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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken L -
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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DFN Mailbag Part II: Extensions, redefining a successful season, pony packages and thriving under pressure
Justin Rogers
Dec 14
Allen Park — As promised, here’s a second batch of mail.
Q: Carlton Davis is an unrestricted free agent after this season. Given how well he seems to have fit in, both scheme and culture, are you surprised he hasn't been extended already? — Ryan Jones
Justin: Not really. At some point, decisions have to be made regarding who gets a massive extension. Not every good player is going to cash in with the Lions. People who like to tell you the salary cap is fake are really saying they don’t understand how it works.
That doesn’t mean I’m closing the door on Davis sticking around, but he’s likely looking at a new pact worth ~$18 million per season. That’s going to be tough to squeeze into Detroit's long-term budget with the other big deals the team has recently awarded and some that need to be addressed in the not-so-distant future (Branch, Hutchinson, Joseph, LaPorta, Gibbs).
Q: Do you buy into the narrative that Hutchinson will come back for the Super Bowl — Ben Hodo
Justin: I don’t think there’s any reason to shut down the possibility, but it should be viewed as a longshot, not an expectation. That’s a serious injury, and he recently posted a video on his social media talking about how he was learning to walk again. Plus, his workouts with the broken leg have been limited to the pool.
To get from that point to rushing the passer, it’s still a lot of ground to close in two months.
Q: At this point in the season, let's shift the goalposts: What would constitute a disappointing season? — Al Stahl
Justin: At 12-1, it’s reasonable to expect to win the division, earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and make it to the Super Bowl with that bye and two home playoff games. Of course, there’s no guarantee it will happen, but anything short of that would qualify as disappointing.
Once in the Super Bowl, you'd love to win it, but the other team is going to be equally qualified. Plus, there’s no home-field advantage and there’s so much off-field quirkiness that goes into those two weeks of preparation.
These Lions have handled everything that has come their way this year, and maybe the Super Bowl would end up just another business week, but it would be understandable if the moment gets in the head of some of the younger, more inexperienced players on the roster.
Q: During press conferences, is there an order in which you guys ask questions? The voice I usually hear first is Tim Twentyman. Is there a seniority order or anything like that? — James Bashor
Justin: There’s no order, it’s whoever speaks up first. Frequently, Tim, Dave Birkett or I ask questions first. We have been around longer than most of the room, so maybe there’s an unspoken expectation.
I like to ask questions early because it gives me time to work in a second or third question if I have them.
Q: I thought I saw David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs share the field for one play during the recent Packers game. Either way, why doesn’t Ben Johnson deploy them more at the same time as opposed to rotating? — Mike A.
Justin: It was actually more than one snap against Green Bay, and up to six shared snaps on the season, but there are a couple factors at play to explain why they don't do it more frequently.
First, the Lions' scheme is predicated on a condensed number of formations weekly. They want things to look similar, snap-to-snap, building multiple play calls off each formation. That way defenses can’t get a beat on intent. Using a “pony package,” with both backs on the field, requires building an array of play calls off that look.
Secondly, and this is something I’ve discussed in the past, if you use Gibbs as a slot receiver, and the defense counters by matching him with a cornerback, you’ve negated the running back’s advantage.
Coming out of the backfield, against a linebacker and most safeties, Gibbs has the edge. But you give that back to the defense when it's a corner in coverage. Gibbs doesn’t have the route tree or nuanced route-running ability to consistently win those matchups. Most backs don’t.
Q: In a recent post you mentioned that two of our AFC road games were already determined (Cincinnati and Baltimore). Can you refresh me on what factors played into that and when we’ll know the full breakdown of home vs away? — Mike Jones
Justin: It’s pretty simple, actually.
Every year, the Lions play every team from a rotating division from both conferences. This year, they play every team from the AFC South and NFC West. Next year, it’s the AFC North and NFC East. Additionally, they play the corresponding finisher in the other two NFC divisions, plus a rotating AFC division, with the latter being the 17th game added to the schedule in 2021.
So if the Lions finish first in the North, they’ll play the first-place team in the NFC South, NFC West and AFC West in 2025. Finish second, they'll play the second-place team from those divisions.
This year, as the defending North champs, they played last year's winner from the NFC East (Dallas), NFC South (Tampa Bay) and AFC East (this week’s game against Buffalo).
The home/road elements of those divisional rotations also rotate in an established pattern, which is why the locations of those 2025 matchups are already known. The only unknown pieces of future schedules are the three correlating divisional finishers. You'll know the entire home and away slate once the standings are finalized with the full schedule coming out in May.
