At his core, Dan Campbell is an aggressive coach and that will never change (nor should it). His three seasons as Detroit Lions' head coach have yielded three of the top eight seasons for fourth down attempts in a season in league history.
As the Lions have gotten better, the stakes of Campbell's aggressiveness have gotten higher. Critics will point to going for it twice on fourth down in last year's NFC Championship Game as a failure, but the process wasn't necessarily wrong. The decision keep going for the winning two-point conversion against the Dallas Cowboys last season, which of course became the object of controversy when Taylor Decker was ruled ineligible, might have been a time where the moment got the best of Campbell.
During an appearance with a radio show in Texas this offseason, Campbell acknowledged the idea of toning down his aggressiveness.
"I’m always gonna lean on the strength of our team. I just believe in that," Campbell said. "So who's to say we come in and it’s just a different path? And you feel like being a little bit more conservative. That can easily happen if I believe that’s the best way to play the game and it’s gonna help us win."
Dan Campbell goes into detail about getting 'sharper' as a coach
Campbell hinted at having better situational awareness there. On Wednesday, via Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News, he talked about it again as the Lions have practiced situations throughout training camp.
"I think a lot of that comes in…situational football. That's why I try to keep those as fresh as possible and you try to fabricate as many difficult decisions that you can put your team in and yourself, because that's what's happening, inevitably,"
We worked together — really the first time was 2022 — we had to get through some rough spots, and now we flow pretty well," Campbell said. "We’re going onto Year 3. He knows exactly — these things will come up, ‘If it looks like this, what do you want?’ I’d say, ‘Don't even bring it to me,’ or, ‘But if it's this then, yes, absolutely call down. Let's talk about it.’ So he knows exactly what my thought process is.
Campbell credited Lions director of football compliance/lead football counsel Jon Dykema for his role during the week and up in the booth during games.
"We worked together — really the first time was 2022 — we had to get through some rough spots, and now we flow pretty well," Campbell said. "We’re going onto Year 3. He knows exactly — these things will come up, ‘If it looks like this, what do you want?’ I’d say, ‘Don't even bring it to me,’ or, ‘But if it's this then, yes, absolutely call down. Let's talk about it.’ So he knows exactly what my thought process is."
Unsurprisingly, Campbell said the situational practice makes him a "much sharper, more prepared coach", with an obvious added note.
"I just think when you do those over a certain amount of time, you get better."
Campbell has come a long way as he enters his fourth season as Lions' head coach. He's gone from the "knee cap biting" meathead people thought he was from during his introductory press conference to one of the best head coaches in the NFL. The core of who he is as a coach is not going away, it just needs to continually evaluated and honed.