LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET
January 16, 2025
Opening Statement: “It’s Friday, which is a Thursday, so red zone day. Last one and then finishing touches tomorrow. It’s been a good week, (Lions G Kevin) Zeitler will be the only one right now that’s going to be down today. He’s progressed every day. We’ll see, take it as it comes. If not, it’ll be (Lions OL Christian) Mahogany, that’s the next question. Everything else, we’re good.”
On if Lions OL Christian Mahogany’s performance against Chicago gives him confidence if Lions G Kevin Zeitler cannot play: “Yeah, we thought that was a good showing by him and it’s worthy of – if it goes there – to give him a shot. But then there again, we have (Lions G Kayode Awosika) Yode as well. He’s played snaps, played playoff snaps for us and we trust him as well. So, we feel like we’re in good hands.”
On if there has been an adjustment of going from being the hunter to being the hunted this season: “No, actually I felt like the biggest adjustment for us was training camp out at New York. That was the first real taste of kind of the perception, and I thought the Giants practiced hard, they brought it, there was a lot of energy, a lot of juice, and I thought that was good for us to get that and it’s like now you know what it’s going to be like all season. And we’ve handled it, we handled it well and I don’t feel like – we know that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, we know that every week and it doesn’t matter if it’s who we’ve played, what week it is, and our guys understand that. I think the most important thing is that it doesn’t matter where you’re at, where you’re seeded, how many wins you’ve had, you have to stay hungry, and our team is hungry.”
On how having to play all four downs changes things for a defense: “Honestly, I think defensively the big thing is that first down is huge. You can say – first down is huge. You would love to put yourself in an advantageous position on defense going into second down, I think that kind of leads into everything because now your odds go up that if it is a fourth down, it’s a lot further out than anybody is comfortable with, hopefully for them. And offensively the same thing, and so first down is really the big one and you can make it up on second down but that’s not always easy to do. So, I think that’s big and then I think you just take it as it comes. I think you play the game as you feel, you try to stay ahead of the sticks, and I think really, you asked for a defensive perspective from ours, the most important thing is do not get frustrated. You cannot get frustrated. We’ve done a good job of that. We accept the fact that they’re going to make a couple of plays. They’ve made them against everybody that they’ve played against. That’s OK. The most important thing is we line back up and we go again. We go again, we go again, because the next play is the one that will change the game.”
On the redeeming lesson from the 2024 NFC Championship game: “Yeah, I don’t know if there’s anything redeeming other than – I think there was a lot of things that went down and happened in the second half, and I think really once you get in that moment and you go against a team who had been there time after time, playing at a high level, really good football player, San Francisco, and they willed that to happen more than we were able to overcome and made the plays in opportune times and we didn’t. They made plays and we also did not make plays, and I just think there’s something about being in that moment, in that space, going through it with the core group of guys that you have. So, I think more than anything it’s the experience of it.”
On Commanders CB Marshon Lattimore: “Yeah, I have a lot of respect for Marshon, having him at New Orleans. I think he’s a heck of a football player, he’s feisty, he’s competitive, you know the physical attributes he has. He can run and he’s got hands, he’s got ball skills, he can flip his hips, all that, but it’s really the competitiveness. That’s what you appreciate about him. So, he’s helped them, he’s a good football player, and he’s somebody we have to be aware of.”
On if they tried to keep Commanders TE Zach Ertz at the end of last season and how good he is: “Yeah, I’ll tell you what, he’s a weapon for them in the red zone. That’s where he really, really shows up and then there’s been some critical fourth downs, third downs where he’s shown up out in the field, the pass game, some of these where he gets matched up one-on-one and that’s where he thrives. He can still do that because he’s got hands, he’s got length, he can pluck the ball, and so even if you’re attached to him, he can make those plays. So, he’s somebody particularly in the red zone that we have to know where he’s at, we have to matchup well with him. He’s a pro, he’s a pro’s pro and it’s everything that you would expect out of him. They’re using him exactly the right way, so yeah, he’s a good player.”