Q: Dan has said that the team is built to handle pressure. That’s a great statement of support for his players, so they are more able to embrace it and believe that it is true. With that being said, how is Dan dealing with the intense pressure of coaching a team that might be the best in franchise history? — Doug Bradley
Justin: First of all, the team is equipped to handle pressure both because they've been through it and Campbell frequently puts them in pressure-packed situations during practice to calibrate a steady heart rate. Individually, some people are just built to handle pressure better. Listen to how Ben Johnson described Campbell earlier this week.
“He uplifts everybody on that staff,” Johnson said. “When everybody’s kind of in a little bit of a funk, we’re mid-season, it might be a case of the Mondays early in the week and he knows how to bring us up. And when we’re feeling ourselves, he also knows how to press the right buttons so that we feel that rock in our shoe as well.”
As much as Campbell wears his heart on his sleeve, he seems emotionally centered. We probably can’t dismiss the value of his family, especially his wife Holly, in this equation. Routines like late-week date nights and Monday morning coffee that she shares on social media show he finds ways to maintain balance in his life, and having balance is critical to managing stress.
Q: Holmes has hit on everything except O-line (Sewell was a gift from the gods and doesn’t count). He hasn’t found magic in the late rounds like other positions. When’s he gonna realize he can’t keep rolling dice on the O-line? — Dan P
Justin: When you walk into a situation where you have Frank Ragnow, Taylor Decker and Jonah Jackson, on top of being gifted Sewell, as you put it, there isn’t pressure to use many additional resources on the position group.
Plus, it’s not like every position, or any really, requires an heir apparent. How many teams are regularly grooming high-level starters longer than a year at any spot?
Yes, the Lions will need a guard or two sooner than later. But who is to say Christian Mahogany isn’t going to be part of that solution. He missed training camp and is already being trusted as a top backup as a rookie.
I just think we’re talking about a small sample size in a non-urgent situation. No, Holmes hasn’t hit a home run with Colby Sorsdal, Giovanni Manu or Mahagony, at least not yet, but were you honestly projecting any of them to be early-career starters when the selections were announced.
Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net
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Bluesky: Justin-Rogers
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Listening, Onwuzurike is pronounced : OH-when-zer-ee-kay, emphasis on the first syllableOriginally posted by whatever_gong82 View PostComment
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Paywall article from yesterday.
Detroit Lions 2023 draft class delivers another star, in Jack Campbell's impeccable timing
Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press
Chris Spielman foresaw it. Predicted it on a podcast last summer. But then he’s a linebacker — and partial to linebackers — and besides, maybe it doesn’t take a great leap of faith to have believed Jack Campbell was going to pop this season.
Well, Campbell is popping. The latest Brad Holmes special, as another draft pick, questioned by some, who is busting out in his second year with the Detroit Lions.
Pro Football Focus ranked him as the NFL's ninth-best linebacker recently. Considering each team starts at least two linebackers — and many three — that’s not bad math.
If you don’t go for PFF's sort of granular, insider view, how about the view of his position coach, Kelvin Sheppard, who argued earlier this week that Campbell is playing as well as any 'backer in the game at the moment.
Biased?
Sure. Sheppard admits that. But then consider the Lions’ defense, and the number of injuries it has endured — a lot! —and the relative production with so many starters missing.
Yes, the relative health of the back end makes a difference. Plug Carlton Davis III, Terrion Arnold, Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph into the secondary of any team, and that defense will have a fighting chance.
Yet Campbell is instrumental in their positioning — he calls the plays. And he’s critical in connecting the makeshift (and depleted) defensive line to the secondary. And he’s essential to the middle of the defense, another area where the Lions have been hit hard with injury.
“I couldn’t be happier with the way he’s progressed,” Sheppard said. “The vision me, (Aaron Glenn), Dan (Campbell) had for (him) from what we saw on tape (at Iowa), we knew there were things that needed to be corrected. Jack took full accountability, and now you’re seeing that out on the field. I told him that leading up to the Green Bay game — and not just because I’m his coach — that he is playing at the highest level.”
He didn’t just need to improve his reads and positioning and reaction time — the last a product of reads and positioning — he needed to speak up, and to see what Glenn and Sheppard were seeing and react more quickly.
The jump in speed from college to the NFL is vast, and for certain positions it’s more so. Playing middle linebacker isn’t unlike playing quarterback — or center. Every play, teammates need to be directed, sometimes shifted.
