LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
October 27, 2025
Opening Statement: “Well, back at it. So, guys had a few days off, coaches looked at some things – things that we feel like we can use moving forward to just improve a little bit in some areas. And I really believe we haven’t played our best ball yet collectively in all three phases and that’s really what we’re trying to get to here is how can we sharpen ourselves. We know it’s going to take every phase. Every game’s different and one unit may have to pick up the slack, but we need to start playing complete ball across the board. And just keep improving – like with all these teams that we’re in the race with right now. So, that’s where we’re at. Obviously, we’ve got Minnesota coming in. We’ll hit more on that tomorrow, but a really good opponent. Obviously know them, they know us and so it’ll be a big one for us.”
On if there is a player that he feels has not been utilized as much as they could be: “Yeah, there’s some things that I feel like we could do a better job with. I’m not going to highlight who those are, but there’s certainly some guys it’s like, ‘How do we set them up to have success to help us?’ Their production in certain areas, just to really use what they have, that’s one. The other thing – I told the guys this – one I look at just production versus negatives because that’s big too and vice versa. Sometimes you have guys you may think that there’s a lot of production but yet there’s a lot more negatives that could outweigh those. Those are little things that I looked at across the board and vice versa. It’s like this guy does nothing wrong, but yet there’s no production. So, you want to verify some things, you want to make sure you see things properly and so that’s what a lot of it is. But there’s some guys that certainly we can help them and by helping them, they’re going to help us tremendously.”
On how closely he has followed Jets Head Coach Aaron Glenn and Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson and what he thinks it might mean for anyone on his staff in the future get a chance to be a head coach: “Well I don’t know what that means for that. But I did watch – I didn’t watch the whole game, I watched the score, I saw the end of it. I’m keeping up with AG, I’ll text back and forth with him. I’m a huge fan obviously. And so, it was good to see. I know that was tough. You’re down a couple of scores and they rallied back, hung in there and found a way to win. And it’s just to get that first one, it’s a good feeling. So, happy for all those guys.”
On if the success of Jets Head Coach Aaron Glenn and Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson will have any bearing on the potential of guys from the program: “I mean I don’t know. I’m assuming it’s not going to hurt, right? The more wins you can, the more it could help those things. But both of those guys just – you go into a new program and there’s a reason why you just got hired because things weren’t going the way that those organizations wanted them to go to. So, it takes a minute. It just does. And you don’t know when that’ll come, how long it’s going to take and you just – patience is always going to help.”
On if there are any players who could return from injury this week: “We’re getting some guys backs to practice, which that’s the number one thing. We’ll take a good look at (Lions CB Terrion) Arnold, he’s going to practice tomorrow, get him worked in, see how he feels, see what it looks like. He feels good. He says he feels good. And he has been kind of running around a little bit but we’ll be padded up tomorrow and so we’ll get a really good look at him. We started (Lions S Daniel) Thomas’ clock, so he’ll be running around out there. And I think we’re going to start (Lions LB Malcolm) Rodriguez tomorrow, we’ll start his clock. So, those are all pretty good things right now with where we’re at.”
On how much of the self-scouting during the bye was focused on the offense and how much room he thinks there is for the offense to improve: “Yeah, well I think for me most of it was offense, not all of it. I looked at teams, I look at defense and certainly I had (Lions Defensive Coordinator Kelvin Sheppard) Shepp and (Lions Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Fipp look at those too. But a lot of it was offensively too and things that I know we can get better at. And I really believe you tighten a screw here, you tighten a belt and all of a sudden this thing is running like a well-oiled machine. So, just a couple of things, that’s all. So, easily correctable things that we can do better. And I’m talking about coaches and players, myself, all of us. But that was part of it.”
On if he is harder to deal with at home during the bye week or easier to deal with: “That’s a question for my wife. She would tell you. Yeah, I’m saying it’s a bye and I’m not working but I’m working. So, the mind is always there – unfortunately for her. But I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m easy to deal with or not. She handles it well, I know that.”
