Don't get him wrong. Dan Campbell isn't pleased with the Lions' record this season. He is pleased with the progress they've made as a team. He likes the 'mindset' they've established and what it means for their future. The Lions will finish with a worse record this year than in any year under Matt Patricia, but the ground feels much more stable under Campbell. Now they just need more talent.
"Everybody in this building is frustrated, players, coaches, management, the owner," Campbell said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "Nobody likes this, but at the end of the day with where we’re at, we knew we needed to change the mindset and I feel like this is a group of guys that I don’t think will ever forget this team. And I mean that in a positive way because the guys that are on this team right now that will be back in the future, this will be our calling card. This will be what defines us, the way we fought through this year and made the most of it and found a way to compete in these games and went toe to toe with a lot of good football teams who will be in the playoffs and just kept banging away."
In his knee-cap biting introduction, Campbell vowed that the Lions would play hard. They have. Despite a thin roster that's been ravaged by injuries, Detroit has hung tough with good teams for most of the season. Silver linings don't last forever, and the bar for success will be raised in the future. But if it was establishing a collectively competitive attitude in 2021 -- a culture, if you will -- you could argue this season was a success.
Jared Goff came to a losing team from a winning team. Asked where he's seen the most improvement in the Lions from the moment he arrived last offseason, Goff said Tuesday on the Karsch and Anderson Show, "I think the main area is the culture and bringing in the right guys that do the right things and that want to be here and getting the guys that don’t want to be here out."
Goff said "it's been a process" that Campbell and GM Brad Holmes "know a lot more about than I do." But he said he's seen "the culture turn" and feels the Lions "under the surface building something that hopefully can be special." Upgrading the roster with more of the 'right guys' this offseason will be crucial, especially with two first-round picks in the draft.
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"You could see it pretty early on in the season when things weren't going our way and there was no quit, no (lack of) fight," said Goff. "And as the season went on and there were some injuries, you got some backups in there and those guys are playing hard and don’t have any quit. Obviously we were eliminated from the playoffs pretty early on and just seeing guys continue to compete and come out and win the game against Minnesota, be competitive in a lot of these games recently and then win the game against Arizona and then just seeing the trajectory kind of switch midseason, I believe a lot of that is attributed to Dan and the culture that he’s building here."
The Lions overhauled their roster from a year ago, starting under center. The entire receiving corps was replaced. So was the entire linebackers corps, once Jamie Collins was released in September. The secondary was rebuilt with youth. So was the defensive line. Barring injuries, the offensive line was the one constant, and it flourished with the addition of seventh overall pick Penei Sewell. In terms of yards per carry, the Lions have a top-10 rushing attack for the first time in nearly 20 years -- and the makings of an offensive identity.
The Lions still need better players, lots of them. There's no replacement for talent in the NFL, no matter how much we talk about culture. But Campbell said the players that are here have embraced "the message that everything that we’re built on is that it doesn’t matter what the score is, what your record is, what it looks like, man, you just gotta keep fighting and give yourself a chance because you never know. One play may change the whole game. And they’ve done that, man.
"It’s a hard, gritty group. They show up every day to work. There’s no sulking, no pouting, no finger-pointing. And as a coach, you appreciate the hell out of that."