Dan Campbell told it like it is during his introductory press conference as Lions head coach: Detroit needs more talent on defense.
"Let’s call a spade a spade," he said. "There’s probably more pieces offensively than defensively that super fire me up."
Well, yeah. Detroit's defense just gave up the most points and the most yards in franchise history. At the same time, that defense was the brainchild of Matt Patricia, the coach whose scheme often resulted in 10 players on the field.
When scouting the Lions ahead of their Week 4 matchup with the Saints this season -- a game in which New Orleans would put up 35 points and almost 400 yards -- Campbell said the defensive players looked 'disheveled' and unsure of their assignments.
And he said "that's the last thing" that will happen moving forward.
"I feel like they were still trying to mesh that scheme they had with the personnel they had," Campbell told the Stoney & Jansen Show on Friday. "Let me say this, it almost looked like they were trying to figure out, what world are we in right now? Are we trying to play this four-down up the field? Are we trying to 2-gap? Am I trying to set an edge? Am I squeezing it? Where’s the safety fit in?
"I just felt like it was a little disheveled, that’s all. Look, I’m not trying to blame the coaching staff, but that’s not on the players all the time, either. Certainly when you don’t know what you're doing all the time or you’re not 100 percent sure, you’re not going to play to the talent level that you have.
"And I would tell you this: that’s the last thing that we’re going to do here. Our players are going to know what to do so we get 100 percent of their talent. We will pull it out of them, because they know exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and they’re gonna pull the trigger and go."
Both Campbell and new general manager Brad Holmes have suggested Detroit's defense has more talent than meets the eye. Holmes has referenced 'building blocks' already in place. Campbell said Friday there were multiple players who jumped out on film, starting with a former first-round pick and pending free agent who hasn't come close to meeting expectations: Jarrad Davis.
"There were pieces on that defense where you were like, man, if we don’t take care of these guys we’re going to have some issues," Campbell said. "There were a couple guys -- more than a couple -- that are like, alright, how are we gonna handle this guy? I mean, look, Davis. One of the first things I circled was, man, if we’re running inside zone or we’re running our 42 ace, our lead draw, and you’re leading on No. 40, you better freaking be ready for him to drop his hat and hit you right under the chin. Like, he will literally split your chin open and knock your hat off.
"So there’s these little things that you circle in there, just on guys that they had. I think that they were still working through the scheme. I know they were more the Okie style, the 3-4, and they’re not long, big guys, they don’t have naturally, ya know -- so I think sometimes that hurts a little bit."
After identifying a plan at the quarterback position, the biggest task for Campbell and Holmes is fixing Detroit's defense. To that end, Campbell has already hired former Saints secondary coach Aaron Glenn as his defensive coordinator. There will certainly be new faces on that side of the ball next season. Probably lots of them.
But a competent coaching staff might find there's more talent in place than last year's performance would suggest.