LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET

LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL QUOTE SHEET

June 4, 2024
Opening Statement: “I feel like I needed to start with, I really need to start with Larry Allen. Larry was a teammate of mine for three years at Dallas. I’m like everybody – thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Anybody that was around Larry will tell you what an unbelievable dude he was, what an unbelievable human being, what an unbelievable teammate. Then his play on the field speaks for itself. He was a rare, rare player. I just can’t believe it. Anyway, I’m really thinking about his family. What an outstanding human being L.A. was. I just wanted to start with that. As it pertains to this week, the vet minicamp, we’re really kind of on the back end of this now. I really want to get three really good days with the veterans here. Then after that, continue to develop the young players. So, this will kind of be it for the vets. We’ll have a red zone day, but really just continue now with our situational football, some of the unscripted stuff. First, second, third, red zone, backed up, some the special teams will be involved a little bit, so just kind of putting it all together here for the last three. We’ve gotten better every week, so we just need to take another step here in the spring. It’s been good for us.”
On why he schedules vet minicamp this week instead of the following week: “To me the thought is, I want to get nine good practices with the vets. I would rather – man they’ve been here working from day one, and let’s get this in. We’ve got this really, call it six, seven-week period, excuse me eight-week period here. To me, they come in, they put the work in, they’ve been here, then we’re good. We can get that work done in those eight weeks and so they don’t need to be here week nine. Now, we can focus on the young guys for one more week without the vets being around. Sometimes you’ll get some questions you wouldn’t have gotten with them, you get a little extra work, and so I just think it’s good for us.”
On if he has three or four practices next week: “Well we have four on the docket, but we’re not going to use all of those.”
On if there is a reason that he is not using the fourth practice next week: “I think that we’ll do an offensive, defensive, a special teams on Tuesday, and then we’re just going to have them work with (Lions Director of Sports Performance) Mike Clark and (Lions Head Strength & Conditioning Josh) Schuler and those guys in the weight room. So, a lot of it is, you can’t do full team. You’re going to cut most of the vets loose then we don’t have enough. But we’ll still get good work, fundamentals, individual, you know it’s still a chance to develop.”
On what his philosophy is for using tight ends and how important that position is to this team: “The more versatile your tight ends are, mentally, but physically. They have to be able to do both. You have to have flexibility physically to line up, be able to block a point, come back on the back side. You have to be able to one-on-one pass a defensive end, you’re going to have to handle the route tree. The more you have flexibility in those positions, between the mental and physically, I just feel like it opens up your offense. It allows you to do so much more than without. That’s the beauty of tight ends, because of the job description. If they can do it, and be good at it, the pass game, the pass protection game, and the run game, to me it gives you so many options it’s hard for a defense to plan for you. And that’s why. That’s why it’s important.”
On what he saw in Lions S Brandon Joseph in his first-year development and what he has to do to earn a roster spot: “Every year, we get to the end of the year and we look at these guys. We say, ‘Alright, who developed, who do we need to keep working with, who’s got room to grown?’ B-Jo is one of those guys who noticeably improved last year. He didn’t get a chance to play in the season necessarily, we had him up for – but to play defensive reps, he’s kind of one of those – boy you wish you could’ve gotten him up though. There was a comfort level by the end of the year like, ‘Man this guy we think could probably go in there and hold his own a little bit.’ So that’s a good sign. There has been noticeable growth from him last year. I would tell you even in this spring he’s improved. He’s a young guy that we like a lot. He puts the work in. He’s smart, he’s crafty. In this defense, if you can understand conceptually what an offense is doing and understand the freedom you have – it doesn’t mean you go rouge, but the freedom you have at the safety position. So, if you’re a crafty, smart guy and you have instincts, you can thrive in the safety position in our defense. You really see him coming along here. There again, we’re not in pads, this is early, but there is growth, we like where he’s at right now.”
On if Lions S Brandon Joseph’s 10 interceptions in college speaks to his intelligence: “Yeah, I think it does. I think it’s intelligence but it’s instincts too. He’s got a knack for, he can kind of play off the quarterback here, he can get a feel for where his help’s at, manipulate the quarterback a little bit. He certainly has that, and now it’s just growth within our system.”
On what Lions Director of Sports Science Jill Costanza does for this team: “She’s got about a thousand hats, let me start there. I can’t give you one thing, I can give you multiple. Not only does she work in sports science, she’s the one who’s giving us all the data post-practice. What we can handle, what we can’t, where we’re at. But also, she works in the weight room. She’s down there when we’re doing cleans, we’re doing warm up, we’re doing dynamics, we’re doing squats, she’s coaching. Those are just a couple of things that she helps us with. She’s versatile. She’s a versatile coach. When you’re able to be a legit strength coach but also work in the sprots science department for us. That was one of (Lions Director of Sports Performance) Mike Clark’s, like visions of her when we were able to – we’re fortunate to have her was just that. Her versatility was going to be big for us. She’s an asset.”
