LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
December 1, 2024
Opening Statement: “Today will be our first day getting ready for Green Bay. They’re playing good football. They had the bye after we played them, have won three-in-a-row, (Packers RB Josh) Jacobs is running well, (Packers QB Jordan) Love’s playing well, those receivers – just like the first time we played them and they have a whole stable of receivers that all have a little bit of something different to them and all have the ability to make plays. Offensive line plays hard, play together, tight end’s making plays, and then this defense. Penetrating defense, (Packers DL) Kenny Clark, hell of a player, always is, every time you get ready for that guy, you have to try to handle him. (Packers DL Rashan) Gary, heck of a player, complete defensive end, run, pass game. The backers, (Packers LB) Quay Walker run and hit, can play in coverage. Secondary’s active, (Packers S Xavier McKinney) 29’s got a ton of picks, very headsy, smart, aware, tough player. They have players everywhere and they’re playing good football. So, this is going to be a great matchup. Back at our place, it’s just another one of those, division game number four, get it back at home against a really good opponent and it’s – there again, this is why you do it. This is why you coach, it’s why you play, so, we’re fired up for this.”
On how much from the first Green Bay game carries over to the gameplan for Thursday’s game: “Yeah, there will be some carryover. There will be enough carryover, I’m sure for them as well as us. Things that they did well against us, things that we did well, and then you just kind of play off of that. And there will be wrinkles on both sides. The weather affected a couple of things, but I think all in all, the blueprint’s there for either team, however you want to look at it. So, I don’t see anything being too significant and we get wrinkles every week. We always get something that’s tendency breakers now. So, we pretty much expect that.”
On signing Lions DB Jamal Adams and the philosophy of signing players to the practice squad with the intention of eventually signing them to the active roster: “Yeah, well we say it every year but they’re an extension of the roster. They really are a part of the roster, it’s just a different way to get them on your team because you’re going to need them, you’re going to have to use them, and I think having the right balance of vets who have been able to – they’ve played in this League, they understand it, it’s not too big for them, plug and play, serve a role, a purpose, you know exactly what they can do and you appreciate that about them. I think it’s big. And also, to have some of younger guys. You do want a balance in there, guys that are plug and play ready and then some of these young guys that you really think maybe have a chance to grow into something more than just a backup and give them time to develop if you can. And I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job of that, is keeping that right balance. But this will be good, getting Jamal here, we’ll see if there’s a place for him. It just gives us options, it gives us options. (Lions LB) Kwon (Alexander), we get him, we got (Lions DL) Myles Adams, (Lions DL) Jonah Williams, it just gives us options now which is great and we’re going to play the best players. Whoever can help us is going.”
On if they see Lions DB Jamal Adams as a linebacker or safety: “Yeah, could be D-end. We’ll put him at D-end.”
On if he feels a shift in urgency when December comes: “No, I think – I don’t know, I think always for me, you’re always – your head’s down and you’re just going. And players are no different. You just worry about what’s right in front of you and you just – and you start going and you start going and I think once you hit December, it’s hard not to start to begin to look up a little bit and I mean that in a good way. You can start to smell the playoffs a little bit, you can start to see what’s out in front of you, what’s at stake, you know you’re well within the race, and I think it just gives you a little bit of, I don’t know man, excitement. It’s exciting and it’s competitive and it’s just – I mean this is why you’re in this business. Like I know Minnesota just won, it’s really – it’s awesome. The race is on and it’s just good. This is top tier stuff and it’s for the best of the best and this thing’s going to go down to the wire and we just have to worry about winning the one in front of us.”
On if changes were made to the gameplan after a photo from inside the running back room was posted: “No comment.”
On if he wishes that the bye week was later in the season when they have several short weeks in a row: “Yeah, the League will never call and ask me what I think we should or shouldn’t do. So, they get the schedule, they line it up, this is when we have to play and it’s our job to get ready and play, so I would tell you from a player standpoint, it’s always better to be able to get a little rest when you have a lot of games back to back to back, but that’s neither here nor there. That’s not how it is. So, we’ll be ready to play.”
On if he would like to be on the NFL’s Competition Committee: “Nope. All good.”
On if the playbook has to be condensed for better chemistry among the team due to signing new players to the active roster: “I think a couple of things. One, terminology, how fast can they get this. Two, whatever that is, being able to – man they can just line up and play fast. You take the thinking off the table, ‘OK what if we get this, this, and this?’ How can we make it so to where these guys, they’re going to know exactly where to go, where to get lined up and they can just cut it loose, and I think that’s step number one. The other part, we don’t entirely know, we have an idea of what some of these guys can do, but yet we don’t. It’s because they just got here, or they just walked into the building. So, you’re kind of trying to work through that within a couple of days too, ‘Where can we use him?’ So, I think you use the best judgement you can over what you know of the players, what you’ve seen most recently, where we’re at, where we could use some help, and you let them go play. You let them play fast and that’s what we’re going to do. The plan is – it’s going to be a good plan and (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG’s got it locked in and I think these guys are – I think they’ll go cut it loose.”
