Detroit Lions: Making the hard decisions creates contenders

Hard decisions have been lacking with the Lions

For 17 seasons and 260 games, the second-most in Detroit Lions history, Don Muhlbach was the long-snapper for the Honolulu Blue and Silver. That streak ended this past week when Dan Campbell announced that Muhlbach had been released.

Perhaps the most shocking part of Muhlback being released was that it came on the veteran long-snappers 40th birthday.

Campbell, who was actually a teammate of Muhlbach’s here in Detroit over a decade ago was honest about the situation when he addressed the media. Here’s what he said according to The Detroit News.

"“There’s no way to sugarcoat that. I’m an a–hole. That’s the best way to put it and I hate it. There was no way around it, really. You can say there is, but ultimately that falls on me. It’s my fault. Don is a hell of a dude and it sucks, but it is what it is.”"

Now let’s be honest, while I’m sure that Lions fans respect the Mule’s 17 years of service at a high level that earned him a pair of Pro Bowl nods, but this is not a transaction on the level of trading Matthew Stafford.

However, it is a great example of making a hard decision.

When Dan Campbell was introduced as the Lions head coach, the fact that Muhlbach, Campbell’s former teammate, was still on the roster was brought up. Campbell’s response as he was taking a sip of water was a chuckle that he had to contain to keep from becoming a spit take.

Then with a smile, Campbell went on to extoll the virtues of the Mule. I’m pretty sure at that moment the thought of having to cut Muhlbach wasn’t really at the forefront of his brain.

Yet, here in training camp all these months later, Campbell was forced to make a decision. He had two long-snappers on the Lions roster, he needed to open up space with the signing of Rashod Berry and Jordan Ta’amu as well as the return of Nick Williams from the Covid-19 reserve list.

The result was that Campbell did what he had to; He removed emotion from the decision-making process and decided that Scott Daly, an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame back in 2017 who has knocked around the NFL, AAF, and even the XFL, had outperformed Muhlbach in camp and then made the hard decision to release the Mule.

As Campbell said, ‘it stinks’ but the willingness to make a hard decision and chart a new course has long been lacking in the Lions organization.