Just as things were starting to turn around for the Detroit Lions’ defense, the unit was dealt an unimaginable setback.
Detroit’s defense, which started the year playing like the worst in the league, has improved. They’ve allowed 17.6 points and 305.6 yards per game in their last three games— a substantial improvement over the first four games, where they ranked last in the NFL in both categories (31.8 and 423.8). The Lions have won three straight.
But football isn’t top of mind in Detroit’s facility right now. A devastating, concerning neck injury suffered by team captain and standout linebacker Jack Campbell in the Lions’ win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, when he lay motionless on the turf for nearly eight minutes, has left the team reeling.
Never mind the fact that the injury happened to one of Detroit’s best players, a vocal leader and a team captain who is among the top in the league at his position.
The injury was scary enough to have Lions players visibly weeping on the broadcast when it happened. From a human perspective alone, it’s the kind of devastating, traumatic event that can take a toll on people and make their work feel less important.
Head coach Dan Campbell said there’s no easy way to navigate a situation like this with a game coming up Sunday, and it’s important to reach that understanding with players.
“But I also know they're not postponing this game,” he said. “And we know the only way to honor Jack, and what he really wants is to make sure that we're locked in and ready to go. Because otherwise, what just kind of came about, we're throwing it away in a sense.”
Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said Thursday he hasn’t had an hour pass in the last four days where he hasn’t thought about Jack Campbell. He appeared to choke up when recounting how the linebacker was sitting on Sheppard’s couch the week before the Lions played the Arizona Cardinals, telling his defensive coordinator how he was going to play for him.
Sheppard said he drew his strength from his players in the emotional aftermath of Jack Campbell’s injury, and dedicated the rest of the defense’s season to the linebacker.
“That's the theme moving forward to this week,” he said. “We understand we're tasked with another challenge at hand that we have to be prepared for. Because the team we're about to face has done nothing this past month but trend upwards.”
Dan Campbell knows the Dolphins won't make life easy for the Lions
Miami is in the running for the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft, but isn’t a total pushover. Dan Campbell favorably compared the Dolphins under first-year head coach Jeff Hafley to the scrappy, yet undermanned team he trotted out his first year as Lions head coach in 2021.
The 1-6 Dolphins picked up their first ‘W’ of the season two weeks ago, a 28-25 win over the New York Jets. They followed that up by giving the defending AFC champion New England Patriots all they could handle in a 24-19 loss. As Sheppard said, they’re a team trending in the right direction, and they sure do play hard.
Dan Campbell complimented Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon for his physical style, said wide receiver Malik Washington was a versatile player who will have a good NFL career, and said Miami has an “athletic offensive line” that runs a diverse scheme.
“They mix in some of these— there's a ton of this eye candy and motions and cutting the defense off,” he said of the Dolphins’ offense. It's a good scheme, and they run it well. Screens, gadgets, play (action) pass off of it. (Quarterback Malik Willis) has done a heck of a job with all that stuff.”
Miami ranks just 31st in the NFL in points per game with 16.7, and 27th in yards per game with 290. But they’ve got a scrappy group that’s played its best football in the last two weeks and is playing a banged-up Lions team with heavy hearts right now.
Don’t be surprised if they put up a fight.
From a pure football perspective, Jack Campbell is a massive loss. He’s a one-man wrecking crew against the run and is the heart and soul of Detroit’s defense. The linebacker duo of Trevor Nowaske and Malcolm Rodriguez has big shoes to fill and green-dot duties to sort out.
And he isn’t the only Lion defender who went down Sunday. Rookie linebacker Jimmy Rolder is out for the season with a hamstring injury, and starting cornerback D.J. Reed may miss some time with a hip injury after playing arguably his best game of the season.
Dan Campbell admitted the Lions may go looking for some outside help on defense to mitigate some of the injuries, and he would have those conversations with general manager Brad Holmes.
But before anyone can look too far ahead into the big picture, it’s fair to wonder about the Lions’ prospects this week. It would be an impossible, inhumane ask for them to approach this week like just any other and get the same amount of preparation in.
Their minds are on their teammate and on how scary playing the game they love can be sometimes. Last Sunday against Minnesota, with the initial shock of the injury still fresh, they rallied together and got the win for their captain.
The task now? Well, they have to do that every week.
“The theme has been, let's prepare and play like (No.) 46,” Sheppard said. “ Every day I wake up, what would 46 want me to do today? Would he want us to sulk and feel sorry? I can guarantee y'all, y'all know Jack— absolutely not. He'll be pissed off if he found out guys are crying about him.”
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