Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell put a cap on the team\u2019s 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\u2019s next, and gave himself a very harsh grade for how he handled the year.<\/p>\n
Here are my five biggest takeaways from Campbell\u2019s end-of-season press conference.<\/p>\n
No coaching decisions have been made\u2026 yet<\/p>\n
Dan Campbell has been hinting at making some changes this offseason\u2014not necessarily on the coaching staff\u2014but it certainly doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I\u2019ve got to figure out is the staff. I need to make sure that\u2014where do we go from here?\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI just need to either\u2014I need to make sure that I feel good about where the guys are at, the positions they\u2019re in. Or do we tweak a couple of things, move a couple of guys? Do we stay pat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Campbell stood up for Kelvin Sheppard, noting that he feels like the first-time defensive coordinator did a \u201cdamn good job,\u201d while also noting he hadn\u2019t made any decisions on his\u2014or anyone\u2019s\u2014 future yet.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s currently leaning in that decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m open to anything. I don\u2019t know exactly where I\u2019m at with that yet,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI mean, I guess one of the good things if I did do that, you don\u2019t have to worry about somebody else leaving. You don\u2019t have to worry about your play-caller leaving. So, that would be one of the perks of it. But listen, I\u2019m going to think through all of that, and I think I really want to do what I feel is best for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting back to \u201cthe ground level\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the more mysteriously intriguing parts of Campbell\u2019s press conference was his desire to have the team operating more like they did a few years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThis is going to be a good training camp for us. We\u2019re going to go back and really sharpen the sword a little bit. And I know that\u2019s a ways off, but I think that\u2019s the big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n