The best defensive line coach in the NFL?
The Lions have brought in Tyrell Williams as their new defensive line coach. The new staff hires, Williams, defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend and defensive assistant Jim O'Neil, were a natural topic in Campbell's first offseason media availability. But the head coach pulled no punches to praise Williams.
“I think he is the best d-line coach in the league,” Campbell said. “If he’s not, he’s certainly right up there.”
Williams is in Indianapolis, and he shared his coaching philosophy some Lions' reporters.
Terrell Williams, asked to define violence
— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) February 27, 2024
"I can’t. You’ll know it when you see it, that’s the easy way to put it. ... They’ll know it. Or, close your eyes and you can hear it. Like, you can hear violence. You can see it."
Kyle Meinke of MLive has a must-read piece on Williams from that gathering with reporters.
One regret from the NFC Championship Game
Campbell drew ire from plenty of analysts for going for it on two pivotal fourth downs in the NFC Championship Game loss to the 49ers. The same regret he expressed right after the game stands now, a month later.
Via Lions Wire:
"If I could go back that I felt greedy on was at the very end of the game. And instead of just deciding what we’re going to do on fourth down, to hold the timeout and you can run it. But we did it on third down, and I should have waited until fourth (down),” Campbell said.
Campbell is referring to the third-and-goal run with one minute left in the game that was stopped short, which forced the Lions to burn a timeout before they got a touchdown on the next play. Burning that timeout meant the 49ers could essentially run out the clock and the Lions couldn't do anything about it.
As Campbell noted, hindsight is the only perfect evaluator.
“I thought we were just going to pop the run,” Campbell declared. “But, hindsight.”
A meeting with a draft prospect
Teams are meeting with draft prospects in Indianapolis, and the Lions already had at least one by around lunch time on Tuesday.
Western Michigan EDGE Marshawn Kneeland has had formal meetings with the Panthers, Ravens, Buccaneers, Lions and Falcons in Indy, a source said.
— Ryan Fowler (@_RyanFowler_) February 27, 2024
Physical presence off the edge that was excellent at the Senior Bowl.
Kneeland had a nice season for Western Michigan in 2023 (six sacks in 10 games). He got off to a nice start in the pre-draft process down at the Senior Bowl, as Zebra Sports had him as the fastest defensive lineman down in Mobile. He is versatile, comfortable as a stand up edge rusher of with his hand on the ground, and he is a strong run defender with a high motor.
We had Kneeland going to the Lions in the third round (No. 73 overall) of our pre-Combine mock draft.