Dan Campbell hinted he will be more involved with the Lions offense after the bye week, but would it make any difference?
Entering their Week 8 bye, the Detroit Lions have one of the worst offenses in the NFL across the board. Head coach Dan Campbell has already hinted at changes as the team goes into a Week 9 bye, and the status of offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn has too easily been called into question.
During his regular Tuesday appearance with the “Stoney and Jansen Show” on 97.1 The Ticket, Campbell added to his previous comments about the offense.
“I need to be a little more just involved in helping with it,” Campbell said. “I think I’m trying to be so involved with everything that maybe I need to be a little more involved with offense.”
As the head coach, Campbell has to pay attention to everything on game days. Some head coaches call plays for the side of the ball they came up on as a coordinator, while others are more peripherally involved or let said coordinator under him make all the calls.
Should Dan Campbell be more involved with the Lions offense?
With what Lynn has to work with, the Lions’ offensive struggles are easily explained and expected. Even with some tweaks to personnel groupings and more creative play-calling, it’s hard to assume the results would be noticeably better through eight games.
Campbell played 10 seasons as an NFL tight end, and went from a coaching intern to tight ends coach to interim head coach for the Miami Dolphins from 2010-2015. He then spent five seasons (2016-2020) on the New Orleans Saints coaching staff, as assistant head coach and tight ends coach.
There’s nothing on Campbell’s resume, shy of being in the building and on the sideline with Sean Payton and Drew Brees on the coaching staff in New Orleans, to show what he might bring to the table as an offensive mind. So it’s at best unknown what his involvement in the Lions’ offense would do to help, if anything. At worst, he’d become a second, unnecessary cook in a dismal kitchen that could become outright dysfunctional.
Campbell wanting to help with the Lions’ offense is fine, and it’s surely preferable to a completely hands-off approach in the face of 0-8 adversity. But there’s a line where his involvement should stop, and that is to offer ideas during the week that Lynn might be afraid to try based on the limitations he’s dealing with. The offense can’t really get any worse, so any fresh perspective should be welcome as long as Campbell knows his place in the big picture.