On if Lions CB Amik Robertson’s ability to play anywhere is what attracted the coaching staff to him: “I would say that was part of it. The first thing was his competitiveness. You just said, ‘I don’t care if he’s inside or outside, the guy competes.’ He is a feisty, competitive, challenging corner who has versatility to play in and out. That’s always going to appeal to us. The more flexibility you have in and out is always going to – because you can do more jobs right? It’s easier to get you into the game. But the first thing that pops off the tape is how much he challenges and competes. There was no denying that, so we knew he would fit right in here with us.”
On if Lions OL Giovanni Manu is swimming playing such a technical position: “Yes, he’s swimming. He is swimming. But we expected him to be swimming. We fully expected this to get worse before it ever gets better. He’s trying to find his way. We’re back to the basics of how you get into a stance properly, where your weight goes, when you get out of a stance, where your help is, certainly the scheme, the MIKE, working with others, working with the tight end in this combination, working with the guard, pass and twist – he’s just in the infant stages of here we go. We’re literally working from the ground up, and we knew it was going to be that way. Here’s what we know. The guy has got it in his body, and he’s willing to work. It’ll always be pivotal that we keep his confidence at such a level where he just – ‘Just come back to work, just keep putting in the work, just work on this thing today and get a little bit better today at this.’ I think that’s going to be the trick, and it always is with the developmental-type guy, is that they don’t lose confidence and they begin to question themselves and, ‘I don’t know if I can really do this,’ so we just keep working with him. I anticipate that we’re going to have a guy that when we come into camp, it’s going to take a dip. Then we’re going to start seeing signs of life here. Now when? I don’t know. But it’ll come. You have to break them down then build them back up, and that’s what (Lions Offensive Line Coach) Hank (Fraley)’s doing right now.”
On if he expects Lions OL Giovanni Manu to be ready this year or if this will be a redshirt year for him: “I would love to say, ‘Hey we’re going to get him this year by the middle of the season,’ and that would be great, and that’s always going to be the goal is, how fast can we get one of these guys to where they’re contributing and helping us. But we also knew what we were acquiring. We’re prepared to take this as it comes. Whenever he’s ready, he’s ready, and that’s OK. If that doesn’t mean it’s this year and it’s next year, great. Certainly, we’re trying to push to get him ready now. That’ll always be the goal with these guys.”
On if he feels like they are wide open in figuring out the best way to deploy everyone in the secondary: “Yes. Yes, yes, yes. It’s a great place to be in. It’s a great place to be in. We have so many options right now, so much competitiveness. (Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn) AG and I were talking about it again, (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I are talking about it every evening. The talent level, the competitiveness, the versatility. Honestly, we have no idea who our starting lineup’s going to be right now and it’s exciting. It’s so good. Theres no telling who’s going to be outside corners, who’s going to be our nickel, who’s going to be our safeties. This thing is wide open across the board. It’s going to be great to let these guys compete and just go after it and see who goes and is going to be the most reliable guys for us, most dependable. It’s exciting.”
On what he has seen in Lions DL Mathieu Betts: “I would tell you there’s – there again, we’re in pajamas, but there’s more versatility to this guy than I think I even realized. There’s a couple things we’re doing in coverage with him that wasn’t his deal. He just got after the quarterback, period. We’re asking him to do some things kind of at the SAM linebacker position and base to where, yeah, he’s a rush, but he’s also dropping in coverage, he’s matching a little bit. I’ll tell you what, he’s got some pretty good hips for a big man, and he can run. He can run and he’s smart. So, there’s some versatility there. And special teams, yes sir.”
On where Lions WR Antoine Green has shown his growth that gives him confidence: “I think that’s another one of those, like you asked about (Lions S Brandon Joseph) B-Jo. I would say AG was another guy that by the end of the year, we felt improvement. There was a noticeable difference from the time he walked in here to the end of the season, just what he was doing on scout teams for us. He played a little bit at the end of year, but those targets were going other places. But we saw significant growth. We saw speed. We saw speed on the releases. He’s a smart football player, knew the offense. Really having high hopes came in early this camp. He had a little bit of an injury last week, so we didn’t get to really see him. He’ll be back up doing a little bit of individual and stuff, so it’s hard to say. That progress is on hold because we weren’t able to get him out there last week. But certainly, we like the player and there’s enough – let’s see what happens in camp. He’s another guy, let him go compete.”
On if he is looking for guys to go up on a trajectory of engagement and energy at this point in the offseason: “That’s hard to say, the energy level – you have to be careful right, because you turn it up too much, then you can’t be – none of this can be live as we know. That’s what spring – so you have to be careful. That’s the hard thing, you don’t want to coach bad habits into them. You’re constantly telling them to back off, slow down, and that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do around here so we have to be careful with that. But I do think that the knowledge, the handling the pressure of the situation that we’re in, the mental side of it, the psychological side of it, I think is very important. And that’s where you get the most out of all of this is really from that right now.”