The longer Dan Campbell spoke, the clearer it became. Dishing out game balls in the middle of the Lions' locker room after their defense beat up the Bucs, his neck veins bulging, Campbell painted the picture of a player who's been "on the come for a while now, man, playing really good football, and just versatile, man."
"To have this guy back," said Campbell, "it's been big."
Campbell rattled off the player's stats on Monday Night Football, do-it-all production that included a sack, a pass defended and a pile of tackles, and eventually flipped a ball to Derrick Barnes, who strode to the center of the circle, beamed at his teammates, took a deep breath like he was inhaling the joy, and said, "It feels so good to be back, man."
Campbell and the Lions have always believed in Barnes. They believed in him before they even drafted him, from the moment Campbell asked Barnes at the 2021 combine if he considered opting out of his Covid-shortened senior season at Purdue to train for the draft like so many other NFL prospects that year and Barnes looked back at Campbell and said, "Opt out? I’m a leader and a captain. Why would I opt out?"
"Like, 'Why would you even ask me that?'" Campbell recalled. "It was so good. Just (spoke) volumes about who the kid is. He’s all about team. He just wants to be there for his teammates, wants to be held accountable, wants to hold those near to him accountable."
They believed in him before those around Barnes even believed in the Lions. When the Lions called his phone before calling his name in the fourth round of the draft, Barnes saw the 3-1-3 number pop up on his screen like a portent of 3 wins and 13 losses in his rookie season and "family members were like, 'Aw man, they ain't been good since before — since before I was born,'" Barnes said this week on Good Morning Football.
"And I’m like, 'I don’t need to hear none of that. I’m ready to go play in the NFL,'" he said.
They believed in him when Barnes struggled to find his footing his first two seasons and knew that "I had to pick my sh*t up." They believed in him even after drafting fellow linebacker Jack Campbell in the first round as Barnes started to fret his future in Detroit. They believed in him perhaps more than ever early last season when Barnes was putting it all together in the NFL, when "I was finally becoming the player I know I could be, a guy that coaches can lean on and look at as a playmaker, which I know I am."
And then he ripped up his knee and had his season ripped away. "So, man," said Barnes, "I was heartbroke."
They believed in him when Barnes was still rehabbing as he prepared for free agency, several months removed from his last game. Newly-named defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, Barnes' former linebackers coach, believed in Barnes so much that he told Brad Holmes, "That’s a player I have to have. ... This kid can play four, five spots on the football field and do it at a high level." Holmes believed in both of them so much that he signed Barnes to a three-year, $24 million extension to keep him off the market.
"When somebody has that much faith and confidence in you, you have to prove those people right," said Barnes, still moved seven months later. "Man, it just makes you want to fight for these guys and gets you to buy in even more, to go out there and play with a purpose."
Barnes has many purposes in Detroit's defense. He can play all three linebacker spots, defensive end and even a version of nickel. On back-to-back plays early in the second half against the Bucs, Barnes punched the ball out of the hands of running back Rachaad White only for the refs to blow the play dead prematurely for forward progress, then rushed off the left edge on the next snap, pulled back when he saw Baker Mayfield setting up a screen and sprung into the air to knock down Mayfield's pass.
The punch-out would have been the first forced fumble of Barnes' career. He smiled later and said his coaches and teammates were proud all the same, "so it ain't count in the books, but it counted in my heart." Similarly, Barnes entered this season with four career sacks. He's one away from matching that in year five. His third came late in the first half Monday night and forced the Bucs to punt.
Asked after the Lions' 24-9 win about his sack, where he crushed the pocket with Alim McNeill and Aidan Hutchinson before getting home to Mayfield, Barnes deflected credit to the scheme drawn up by Sheppard and the work done by Al-Quadin Muhammad as the quarterback spy. Muhammad dropped into one of Mayfield's passing lanes over the middle, then crashed the pocket and forced Mayfield back inside before he could escape.
"It was really Muhammad who helped that play," said Barnes. "We had a little spy. He wrapped around, Baker saw him and stepped up right into me."
This is Derrick Barnes, always thinking about the people around him. After accepting his game ball from Campbell, Barnes held it high in the air and said, "This really goes to Shep, man. He done put us in great position to go out and make plays. I gotta give this to my defensive coordinator." And these are Dan Campbell's Lions: after Barnes tossed the ball to Sheppard as everyone in the room applauded, Sheppard gave a brief speech pushing the credit back onto the players -- "I love the fu*k outta y'all, man," he said -- then flipped the ball back to its rightful owner and said, "D-Barnes, this is yours."
The room once again erupted.
Campbell's other game ball on defense went to Jack Campbell. A couple weeks prior, he gave one to Alex Anzalone after Detroit's win in Cincinnati. The Lions are a bit of a throwback in that their three linebackers hardly ever come off the field. Their former linebacker at defensive coordinator has something to do with this; so does the fact that all three of them can run, hit and cover. It might not be long before Sheppard is a head coach himself.
Barnes believed in the Lions as soon as he stepped foot in the facility four years ago. The first time he listened to Campbell address the team, "I'm like, man, I would run through a brick wall for this man and jump off a bridge for this man." And in his first season in the linebackers room, "we always knew that Shep had what it takes to be a defensive coordinator, better yet to be a head coach," said Barnes, "just his passion about the game." To say Detroit's coaches have an open-door policy with their players almost sounds too stiff, as if it's an obligation. The way they see it, why would their doors be closed?
"No offense to any other coaches, but Dan is probably the best coach I ever had, like, head-coaching wise," said Barnes. "And he’s just like Shep: you can go talk to these guys about anything, any problems you have. That’s what I respect about them the most. When you respect a coach and the coach respects you, I mean, it’s a beautiful thing that I can walk up to his office anytime, ‘Hey, what’s going on DB, what’s on your mind?’ And I can express my feelings to him. It’s amazing. With Dan, I don’t think there’s any other guy like him, any other coach like him. Man, just the joy in his heart. Even when we lose, it’s like, he doesn’t skip a beat. He is ready to go, day in and day out, week in and week out. And you see, that's why we play the way we play. When you hear him talk, it’s just like, I’m bought in.
"I’m just so blessed and honored to be part of this organization under Dan Campbell. Man, hopefully I get to spend the rest of my career here, because I don’t think there’s any place like Detroit."
The Lions would put Barnes, Anzalone and Jack Campbell up against anybody. They're the only team in the NFL with three linebackers who rank in the top 30 at their position in snaps this season; no other team even has three in the top 60. Anzalone and Jack Campbell were staples in Detroit's defense from almost the moment they showed up. It took Barnes time, which the Lions expected.
"He’ll have a little bit of growing pains, but we all think this kid can develop into something special," Campbell said after they drafted him. "His character just reeks of success, and those are the dudes we’re looking for."
It pained Barnes, and his coaches, to see his hot start last season go up in smoke. Barnes admits that it tested his faith, that it could go so wrong just when he started doing "everything right." But he quickly resolved "to finish what I started," he said this week on the Up & Adams Show. "And I think there’s plenty more to come. I think people are seeing just a small piece of what I’m capable of now. I think there’s a lot more in the tank."
Barnes arrived in Detroit at the age of 21. At times over his first two seasons, his belief in himself wavered. He admitted that entering year three, "I felt like I was on a short leash for my time here." The Lions never felt that way about him. Now 26, Barnes is doing what he set out to do, by proving those people right.
"I can’t thank the Lions organization enough for believing in me," he said, "and allowing me to showcase my talent."