It has been a couple of busy days for the Detroit Lions. Actually the process of finding and identifying a new general manager and head coach has been around 70 days. The Lions have hired Brad Holmes as general manager and is looking at former Lions tight end Dan Campbell to fill its head coaching vacancy.
The Detroit Lions are starting over again. The team hired Brad Holmes as general manager. Homes had been with the Los Angles Rams and worked as director of college scouting. Homes had been in the Rams organization since 2012.
What kind of players does Holmes like? He gave a peek into his philosophy in identifying players, “When you get to the NFL level, everybody has got ability, Everybody is talented. Everybody is big, strong, athletic, fast, agile. Everybody has that. The separation is the intangibles. So you have to find out what actually drives the player. What level of passion does he have? How much does football mean to him? How hard does he really work? Does he have a mental toughness when things go bad? Can he bounce back? Can he persevere? I used to be so enamored with the physical traits portion of it, at this stage now it’s like, man, if this guy doesn’t have the intangibles or the character, he’s not going to make it.”
The Detroit Lions have reportedly zeroed in on former Lions tight end and current New Orleans Saints tight end and assistant head coach Dan Campbell. Campbell played for the Lions from 2006-2008. Both the NFL Network and Sports Illustrated are reporting the Lions are locked onto Campbell for the head coaching job.
What is Campbell’s coaching philosophy? This is what he said about that matter, “How you play the game, offensively and defensively, it was like identical, It’s about running the football. Your quarterback makes smart decisions. You don’t win or lose with the quarterback. Your defense is balls-to-the-wall, all-out. Those are the games you’re winning because of your defense and you’ve got time of possession with the run game. And then when you throw it, they’re explosive passes.”
So the Detroit Lions are making moves and on paper, they look solid. Not sexy. But sexy does not win football games. Neither does paper.