“For him to stand in front of a group of men, the way they respect him is unreal, and you see it,” Glenn said. “And I’m sure the players talk about that, too. He’s a man’s man, he understands what we’re trying to do, and he continues to try to get better.”
A man’s man can be a certain kind of box, and Campbell doesn’t necessarily want to be put in any box. He is quiet, but not as quiet as he used to be. That’s clear among his coaches and teammates, and clear among those who cover him.
Ask him a question a year ago and you’d have had to strain to hear him. He was stoic, and not interested in drawing attention to himself. By the end of his rookie season, he began to find his voice on the field. In part because the game slowed down a bit, in part because he began to get comfortable.
When he returned in the spring for minicamp, Glenn and Dan Campbell had Campbell calling out the defenses. This was before Alex Anzalone arrived to camp. The reps were critical, even fortuitous. Not that the coaches want to get in the business of predicting injury, but they know it’s a possibility, and they wanted Campbell to be ready for anything. And they thought he was ready to take on more responsibility.
“He’s a guy who understands the game,” Dan Campbell said. “He is a smart football player, he studies it, he works at it, he was that way when he walked in though. He’s an instinctive player that really understands ball.”
And now?
“He knows exactly what (Glenn) is thinking. They’ve been together long enough to where we get in this situation, ‘this is what you want, this how we’re doing it.’ I mean, he’s been right in (Glenn’s) hip pocket and he watches that and he learns and he listens.”
Holmes and Campbell didn’t just want him for his mind, though. Or his feel. They didn’t grab him in the first round with the 18th pick only because he could read a defense. They liked his size, power and athleticism.
His 40-yard-dash time of 4.6 seconds put him in the middle of the pack. But his 37-inch vertical? At 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds? That helped give him the highest athletic grade of any linebacker in the draft. Add in his shuttle work and it wasn’t surprising he was diving and deflecting a pass from Patrick Mahomes in his NFL debut at Kansas City.
It’s almost silly at this point to think about how many draft picks Holmes and Campbell have hit on. Campbell — the linebacker — didn't jump off the television set like tight end Sam LaPorta (his college teammate) or running back Jahmyr Gibbs or defensive back Brian Branch did in their rookie seasons, but he is starting to jump out now. That all four came in the same draft is ridiculous.
Three of those picks drew side-eyes during the draft. Not because of their potential, but because of their “positional value.” You don’t draft running backs and linebackers in the first round! And a tight end early in the second round?
That’s almost sacrilege, according to some.
Yet as Spielman said back in the summer when he was predicting a big year from Campbell:
“We don’t worry about position, we worry about the player.”
The Lions found one with their middle linebacker.
“A true Mike linebacker,” Glenn said.
A versatile one, too. Glenn and Sheppard position him on the line, behind the ball, in coverage. He is flourishing, as Spielman foresaw, as Campbell the head coach said he would a few weeks ago when Anzalone went down with an arm injury.
The Lions saw this coming. No, they knew it was coming. Campbell knew it was coming as well. He just didn’t say it out loud.
What matters is that he is saying everything out loud now. And he is smiling.
“Guys listen to him,” Spielman said back in the summer.
He is even smiling in public, and dropping phrases like “that’s badass,” as he did earlier this week when describing Dan Campbell’s phrase for the Lions defense: Northern savages.
Jack Campbell smiled as he said it. He is smiling a lot and is comfortable letting everyone see he isn’t always so serious. Until it comes to football. Then that’s all there is, and all he’s ever wanted to do.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him@shawnwindsor.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
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I forgot about this paywall gem from The Athletic a couple of days ago.
Enjoy!!
Detroit Lions Jack Campbell and Sam LaPorta.jpg
The Athletic
Iowa’s odd couple to Detroit’s future, Jack Campbell and Sam LaPorta have been through it together
Colton Pouncy
Dec 13, 2024
The two college roommates, now co-workers in the real world, can’t help but smile, reminiscing about the glory days.
Their stories are organic. Their reactions genuine. You can see it on their faces, as they think back to life in the dorms, their first taste of freedom and their first impressions of one another.
Not everyone gets to work with their college roommate. Sam LaPorta and Jack Campbell do. At the University of Iowa, they struck up a friendship that would follow them to the NFL.
