
No, Dan Campbell wasn't dropping hints when he jumped up and down at his press conference Monday after being asked if a trade could be imminent for the Lions. "Could be," Campbell said, before smirking, hopping and repeating himself when he was asked the question again.
"Dave (Birkett) asked me a question, I answered it and then he wouldn’t take that answer, so I just jumped up and down with the same answer, Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "That’s literally all that was."
Told that people have spent hours trying to decode his response, Campbell said, "You guys are wasting energy."
So, will the Lions make a move before the Nov. 5 trade deadline?
"Look, honestly, we’re still looking into it," Campbell said. "It’s not like this has stopped. I mean, don’t forget, some of these really good players, or players that you think can help, if they’re good, most teams won’t let them go. So we’re working through all of that, Brad (Holmes) is doing a great job and this continues.
"And look, maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t. I honestly don’t know, I feel like it changes every day. We’ll just take it as it comes, and like I say, this is the squad, and this is the squad we’re going to get ready to play every week."
The Lions have a clear need for an edge rusher after losing Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes to long-term injuries. The defense has struggled to get after the quarterback since Hutchinson fractured his tibia and fibula in Week 6 against the Cowboys, with the defensive line producing just one sack in the last two games.
Asked Monday -- before his viral moment -- whether that increases the Lions' urgency to make a move by next Tuesday, Campbell said, “No, we know when the deadline is."
"I’m not concerned, there’s other ways of creating pressure," he said. "Would you like a little more? Yeah, we’d like a little bit more. ... We’re aware and we’re still looking at it, but no, I wouldn’t say we’re in panic mode.”
On Tuesday, Campbell said he was encouraged by what the Lions got out of defensive ends James Houston, Al-Quadin Muhammad and Isaiah Thomas in the team's rout of the Titans last week. He had particularly high praise for Muhammad, an eight-year vet who joined the Lions earlier this month.
"I thought Muhammad did exactly what we thought he would do and what we wanted him to do: Man, bring your lunchpail and go to work. Be disruptive, play violent, play physical, finish on the plays," Campbell said. "I thought he did that, so that was good. And he’s experienced, he’s played in this league, so he’s got some awareness about him at that position."
Campbell added that Houston "was better this game" and Thomas, who's also new to the team this month, "did a few things, too. He’s just young, he’s a little bit raw and he hasn’t played a lot, so this is a chance to get him in there and get him some work, too. But there’s going to be growing pains when you’re a guy who hasn’t played in this league very much."
"Look, I was encouraged by all of them and I did think they all got a little bit better or did things we thought they would do or hoped they would do," said Campbell. "That’s always going to give me hope, on top of the fact that we still have the guys that we do in the backend."
Campbell said Monday that the Lions will take "everything into consideration" ahead of the trade deadline, including the fact that their opponents will be better in the playoffs than the last-place Titans, but noted that injuries are rampant across the NFL, "so every team's got warts."
"Doesn’t matter how good you are, doesn’t matter what your record is, and it’s about, how do you cover those up, how do you help, how do you do the best that you can do to cover up some of your deficiencies?" Campbell said. "That’s the name of the game. We talk about Hutch, we’re not going to be able to replace Hutch, but there’s other things that we can do. And you know what? You put a bigger burden on your backend, and we’ve done that, and they’ve risen to the challenge."
"But look," Campbell added, "We’ve got a week here, we’ll keep looking and see if something fits.”