LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL AND LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET

LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
September 21, 2022
On what traits and characteristics stood out during the Draft process for Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown: “I think (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) was on him early, and – but I know for me, watching him, he reminded me of (Saints WR) Jarvis Landry, just his competitive nature. He played smart. He was an aggressive player with the ball in the air, he would attack the football. You saw him block downfield. He was versatile. He had quickness, and really, the only thing he didn’t have, he wasn’t a 4.3 guy, I mean. But everything else were traits that we felt like fit us, and he’d be a natural fit in the slot. And I think, just in general the group, really what you want is you want versatility. You want a little bit of everything. You want some pure route runners. You want speed, you want size. You want craftiness, quicks, and I kind of feel like we have that in that room. We have the right blend of guys. They’re all a little bit different and unique in what they can do.”
On what improvements Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown has made to increase his yards after the catch: “Well, he works at it. I mean it’s something that he’s made an emphasis on it, and so he’s always – he’s looking for the next move. And when I catch, he just – he’s got an awareness about him as to where the defender’s at, and it’s something that he works in practice nonstop, and so it’s never a ‘just catch and then go back to the huddle or glide through.’ He’s always going to make at least one move, and he’s trained himself to do that. So then when Sunday comes, it just happens naturally.”
On his favorite block of Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown’s: “A favorite block? There’s not a favorite. There’s – I mean there’s a ton of them. The guy – every time we come out of a game, he does something that’s impressive. I mean just the fact that – because he’ll block off of his releases too. I mean, he’ll just press like he looks like he’s working an inside stem and running right through the corner or the nickel, and so he’s smart that way. And he’s aggressive. I don’t think there’s a day goes by where I’m not, ‘Man, that’s a hell of a block by this guy.’ But there again, he takes pride in it. He works at it. It’s something that he wants his teammates to know that he’s here for all of it. He’s not here to just catch passes. He’s here to do whatever needs to be done, and that’s why his teammates appreciate him, and we do.”
On if he has a greater appreciation for the Week 1 test against the Eagles after the Vikings-Eagles game Monday night: “No, I mean look, that was – I didn’t feel that way. I just kind of – I thought it more as it pertains to Minnesota, and listen, that’s a game on the road, hostile environment, their first road game. Philly got off to a pretty good start and did a couple of things tempo-wise that just kind of got them on their heels a little bit, and so I think every team – look, there’s matchups in this League. Some teams match teams a little bit a differently or better and personnel-wise. And it was just – I kind of felt like it was one of those games. I think this team we’re getting ready to play though is – I think this is a good football team, and I think they’ve got serious firepower. And so, they’re coming off of a loss, they’re going to be ready to go. They’re back in their home crowd. They’ve already beaten – they’re 1-0 in our division, and this is a big test for us.”
On how many different elements there are when playing on the road: “Yeah, well, I think the big thing I feel like is it really is communication, and obviously the most stress comes on your offense. Because there’s been so much that’s been verbalized, and you’re able to do that at home, where on the road, you can’t do it anymore, not at a place like this where we’re going – we’re getting ready to go so. And it’s been a while since we’ve tried to function or had to function like that, so it’s really, man, just procedurally us doing this and silent counting all those things these next three days is going to be imperative for us offensively. I really believe that’s the key is us being able to be efficient with everything that we do. And that starts with (Lions QB Jared) Goff, and it goes to the offensive line as well as the receivers. Now, defensively, I think the thing is you’re used to not being able to verbally communicate at home. You get – and so now it’s just that switch to where now you can – us being on the same page with how we communicate. ‘Are we verbal? Are we still signals? Are we –’ Just everybody being on the same page, but I would say more of the stress is on your offense to be able to – and you’ve got to be careful you don’t put too much in. You don’t try to do too much, right? There’s a lot of things you can do at home, because you can – you’re giving out cadence, and you can time up the fast motions and all of those things. So, first time on the road, we’ve got to be real careful that we don’t take in too much.”
