One glance at the Lions' roster reveals their biggest shortcoming: talent. The previous regime failed to find and develop the kind of playmakers who win games in the NFL. It will be on the next regime to fix that.
It will be on Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell to clean up the mess of Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia, to build a team that can start challenging for division titles the way the Rams did with Holmes and the Saints did with Campbell.
"It’s no secret what we want to do here," Campbell said Thursday. "If you’re talking about the standard of the division, you’re talking about the Green Bay Packers right now. Let’s call it what it is. Those guys are finding ways to win. They’ve been successful. It starts there because it’s in the division. How do we get to where they’re at? That’s where we want to get, right? We want to be competing for the division championship every year. If we’re not shooting for that, then what are we doing?
"Once you become a division winner, now you’re starting to talk about the next level. You can only take things one game at a time or one season at a time. I think what I’ve already stated is exactly how you get there."
You get there with good players. To attract and develop those players, Campbell believes you need the right culture, a strong culture, a culture of collaboration from the top of the organization to the bottom. And to foster that culture, the kind of culture that made the Saints one of the NFL's steadiest teams of the past decade, Campbell says you need "the right people."
"People that don’t have egos, that have real humility," he said. "They’re hard working. They’re people that want to do, want to say, want to be everything that you represent. And I think it all starts there. That’s what we built in New Orleans."
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Campbell says he feels the makings of something similar in Detroit, starting at the top with owner Sheila Ford Hamp. He said he and Holmes were in the building together until midnight on Wednesday, their first shared day on the job, breaking down players and discussing their vision for the team. He's confident the Lions will find the talent they need, because so many of the right people are already here.
"It may take a little bit. But I just bank on people, man. I put my faith in people more than anything else. Talent can be overrated, I’m sorry to say it. Certainly, every team, you’re gonna need some pieces. But it starts with the people. And if you have the right people, and they have certain skillsets and we use those to the best of their ability and we complement each other in every area, from the top to the bottom, I think you’re breeding success," Campbell said. "That’s how I view it."
Campbell's emphasis on people seems to fit with Holmes' method of evaluating players. The draft model he learned with the Rams placed an premium on intangibles, one intangible in particular: passion for football. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with more passion for football than Dan Campbell. Campbell said he and Holmes are already "tied at the hip."
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"We see the game very much the same way," Campbell said. "We see players very much the same way. Last night we were talking and we finished each other's sentences twice. One of them was about vision. More importantly, we're not in the business of just stacking players. Let's find a vision for this guy, because when you find a vision for a guy, now you know how to play him, how to put him in your system. He can be the most athletic guy in the world, but if you don't have a vision for him, what are you going to do with him?"
Hence Campbell's point: talent can be overrated. Important? Yes. But worthless in the wrong environment, wasted without the right culture. As much as Quinn failed in adding talent to the organization, so did Patricia -- and everyone below him -- fail in developing the talent on hand. It takes the right people, all operating with the same vision.
"Vision is a big word to me, man," Campbell said. "You’ve gotta have vision for a coaching staff, you’ve gotta have vision for your team, you’ve gotta have vision for the player. Because if you don’t you’re just kind of spinning your wheels, right? They’re just somebody that’s there."