Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell put a cap on the team’s 2026 season on Monday afternoon with a relatively brief press conference. In an 11-minute session, Campbell expressed his frustrations about what went wrong this year, talked about some vague plans for what’s next, and gave himself a very harsh grade for how he handled the year.

Here are my five biggest takeaways from Campbell’s end-of-season press conference.

No coaching decisions have been made… yet

Dan Campbell has been hinting at making some changes this offseason—not necessarily on the coaching staff—but it certainly doesn’t take much reading between the lines to deduce that could be on the table. During his Monday presser, Campbell said that it will be the first thing he assesses later this week.

“The first thing I’ve got to figure out is the staff. I need to make sure that—where do we go from here?” Campbell said. “I just need to either—I need to make sure that I feel good about where the guys are at, the positions they’re in. Or do we tweak a couple of things, move a couple of guys? Do we stay pat?”

Last week, Campbell stood up for Kelvin Sheppard, noting that he feels like the first-time defensive coordinator did a “damn good job,” while also noting he hadn’t made any decisions on his—or anyone’s— future yet.

Part of the staffing decisions Campbell will have to make is whether he will continue to call plays for the offense moving forward. The Lions coach did not provide much clarity on where he’s currently leaning in that decision.

“I’m open to anything. I don’t know exactly where I’m at with that yet,” Campbell said. “I mean, I guess one of the good things if I did do that, you don’t have to worry about somebody else leaving. You don’t have to worry about your play-caller leaving. So, that would be one of the perks of it. But listen, I’m going to think through all of that, and I think I really want to do what I feel is best for the team.”

Getting back to “the ground level”

One of the more mysteriously intriguing parts of Campbell’s press conference was his desire to have the team operating more like they did a few years ago.

“I want to get back to some of the things we were doing a couple of years ago. And what I mean by that is just getting back to a little bit of what we did at the ground level, just a little bit of the way we train, the way we go about things,” Campbell said. “This is going to be a good training camp for us. We’re going to go back and really sharpen the sword a little bit. And I know that’s a ways off, but I think that’s the big thing.”

When pushed about what the Lions may have gotten away from this year, Campbell opted not to get into details about what he was talking to, but it certainly seems like he’s implying ramping things up a little more next year. In the past, Campbell has talked frequently about avoiding complacency, but—unless I’m reading him wrong—it sounds like it may have crept in a little this year.

Learning from Frank Ragnow’s retirement

This season, it’s clear the Lions missed All-Pro center Frank Ragnow after his sudden retirement. And while it’s still not entirely clear how much clarity the Lions had on Ragnow’s situation during free agency and the draft, Campbell admitted they will take some lessons from that situation as it pertains to the uncertain futures of Taylor Decker, Graham Glasgow, and Dan Skipper—all of whom have at least mentioned the possibility of retirement this year.

In the next day or two, Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes intend on speaking with Decker—as they do with all of their players—but they know it’ll take some time before the Lions’ left tackle can come to a decision.

“Whatever goes down there from his perspective, he’s going to need some time. I mean, you just do when you’ve played as long as he has and had the career he’s had. You’re going to need a little bit,” Campbell said. “But absolutely, we learned lessons.”

Campbell is content with training staff

It was another year of injuries for the Detroit Lions, but it’s fair to say that from Dan Campbell’s point of view, they were more unlucky than unprepared. In his opinion, an increase in soft-tissue injuries would be more of a cause for alarm.

“That’s where I always start because if you’ve got a major soft tissue issue, then it’s more than just the player, in my opinion,” Campbell said.

That wasn’t a particularly big problem with the Lions this year. Campbell actually said they’ve “been great” in that department. Instead, things like Achilles tears or broken bones—freak accidents—were the biggest issues for the team this year.

He believes they’ve done just about everything they can, from slowing down the pace of practice to speeding it up, and it just hasn’t gone their way. And when it comes to their medical staff, Campbell threw his full support behind the crew.

“I like our training staff. I think they do a hell of a job, I really do. It’s just it was a tough year in some areas,” Campbell said.

Coaching grade: Freakin’ F

People thought I was hard on the coaching staff in my Week 18 report card, but no one is harder on himself than Dan Campbell. When asked how he would assess his own performance this past season, he didn’t hold back.

“Not good enough. We didn’t get in. I mean, we underachieved. So, not good. I’m going to give myself a freaking F,” Campbell said.

Obviously, that’s a little dramatic, but for him, it’s clear this was more of a pass/fail grade. Expectations were to compete for a Super Bowl, and they didn’t make the playoffs. For him, there is no other grade than F, and I wouldn’t expect anything other than this full accountability from Campbell.