The two couldn’t be more different. You have LaPorta, the life-of-the-party tight end who exudes golden retriever energy and can get along with anyone. Then there’s Campbell — the reserved, old soul who opens up around those who know him best and loves hunting back home in Iowa when he’s not diagnosing run plays in the heart of Detroit’s defense.
And yet, this odd couple oddly works. From unheralded recruits to roommates in Iowa City to NFL teammates starring for the Detroit Lions, they’ve been in lockstep from the moment they met. They were brought to this city, together, to turn around a program that mirrored the one that developed them at Iowa.
Their careers are forever intertwined.
You wouldn’t know it, the way he talks about his Hawkeyes these days, but Iowa wasn’t Campbell’s first love.
His father, Dave, played guard at Northern Iowa from 1985 to 1989. Campbell shares this proudly with anyone who assumes he was raised in an Iowa household. In a perfect world, Campbell would’ve followed in his father’s footsteps. But football had other plans for him. Iowa had other plans.
Campbell, a multi-sport athlete ranked as the 662nd-best prospect in the 2019 class, was long, athletic, instinctive and smart. Kirk Ferentz and the staff at Iowa fell in love with Campbell’s sophomore tape. Then they got a feel for his personality, his leadership, his intangibles. They didn’t care where he lined up — they just wanted him in the building.
“I’ve told people if we had five Jack Campbells, all five would be starting,” Ferentz said. “Two would have been our defensive ends and the other three would have been all three linebackers. He could have played any of the positions in our defense.”
There is a very real alternate universe in which LaPorta and Campbell never meet. While Campbell was one of the first prospects to commit to Iowa’s 2019 class, LaPorta was one of its last. Only a few schools recruited LaPorta, then an unknown wide receiver prospect out of Highland, Ill. For most of the process, Iowa was not one of them.
LaPorta attended Iowa camps. They passed, telling him they’d keep tabs on him. As national signing day approached in December of 2018, LaPorta was ready to spend the next four years at Bowling Green. But around the same time, Iowa tight ends T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant were looking at entering the 2019 NFL Draft. The staff at Iowa reached out to LaPorta and his mother, Staci, about setting up an official visit.
LaPorta was torn. He felt he could compete at the Power Five level. But he wasn’t made a priority.
In the end, a call from Ferentz to Staci convinced LaPorta to take the visit and ultimately, commit to Iowa.
“He is a tremendous football player, better guy,” Ferentz told reporters last year. “We underestimated him, certainly, in the recruiting process. We’re really fortunate that we were able to get him and his mom to come up here and look, and then finally, they changed their mind and decided to come here.”
A UNI Panther loyalist and an underrecruited tight end. Somehow destined to be Hawkeyes.
The college experience is universal. You can meet lifelong friends in the dorms. Lobby hangouts, study sessions, going out to eat. For LaPorta and Campbell, this took place as freshmen at Iowa’s Petersen Hall. That’s where it all starts.
“We just got talking,” Campbell said of LaPorta. “We had a lot of similarities, and I just respected how he went about his business. He’s just a competitor. I don’t know, I kind of got drawn to that. We just hung out a lot in the dorms freshman year.”
“Just a really excellent human being,” LaPorta said of Campbell. “I’m sure you can just tell from his interactions with the media, as a player, guys talking about him, just a great guy and somebody that you want on your team.”
Along the way, Campbell’s friends became LaPorta’s, and vice versa. Jackson Frericks, a former walk-on tight end at Iowa, grew up with Campbell in Cedar Falls. They played Pee Wee baseball and high school football and basketball together before teaming up at Iowa. He knew he was wired different.
“This was one of the hardest-working dudes that you’ll ever see,” Frericks said of Campbell. “Not one of — the hardest-working guy I’ve ever seen. …I remember our first hard run. He’s finishing first and all the guys are like, ‘Oh, here goes the freshman, trying to finish first in everything.’ And you know, it just never stopped.”
Frericks was a fellow tight end. He arrived on campus at the same time as LaPorta, then spent nearly every day with him for the next four years.
He saw what made LaPorta special.
“With him, the first time we were doing routes on air was kind of when I knew he was going to be a stud,” Frericks said of LaPorta. “He was doing some crossing route. The ball was behind him, he reached his paw back, like, just one-handed it and then kept in stride. I just remember going, ‘Yeah, that guy’s better than everybody else.'”
At Iowa, LaPorta, Campbell and Frericks hung out in the dorms and around campus. Campbell’s freshman-year roommate, Logan Lee, now a Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle, and Kyler Fisher, now a sixth-year senior at Iowa, would join them.
continued.."I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
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When it came time to figure out their living situation for the next year, Frericks had a solution. His parents were buying a house close to campus. It had five bedrooms and plenty of space.
