Like any good GM, Brad Holmes has avoided slapping a timeline on the Lions' rebuild from the moment he arrived. Dan Campbell couldn't resist after the Lions slapped the Bears Sunday at Ford Field to set up a potential win-and-in game in the season finale at Lambeau Field.
For Campbell and Holmes, who arrived in 2021, it was always about 2023.
"Look, you want to win a division championship as soon as you’re on the spot. There’s no doubt about that," Campbell said. "But you also have a vision of where you think it needs to go, and I know this: we need to be competing for a division championship next year. I mean, that’s the goal. That’s what Brad and I set out to do."
The Lions haven't won a division title in more than 30 years. They haven't made the playoffs in seven years, a drought that could end in Week 18 if they beat the Packers and the Seahawks lose to the Rams. They intend to end the former drought next year, the first step toward establishing themselves as annual contenders in the NFC. Left tackle Taylor Decker, the Lions' longest-tenured player, said the standard moving forward "should be" division titles and playoff berths.
"The key for us will be consistency," he said. "We’ve had some success here recently, but it’s going to be a question of can we sustain that, not just over maybe an eight-game stretch but over seasons and years. That’s what this organization is building this team for, to have sustained success, but it's ultimately up to us to go out there and do it."
At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, every conference champion in the last decade won its division and hosted at least one playoff game. That's the most reliable path to the Super Bowl. Starting next season, the Lions want to start controlling the NFC North.
"You do that and then you’re able to get a home game, get you a couple of home games and now everything runs through Ford Field, it runs through Detroit, man, and you like your odds a little better," Campbell said. "There again, we’re still in this moment right now. We’ve got to go to Green Bay, so I don’t want to get too far ahead, but that was always the vision, man. And if we don’t think like that, then we’ll never get there. I know that.”
Campbell knows this vision well. The Saints won four straight division titles and hosted six playoff games during his time as assistant head coach before he came to Detroit. So does Holmes: the Rams won two division titles and reached the Super Bowl in the final four seasons of his tenure as director of college scouting. The Lions have rallied from 1-6 this season with a number of big wins down the stretch to make the last game of the season count.
"This is what you want (the players) to taste," Campbell said. "They need to feel this. They need to understand what this is, because this has to become the norm. And then it becomes, you’re playing for the division, you’re playing for your seeding. That’s coming. But right now, to get a taste of all this and be in the hunt, I think it's huge for our guys.”
For Campbell, there was one downside to Sunday's thumping of the Bears: it was the Lions' last home game of the season. As much as he's focused on the present, he couldn't help but look ahead.
"We’re going to have a few more home games here down the road in January," he said.
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