On the challenge the defense will face with a no-huddle Washington offense: “Yeah, it’s the same – communication, obviously, and they’ve gotten a number of people with that. They’re back to the ball and then they’re running personnel on straight to the ball and then here they go. And I will tell you, there’s a number of things that have come up where they’re not holding the football and that’s a substitution. So, we’ll be on that, we’ll talk about all of that pregame, we’re going to be able to sub, getting the packages that we need to, and really it’s the – OK when we have our groups that come in, we know we’re matching immediately. We’re not getting in a huddle, we’re hearing the calls, we come out, and we’re matching them because then the official will get out and we’re ready to play. We’ve been working it, talking it, seeing it, but it’s challenging. Because they’ll do some third down now where they run a jumbo tight end and he’s reporting and running and putting his hand in the ground and it’s unbalanced. They’re pretty creative of all of that.”
On what he stresses to the team in terms of game day routine for primetime games: “I don’t know if there’s something that we say, ‘OK this is – it’s this type of game, this is how we’re going to-’ I think it’s just about – I think we handle the perception of pressure well, the lights, all of it. Really, we handle one o’clock games too, we handle that pretty well too. But I think for us, a lot of times two things happen, and it happens in those type of games, it happens in the playoffs, I said it last year, you either crumble – it’s too much and some guys crumble, teams crumble because it’s just too much pressure, you can feel the lights, the bright lights. Or you want it so bad that you go out of the norm, and you start trying to make plays instead of just doing your job that got you 15 wins. Just do your job, the guy next to you will do his, one more time, that’s all. And we’ve been good about that, and I would foresee us doing that again. I think we enjoy it, we enjoy it, we embrace this, we love the atmosphere, we love everything about this, and I just feel like we thrive in this.”
On how much more difficult crowd noise can be on shotgun offenses: “It’s a norm for them. It’s certainly something that they do time after time. They’ve played in some games where they can hear and they’ll do a lot of the clap cadence, stuff like that to where they can hear, but I just go back to it only takes one. So, you can be in loud environments, ours will be the loudest they’ve been in all year. Now, how does it affect them? It only takes one. It only takes one for it to be something goes awry and whether that ends that series, or something happens out of it, and that’s all that you’re looking for. That’s all you’re hoping for. So, I’m glad that we’re at home and I can’t wait to hear our crowd, and we know that they’re behind us and it’s going to be electric.”
On how unique the fan engagement is with the team: “Yeah, it is unique, and I go back to – it was one of those things that was – I go back to this, it was one of the things that for somebody like me was appealing about playing here, wanting to play here and coach here. This is a sleeping giant for football. The Pistons have had success, the Red Wings have had success, but the Lions have never had success and just to be able to unlock everything, this is a sports town and for everybody to feel like they’re a part of it, like, ‘This is our team.’ They represent us and what they’re about and the way that they play, we can stand behind that. So, every little thing that comes up, the (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown, people are dying their hair now. It’s pretty cool and we feel the love and we appreciate it, we do.”
On what the core group of players that were on the 2021 team mean to him: “It means everything. That group means everything and so do the coaches. We’ve been in – I just bring it up again, it’s so many, you have to reload every year and you have to start over in a sense, but if you don’t forget where you came from and who you are, then what are you doing? You lose a part of yourself if you forget all of that. So, that group helped us rise from the ashes if you will, and those are the guys that you don’t ever forget because they went through the hard stuff, the hard times, all of it, being doubted. But to believe, just to continue to believe and put the work in and it’s a number of reasons why we have so many of those guys who are still here, and it goes back to trust. Those guys put the work in, we trust the heck out of them, they believe in everything that we’re doing, and everybody else falls right in line. They become one of them.”
On Lions Special Teams Coordinator Dave Fipp saying that he has the ability to predict the way a game will go better than any coach he has been around and at what point he realized he had that type of feel for the game: “Well, I appreciate Fipp saying that, I don’t know about all of that. I don’t know, I try to, like anybody else, you watch game after game after game of the opponent, you know yourself well enough to understand where you’re at and what it’s going to take and where your matchups are at, and I think you just do your best to foreshadow where you think the game is going to go. And then you tell the team. You tell the coaches, you tell the team, ‘This is where I feel like it’s going to go and if we’re in this situation, this is how we’re going to handle it, this is what we’re going to do.’ And sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, but you do the best that you can.”
On how it makes him feel that fans from Windsor have embraced the team: “Yeah, it’s awesome. It is. Right across the river. They’re all a part of this too and I know that it’s no different than you’re here and you’re upstate, you’re down in Texas, you’re South Florida, you’re across the river. We have fans in Mexico, too, I got something on that. We appreciate them, we know that they’re out there as well.”