On the balance of feeding the ball to offensive superstars and maintaining overall balance among the offense: “Well number one, this is where you always have to – what do you have to do to win that game? I always start there. And then inside of that, how do we spread this ball around, use those weapons, ask them to do things that they’re really, really good at. And a lot of times, to really do that and hum the way you want to, you’ve got to convert. You’ve got to convert third downs into first downs or fourth downs into first downs because now you’ve got another four plays – three to four plays – and then so on, so forth. And so, just to this point I know some of it has been we are not getting the plays that we normally get because we have not converted like we should on third down. Third down is the most glaring thing right now. We have to be better. That is, it’s right there. So, those are things that (Lions Offensive Coordinator John Morton) Johnny looked at, myself. And that’s been the big focus for us is making sure we find a way to convert. And then look, it starts there but it’s also one player here, it’s one thing here, it’s one misstep, could be the release. So, then that falls into everybody’s doing it right, one guy misses on the assignment. And then we go to the next play and now that guy got it right with the other nine, but another guy missed his. And that hurts, but that’s what happens. You get in a rhythm, you get in a flow, you do your job and then pretty soon we’re clicking. So, nothing to panic over, but there’s certainly room to improve.”
On if the room for improvement in converting third downs has to do with down and distance and facing longer third downs this year: “No. I really don’t feel – no. I feel like there’s a lot of things we’ve actually missed on third-and-manageable. The mid-range third downs. So we’re where we want to be to have a shot at converting, it’s just we’ve got to get it done. And that really is collective, it’s all of us. There’s things that we can do to really help our guys and then it falls on them too. So, it’s collective, it’s the whole unit. And I know we talked about that and so look, we’re just going to keep tweaking it, we’re going to keep working it and hopefully we get better this week. That’s the plan, that’s why we’re putting in the work we’re putting in and that we will when they come back on Thursday. Tomorrow’s base, but then we have third down, we’ll do good-on-good again against our defense and we’ll just keep going until we get it improved. We’ll find a way here.”
On if some of the third down conversions are skewed by the strategy of using a third down to set up a fourth-down play: “They can be. They can be, but when you don’t convert on fourth, then that doesn’t help either. And not that it’s been one of those, but there are – the last two weeks, we just missed on a couple of fourth downs. And normally I don’t think of those, like I don’t throw those in too. Yes, you’d be correct. But I don’t think of those ones where we’re just trying to get in manageable and if you get the first, great. If you don’t, now you’re in – take those aside, we’re not good enough right now on third down. That’s what I do know.”
On if he deems third-and-manageable as third-and-four to third-and-six: “That’s how I look at it, yes. Third-and-four to -six.”
On what impresses him the most about how the Vikings can make their offense work no matter who is under center and if they are preparing to face a specific quarterback this week: “We’ll be – I mean I’m assuming that (Vikings QB J.J.) McCarthy’s going to play. But we’ll be ready for whoever they have. I don’t foresee things changing that much per quarterback. Certainly, if he does play, they’re going to want to calm it down for him, ask him to do things that he does well, help him out there, try to establish the run game there, get (Vikings WR Justin Jefferson) 18 the ball. All the things that you would think of. But (Vikings Head Coach Kevin) O’Connell does an unbelievable job – and that staff, they always do. Doesn’t matter the quarterback, they’re going to find a way to take the pressure off the areas they need to and then put it somewhere else and find a way to convert, move the football. Helps the defense gets takeaways, they’re disruptive over there. So yeah, I mean O’Connell’s done a hell of a job, they always do. So, to your point, it really doesn’t matter who’s playing quarterback, they’ll be prepared, they’ll be ready to come in this game and move the football to score points. That’s what we’re going to be dealing with – with weapons too, they’ve got weapons.”
On where he thinks Lions OL Tate Ratledge and Lions OL Christian Mahogany are at and where they have room to improve: “They have improved. (Lions OL) Graham (Glasgow) has been steady in there in the middle and both of our guards have improved. I mean there is clear and noticeable improvement. There’s a lot to go and they know that. There’s so much room to get better and I expect them to take another step – they’re going to need to take another step. They know that and – because when that happens, then collectively we’ll all get better and that whole unit will get better. But from where we came from Green Bay, they have taken noticeable jumps. So, I like where they’re trending. We’ve got to keep going.”
