Dan Campbell offers sales pitch for Aaron Glenn as a head coach

After Sunday's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, completely unprompted and with no more questions for him, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff finished his postgame press conference with this (via MLive).

"I’ll finish with this,” Goff said unprompted, leaning slightly into the mic. “I didn’t get a chance to say it, but I want to give all the credit to Aaron Glenn tonight. I know you guys didn’t ask me about our defense, but our defense played their tails off and he deserves a ton of credit for what he’s done these last handful of weeks.”

The Lions' defensive numbers don't tell the whole story about Glenn. He is highly-regarded by players, as backed up by the NFLPA's recent poll that named him the No. 1 coordinator in the league. He will be a head coach. If not this year, than sometime soon.

The Lions allowed 29.8 points per game during a five-game swoon that had many wondering if they had a defense that could hold up in the playoffs. Since then, over their last six games, they have allowed 21.2 points per game.

Dan Campbell takes opportunity to sell Aaron Glenn as a head coach

On Monday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell took an opportunity to offer a sales pitch about Glenn as a head coaching candidate.

"I mean, where do I begin?” Campbell said. “I mean, let me start with what he did and what he does. I mean the amount of hours that he grinds on tape to prepare his players, his coaches, but himself for what he thinks is going to come and for where he feels like the game is going to go and what he feels like he needs to call in that time relative to what he believes that coordinator’s going to call is -- there’s nobody that works harder. There’s nobody."

“He’s got great vision for putting a plan together. He understands football very well, and when you start talking about his leadership, he’s one of these guys, he’s special. He’s special. He’s got it. His ability to communicate, to relate, to push, to grind, to love, demand, he’s got it all. He’s an outstanding communicator, he’s an outstanding teacher, and I mean he just -- he is. That’s what I say, I’m fortunate that he’s on staff with me.

Campbell finished the sales pitch on Glenn with a funny punch line.

"And he’s better looking than me.”

Glenn was one of Campbell's first hires, mentioned by name by Campbell when he was introduced as Lions' head coach as someone he had already talked to about the defensive coordinator post. Prior to five seasons together on Sean Payton's staff in New Orleans (2016-2020), their playing careers overlapped in 2005 with the Dallas Cowboys.

Campbell has been bracing for Glenn's departure to take a head coaching job all along, with three straight years of interviews and four this year before the Divisional Round game. Rather than shy away from the possibility of losing him this year, as expected, Campbell chose to sell Glenn to interested teams.