On what he likes about the way Lions QB Jared Goff has played through the first two games: “Man, I thought he’s been efficient. I thought he’s gotten us in the right play. I think he’s been pretty steady. I think when things haven’t gone perfect he’s always snapped back and finished the game strong. And man, he’s – listen, there’s a number of things we’ve been doing we’re asking him to get us into the right play in the pass game as well and he’s doing that. Man, he’s getting us into the right look, right play-call, and then he’s finding these receivers. And so, as long as we can run the football and take a lot of stress off of him and everybody else, I think it goes a long way. And you can say that about any quarterback. I mean, that’s a quarterback’s best friend is the run game. So, that’s where it’s always got to start with us.”
On how Lions QB Jared Goff gets the offense in the right play and if there are sometimes two play-calls in the huddle: “There’s things that we do where we’ll give him some – we’ll give him – we’ll give it to him. Those don’t come up all the time, but there’s enough of them that come up to where he knows exactly what we’re looking for, we worked it during the week and there’s – it can be more than two.”
On if there is any injury update on Lions DL John Cominsky: “Yeah, so he’s going to be down for a little bit. So, he had surgery yesterday and he’ll be down for a little while.”
On if they plan to put Lions DL John Cominsky on Injured Reserve: “Not right now.”
On if there are certain players recovering from injury who will participate in practice today: “(Lions C) Frank (Ragnow) will be out there running around a little bit today. I don’t think (Lions G) Jonah (Jackson)’s – I don’t see Jonah going today. And (Lions CB) Amani (Oruwariye) will be running around out there a little bit. (Lions RB D’Andre) Swift we’ve probably going to give a breather today. He was at walkthrough though. He’s doing better, certainly a lot better than he was this time last week.”
On how Lions DL John Cominsky has played through the first two games: “Playing at a very high level and he’ll be one of those guys that – somebody’s got to pick up the slack of his production because he’s got a ton of silent production like you say or stuff that you don’t always see on the stat sheets. But he’s been a force and he’s one of the reasons why we got some of the sacks we got the other day. He’s taken two out of there, doing exactly what he’s asked to do. He’s unselfish, so and he’s all effort all the time. He’s been a good fit for us. Certainly, it hurts to lose him, but hey, we still – we got (Lions DL Austin Bryant) AB and we can possibly bring up (Lions DL Demetrius Taylor) Meech. So, we’ve got some options.”
On if there is a reason for the different practice schedule today: “No, I was – this was kind of already in the works. It’s just – Wednesday was going to be a little more of an unload day for our guys in the weight room as well as practice.”
On if there is a different schedule for Thursday’s practice: “It’ll be normal Thursday.”

LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET
September 21, 2022
On the preparation he has during the week to be efficient on the field: “Yeah, it’s part of the whole week, we’re going through different scenarios of what we want and what we don’t want and what we’re looking for and vice versa. It’s constant communication, really all the way up until game time and really through the game as well. Some of those scenarios where I do have autonomy to kind of do whatever. And they give me that and it’s fun and it’s been working pretty well.”
On how fun it is to be able to prepare during the week and have it show up on the field: “Right yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun for me and I feel like I’m at the point in my career where I’ve kind of earned that and they can trust me with it. And (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) trusts me, I trust him, and it’s been good.”
On how much playing on the road changes what he needs to do on the field and how the offense is prepared: “Sure. Yeah, there will definitely be a little different process on the road, but nothing we won’t be prepared for. It’s – everyone plays on the road every year, so many games, and this one’s a loud one and we know that. But it’ll be fun, we’ll be prepared.”
On some of the things that will be different as they play on the road for the first time this season: “We’ll do silent count. We want to use that and when we want to use it, and then in what way. And it’ll vary, but yeah we’ll be ready.”
On what jumps out about the Vikings defense as they start to prepare for Sunday: “Yeah, it’s a good question. It’s always about like the pass rushers, right? It’s the first thing you see, but at the same time on that defense I know (Vikings S) Harrison Smith and (Vikings LB) Eric Kendricks are the best at what they do and have been for a long time. So, you see those guys as well, as well as (Vikings CB) Patrick Peterson who’s been around for so long. So, they’ve got some really good vets as well as a really good pass rush that we’ll be ready for.”
On Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown and how hard it is for a receiver to get eight receptions in eight-straight games: “Yeah, it’s funny I thought about it the other day like it is a crazy stat, but it hasn’t felt like forced. It hasn’t felt like we’ve been like trying to like, ‘Oh, we need to get him involved.’ It’s just kind of the way the flow of the game has gone and he runs good routes. He gets himself open and it’s really worked. And again, it hasn’t felt forced, that’s why it kind of jumps up on us, ‘Wow, it’s been eight game in a row or whatever it is.’ Like it’s just kind of been natural and he’s done a great job.”
On if he looks at a record stat line and thinks that it is a sign that nobody else does what Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown does: “I don’t know. I don’t know if I think about it that deeply, but it’s very cool for him and it means he’s doing the right thing, absolutely. And it means we’re somewhat on the right path as well with being able to get a guy that’s that good, that involved, that often. Now, as we go the more popular he gets, the more notoriety he gets, people are going to have plans for him, so that’s when you can see those players like him go from where he’s at right now to really special. And that’s where we hope he goes.”
On the comments about Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown coming out of the Draft not as fast and big as other players: “Yeah, we were giving him a hard time for not scoring, but no he’s – he can – he can run, man, he’s definitely not slow. He’s very shifty, he’s very fast and can kind of – like I’ve said, can kind of do everything you want and is always in the right spot. And understands coverage and is smart, and blocks hard, and is unselfish and is everything you want in a receiver.”
On how he looks at the team leaving points on the board after the past two games: “Yeah, I agree. I’ve kind of said two weeks in a row now. If we scored – however many points we have scored, but just missing (Lions WR) DJ (Chark) on that deep ball twice. In the first week there was a handful. I can’t quite remember, but there was a handful that we missed, that we could’ve had and missing (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown on the shallow in the endzone there, in the rezone, that would’ve been another one. So, like it’s good, but it’s like, ‘Ah, we’ve got so much more left in the tank.’ And hopefully, can reach our full potential as we go.”
On saying there are still a ton of plays the offense has not gotten to yet and how comforting it is to have a catalog of plays left: “Sure, yeah, I think that’s what good teams do have. And are we there yet? I don’t know, we’re 1-1 and time will tell. But we feel like we’re doing the right things and on the right page, and going in the right direction. But (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) has been helpful and having a lot of answers for different things.”
On missing a couple of receivers on certain plays and if it is due to a chemistry issue: “I don’t want to put too much weight in it, but at the same time there is an urgency of we need to start hitting some of these and we hit a bunch in training camp and having the pass. So, it’s not like, ‘Ugh.’ We did hit the go-ball against the Eagles, so there is that one. But yeah, the two in the game are on me, I’ve just got to throw a better ball and we’ll make that play.”
On the impact of Lions WR Kalif Raymond and his returns bringing a shorter field for the offense: “Yeah, it’s been huge, and he’s a guy that we really just need to get him in space, and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) always talks about, ‘Just get one block for him. Just get one. He’ll break it.’ And he did there. I thought that little sequence there was kind of the epitome of how that game went. The offense didn’t finish the drive there. I missed (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown on the third down and didn’t convert on fourth, and then two plays later or three plays later, we got the safety, and then he had that return, and then we scored a few plays later after that, and then it was like, ‘OK, we can pick each other up. We have – this is kind of a full team effort here.’ And that’s what good teams that win in this League do.”
On the Lions getting their first win earlier than last year and the importance of a divisional matchup against the Vikings Sunday: “Yeah, just a little bit. Yeah, it’d be big just because it’s a division game. It’s another one of those, and those are always big. By the end of the season, you look back at those as the ones that will typically dictate your playoff status, so for that reason it’s big, but for no other reason than that.”
On how the Vikings defense has changed after former Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer departed: “Yeah, it’s definitely changed. Obviously, (Vikings Defensive Coordinator Ed) Donatell’s got his spin on it and what he wants to do and the systems he’s been in and they’re different for sure, but there are similar principles I guess in some ways, but it’s a different unit for sure.”