On a nonnegotiable trait that a player has to have to be successful on the team: “Well you have to be competitive. That’s probably – that may be a no s— statement. Excuse my French, but you better be competitive because I don’t know what to do with somebody that – it’s hard to teach somebody to be competitive. You either have it or you don’t.”
On Lions DL Al-Quadin Muhammad’s growth throughout the season and his mindset on the field: “Dude, he’s grown. As a matter of fact, we were talking about him yesterday, he came up in the defensive staff room. We really feel like over the last three weeks, he’s gotten better and better and better. He came – we brought him in, we had to use him basically immediately, got him out there and he gave us everything he had, but he had also just walked back into the building. So, he’s a little rusty, then trying to learn our terminology, and then scheme too. The style in which we play was different than what he’s played in his career. We ask him to do things a little bit different, and so there was a growing period for a veteran guy, and he’s done it. I feel like he’s really coming around and that’s encouraging.”
On the pride that he has for helping lead Lions WR Jameson Williams: “I got a lot of pride with him. He’s one of those guys, I love that kid because he’s had to endure a lot and some of it is his own doing and he knows that and that’s what I appreciate is that he’s – it took him a minute to buy into what we were doing. He can be a little hardheaded and it’s also why you love him, it’s why I love him. But he’s learned along the way and he’s growing and honestly, you want to say what is the best thing he’s done, is that when he finally dropped the armor, and he endeared himself to his teammates. He became a part of the team and that took place last year, towards the end of last year you could start to feel it. And it’s only gotten better and better and better and every one of these that’s happened, he’s grown. He’s learning from it, and I love where he’s at. I really do, I’m proud of him.”
On how he helped Lions WR Jameson Williams drop the armor: “I don’t know if I did anything about that. You try to tell him what’s on your mind, you try to give him the reality of the situation, you tell him what you think about him, give him the good and the bad, be honest with him, and tell him where you really believe he can go and what you think he is. And then the rest is up to him. And we’ve got an unbelievable support staff. (Lions Wide Receivers Coach) Antwaan (Randle El) does a great job, (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben Johnson, (Lions Director of Player Engagement/Team Chaplin) Sean Pugh and (Lions Director of Player Engagement/Team Programs) Jessica (Gray), I mean there’s so many people involved. (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown, (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf, I mean we’ve – but I said this last year, he’s part of the herd now. He’s part of the stock and that’s the best thing ever.”
On how Lions QB Jared Goff has practiced this week and what the next step is for him to become a Super Bowl winning quarterback: “He’s been great this week. Practice has been – it’s rare when he doesn’t have a good practice, and they come up every once in a while, a day and then he’ll always bounce back if that happens the next day. But he’s been good, he’s been really good all week. You asked the next step, it’s the same step for every one of us. Same step for me as a coach, for the coordinators, for him as a quarterback, for (Lions WR Amon-Ra) St. Brown as a receiver, for (Lions LB) Alex Anzalone as a linebacker, just do your job. One more game here and then we’ll worry about the next game. That’s it. You just keep playing at a high level, get us in the right play, and understand that it’s not all about you. We don’t live and die by one player, one coach, no nothing. We work as a team, as a unit and trust the guy next to you.”
On if he envisioned the tandem of Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs and Lions RB David Montgomery being as powerful as is it: “Yes. David, I told you this from the get-go, we were fortunate to be in the division with him. He was a pain in the rear. I hated playing against him because I thought he was a hammer. I thought what we get, and we’ve got even better than that and I thought he was a good player. Just a tone setter, heavy, great feet, can cut, finishing power, can protect, receiver out of the back, so he can do it all. But he’s a hammer and then when we saw Gibbs, when (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I saw Gibbs, we were blown away. We saw the fit immediately so the thought of having – for us, it was always about a one-two punch. I mentioned my time as a player in New York, we had (former Giants RB) Ron Dayne, (former Giants RB) Tiki Barber, and then when I was in – (Broncos Head Coach) Sean Payton was the offensive coordinator, and then in New Orleans we had (former Saints RB) Mark Ingram and (Saints RB) Alvin Kamara, (former Bills RB) Latavius Murray, Alvin Kamara. So just having that one-two punch, and they’re a little bit different but they’re both productive was huge. So, yeah, I did. I did.”
