roster decision-making: “Well, you do have to think about it because if we go this route with these players, and everything happens the way you want it to where nobody gets hurt, everything’s great, then who are those you’re releasing? Alright, so then you release those players, is somebody else going to claim them? Or would they be there to come back on practice squad? Or would they want to come back? You do go through all of those, and that’s hard too. I mean, it’s hard enough to think about your 53, but then you know you’ve got really good players coming back that are going to help you. There’s no question about it that you’re going to need to get on the roster. It does, so you do think about those, too. At the same token, you’ve got to be careful and just worry about today. Worry about what’s right in front of us a little bit. The odds, unfortunately, will be that it’ll shake out – we won’t have to make that decision. I hope not, but it’s kind of how it’s been here for going on five years.”
On how he weighs different components in making final roster decisions: “You’re going to take the totality of it. I know for me, that’s big. I want to know start to finish, what did it look like? Was there constant improvement? Do you feel and see development through that time? I think where that would be a little bit – OK, man, the practices look really good, I see that, but all four of these games have not been good. That’s an issue. I think that’s an issue, because all of a sudden, the lights are on and we’re in real games and the coach isn’t behind you and there’s no scripts. That could be a little bit concerning. But I think to answer your question, I take it in the whole, from the beginning. From start to where we’re at now, and I think that’s important that you don’t get skewed by just the Houston game. One game. You’ve got to be careful there.”
On the character vetting process of claiming players from different teams in such a short window: “Well, we’ll do our leg work. We’ve got enough people that have an idea of who that person is. What was their background in college coming out? That’s always going to be big. I mean, chances are, if it was somebody that we weren’t really fired up about coming out then because of character, we’re probably not going to look at them if they’re available now. So usually that’s already kind of been checked off, and you’ll do a little leg work. The rest is up to the tape, man. What does the tape look like? Do we feel like that’s something that fits our system? Do we feel like we can help them grow and get better? Are we excited about the player, that’s a lot of it too. It’s hard for (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I to bring in guys that we’re warm about. You want to feel like you’re hot over them, because there’s somewhere to go or they have something about them that you feel like you can develop. Look, we’re getting to the point now where we feel like our locker room is so good, too. We’ve got a great group of guys. Said this before, they set the standard for what we do, and they know what’s acceptable. So, anybody that comes in is going to fall in line or they’re not going to be here very long.”
On how much he feels like the defense has progressed throughout training camp: “It’s hard to say. I know from what I’ve seen from practice against our offense, it looks pretty dang good. But we haven’t faced another opponent with a one defense. Now, we’ve had some joint practices that have looked pretty good. I know with where we’re at, six weeks into camp, that I like where we’re at. I think the unit is good, I think the personnel is good, I think (Lions Defensive Coordinator Kelvin Sheppard) Shepp’s done a heck of a job with the system and those coaches. I think we’re in a good place in late August.”
On if he believes the defensive unit is the best they have had since he has been head coach: “Yeah, I mean I think it’s certainly up there. It’s a really good unit. We stay healthy, we continue to grow, get better. We learn from our errors, we’ve got guys that are playmakers. We’ve got guys that are smart. We can make a lot of checks, we can get into a lot of different calls, we can create turnovers. We’ve got to stay healthy, and we’ve got to keep getting better. There will be things that we get exposed on that we’ve got to learn from, and we’ve got to clean up, just like offense. I like where we’re at. Believe me, nobody wants to play this in all three phases more than I do. I want to find out how many different ways can we win games. Man, let’s get good at winning. I don’t care what it looks like. I really don’t. As long as we believe we’re playing clean football and we’re playing up to our standard, that’s all I care about.”
