Dan Campbell is Detroit's star after coaching the Lions to the divisional round of the playoffs, but he remembers when his ugly start had some people doubting him. And that gives him a new appreciation for the people who have supported his work.
Campbell said Friday that in 2021, when Jared Goff was a first-year coach, replaced Matthew Stafford as the Lions' starting quarterback in his first year, and Brad Holmes was a first-year general manager, a lot of people said “I'm not a very good one.” Coach and he’s not a very good quarterback and Brad’s not a very good talent evaluator.”
Although it took the Lions until Campbell's 12th game as head coach to win their first game, he said he learned a lot about Goff and some of the other starters because they never stopped believing in what he was trying to build.
“You can't listen to it all, but I just know that when all that stuff came to the surface, it was as bad as it could be, and he never let it faze him,” Campbell said of Goff . “That's impressive. It's just when everything is going well, you're winning games, the guys love you and want to be a part of it. When you're 0-10-1, you learn about people, you learn about players and Coaches, people in the organization. Therefore, you have the best idea of what these people are and how they are created, what drives them and what they are willing to do for those around them. That's a much better perspective than if everything is going well and you have 12 wins. I know exactly what [Goff] That is, when things are at their worst, and I’ll take this guy any day.”
Campbell had a 4-19-1 record in his first 24 games as the Lions' head coach and has gone 21-7 since then. It was a remarkable turnaround, and he appreciates the people in the building who believed in it.