Dan Campbell credits surprising NFC team for jump-starting the 2024 Lions

The Detroit Lions had a historic regular season, avoiding the pitfalls of high preseason expectations, and Dan Campbell gave surprising credit for that.

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Over the last two seasons, the Detroit Lions have been one of the most successful and talked-about teams in the NFL. After last year's trip to the NFC Championship Game, they entered this season as the hunted rather than the hunter, with every team they play ready to bring to bring their best against them.

On Thursday head coach Dan Campbell was asked if there was any adjustment to be made going forward based on expectations and perception. He landed on an unexpected point where the biggest adjustment came.

"I felt like the biggest adjustment for us was training camp out at New York. That was the first real taste of the perception and I thought the Giants practiced hard. They brought it. It was a lot of energy, a lot of juice and I thought that was good for us to get. Now you know what it's going to be like all season and we've handled it. We know we're going to get everybody's best shot every week and it doesn't matter who we've played (or) what week it is. I think the most important thing is, it doesn't matter where you're at, where you're seeded (or) how many wins you have, you have to stay hungry and our team's hungry."

The Lions had joint practices against the New York Giants in early August before the preseason opener for both teams. They were physical and at times tense sessions, with fights and ultimately a big fine from the NFL for both teams.

Campbell has always lauded the value of joint practices, as they break up the training camp monotony by going against another team. The Giants finished this season 3-14, but how they brought it in August set the tone for the Lions.

Dan Campbell believes 2021 team set the foundation

The Lions' current mindset started when Campbell took over in 2021. The players and coaches on that roster got the first crash course in a new identity, and they have maintained that standard. For that reason, Campbell will always give them credit.

"That group means everything and so do the coaches. You have to reload every year and you've got to start over in a sense but yet, if you forget where you came from and who you are, then what are you doing? You lose a part of yourself if you forget all that, so that group helped us rise from the ashes if you will. Those are the guys you don't ever forget because they went through the hard stuff, the hard times, being doubted and just continued to believe and put the work in. It's a number of reasons why we have so many of those guys still here and it goes back to trust. Those guys put the work in (and) we trust the heck out of them. They believe in everything that we're doing and everybody else falls right in line. They become one of them."

The Lions have multiple members of that initial roster and staff helping to set the tone every season. Combined with the lesson the Giants freshly brought during camp this year, they seem well-equipped to deal with whatever comes during the playoffs.

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