On an injury update on Lions T Taylor Decker: “Better and better. I still think he’s day-to-day. I think it’ll come down to the wire with him whether he can go or not this week. He’s certainly better.”
On if the number of defensive injuries this season are being looked at by the medical team: “We look at everything every year. This time last year, we were one of the healthiest teams and really, we’ve done the same thing. If anything, I was talking the other day, I’m like, ‘Well maybe we need to go harder on some stuff.’ That’s actually a joke. So yeah, we look at everything and it’s – we’ll be able to deep dive this in the offseason, but really it is, it’s the same thing that we did last year and some of these have just kind of been one of those chalk it up to – that’s a freak deal. That’s kind of an odd thing that happened and how it happened. There’s no rhyme or reason and this happens, it just does. As long as I’ve been in this League as a player, as a coach, some years are great, it works out great, some years it’s just like this and you overcome it.”
On if there is a correlation between a strong run game and teams’ success: “I’ll always believe that the run game is where it all starts. Offensive line, run game, because I think it sets a tone for your offense, for your team and it alleviates pressure off of the pass game, the quarterback, it allows them to be able to flow. It alleviates pressure off the O-line too. And so, I’m always going to say yeah, I think there is a direct correlation, and I think a good back makes a difference and we have two of them. So, but to each his own.”
LIONS QB JARED GOFF QUOTE SHEET
December 1, 2024
On if he is excited for the next couple of weeks now that it is December: “Sure, yeah. I mean, I’m excited to play the Packers again. Yeah, of course, because they’re in-division and you want to win these games and it’s a big one in December and it feels like every week we’re saying that, but it is. They’re a great team and we’ve got our hands full again.”
On how much he keeps his eye on football around the NFL on a Sunday practice day: “Yeah, you’re certainly looking around. At the end of the day, we do control our destiny here for the next five games and we’ve got to take care of business.”
On what Lions WR Tim Patrick has meant to the team: “He’s been as important as anybody. He’s been great for that receiver room, he’s been great for me, he’s constantly communicating, he does a lot of the dirty work and a lot of the stuff that some other guys would not do, so it’s nice to have a guy like that and such a reliable target for me and does everything right.”
On if his chemistry with Lions WR Tim Patrick is growing with the ability to extend plays like one he had in a recent game: “Sure, he’s got a good feel for that, he does. I think the Indianapolis play, on third down I think it was, where he got the big gain. Yeah, he’s got a great feel for space and awareness and him and I have a good thing going on right now.”
On if he believes the team’s usage of the practice squad makes this team closer than other teams that he has seen: “Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. I think we truly do lean on everyone. It’s top-to-bottom, it’s not just the 53, it’s those guys on the practice squad that are helping us out throughout the week, obviously, on scout team, but – and then their number gets called often, and we do rely on them.”
On what he has seen on tape from Green Bay since they last played them and what he expects to see from them: “Yeah, they’re playing well and they were playing well when we came in to play them at their place, so they’re playing well and we’ve got our hands full. It’s a good defense, they’re well-coached, they do a lot of really good things, the backend’s good, the linebackers are good, the front four is good, they’re good on every level and we know what we’ve got to take care of.”
On how he finds a sense of normalcy with this unique schedule: “You don’t. Well, today’s Wednesday, that’s how you treat it, and you go from there. But yeah, certainly, two back-to-back Thursday games is a little bit different, but they’re dealing with it too, so we’ll be just fine.”
On if it is weird to come out of practice and see NFL games on and if he has had two Thursday games in a row before: “No, I have never done it. I don’t know how many times it’s been done, but we’re in it and it’s great. December football, you can’t ask for much more.”
On if he likes it better that Green Bay is also dealing with the unique schedule: “Well, I mean, we’re fine now. The short week is over, that’s the hard part, and now you’re on to a regular week and then you get the nice little mini bye after, but yeah, whatever team you’re playing is obviously handling the same adversity you are, and we feel good.”
On what he has seen from Lions WR Tim Patrick and how their connection has developed: “Yeah, he’s done a great job just getting better every week and I was talking about it earlier, just his reliability and being a big body with great hands, catches it away from his body, that stuff is so friendly for a quarterback to throw to and he’s got a lot of years in this League where he’s had success and to have him on our team doing a lot of the dirty work speaks to his character and who he is.”
On if Lions WR Tim Patrick’s skillset has solidified the wide receiver room: “Sure, and (Lions WR) Allen (Robinson II)’s right there too, waiting in the wings. Obviously (Lions WR) Kalif (Raymond)’s banged up, but he’s got his own role as well and they all do a really good job of filling those roles and practicing hard and making my job easy by getting themselves open.”
On if he has talked to Michigan QB Davis Warren after their upset win over Ohio State yesterday: “I did, I said good job. I said congrats, way to hang in there and good win.”