More than enough for, say, five Big Ten football players in search of off-campus housing.
The “Hawk House,” as its founding members call it, is located on Penfro Drive — roughly two miles from the University of Iowa’s campus. It’s quiet these days, compared to what it once was. But if its walls could talk, they would tell stories of Sam LaPorta and Jack Campbell, before they were Sam LaPorta and Jack Campbell.
One of its best was one of its first. It was the second semester of their freshmen year, and the five teammates’ plans to live together had been finalized. But months before their move-in day, LaPorta, and Frericks — whose parents owned the house — thought it would be fun to throw a party.
“Our lease technically had not started, I don’t think,” LaPorta recalled. “But we had the garage code or a spare key.”
“When we first got our house, there was nothing in the house. Like, literally nothing,” said Campbell, who took a backseat to planning the party but watched it all unfold.
“Jackson and Sam planned a party and it was like so many people in there, and no one could sit down. We had nothing. You get that first taste of freedom and you think you’re the man like, ‘Oh come, we’re having a party at the house.'”
These were 19-year-olds from the Midwest. They didn’t need much to have a good time. LaPorta and Frericks started spreading the word, inviting teammates, dormmates, anyone. They estimate roughly 40-50 people showed up. Save for a beer pong and a couple chairs, there was no furniture. They had planned to keep it a secret from Frericks’ parents. And almost did.
Frericks was upstairs in his room when he heard yelling from the basement. As he worked his way down, a teammate stopped him. “It’s a tomorrow problem. It’s a tomorrow problem.”
“I walked back upstairs thinking, ‘All right, I’ll just focus on it tomorrow,’ right?” Frericks said. “But I’m like, ‘I gotta go look at this.’ And there’s a hand-sized hole in the wall because I guess one of our teammates lost a game and got pissed.”
Campbell and LaPorta were there to confirm.
“Punching a hole in the drywall, like, you can’t make it up,” Campbell said, cracking up.
“It was more of a smack than a punch,” LaPorta said. “He was a big guy. Didn’t know his power.”
The next morning, Frericks ran to a hardware store and picked up a kit to patch the hole. You never would’ve known what happened, except…
“Jackson’s dad is, like, kind of strict,” Campbell said. “Jackson was so worried because he knew he was gonna get his ass ripped. So, he tried to patch it by himself and left the receipt and his parents found it and they just ripped his ass.”
When you put five guys in a house together, you’re bound to see roles defined. If you ask those who inhabited the Hawk House, they’ll tell you LaPorta was the clean one. LaPorta grew up with three sisters and no brothers, which his former roommates say gave him organizational skills the others, uh, lacked. When the house would get dirty, it was often LaPorta cleaning for the group. Campbell, who cooked for himself most nights, would only add to the mess — sometimes while LaPorta was cleaning.
“There was an instance where the trash can was, like, already overflowing with trash,” LaPorta recalled, peeking around the corner of the Lions’ locker room to see if Campbell was around. “He came up with a to-go box full of food and tried to stuff it down even more on top. I was scrubbing people’s dishes that — they were not mine. I was scrubbing dishes from our house. I was fed up. I lost it on Jack.”
“I’ll say this, I wasn’t that good a roommate,” Campbell said. “I would never take the trash out or do the dishes, really. I’m not gonna lie to you. Sam was more of the leader on that. He liked keeping everything clean. He’d get pissed at me if I didn’t take the trash out. But now I’m good because I’m married. I gotta be good.”
This was par for the course for Campbell and LaPorta. But they’d always find a way to laugh about it later.
“Him and Sam, it was always fun,” Lee said of his roommates. “Like, they would always rip each other in the house. They always had a good relationship, but it was fun to see them heckle each other.”
They had their fun like most college kids. They turned their garage into a home gym during COVID and worked out every day. They bought a dartboard, which led to intense competitions. They’re both St. Louis Cardinals fans. They’d go on Chipotle runs and their favorite Iowa City spots, like Iowa Chop House. And don’t even get them started on those Wii Sports battles.
But at the root of their relationship was a shared love of the game and commitment to the team.
Behind the scenes, LaPorta and Campbell spent four years making each other better, while setting the tone for those around them. Iowa practices are notoriously rugged. One of the nation’s best linebackers covering one of the nation’s best tight ends? Sparks to a flame.
“Those dudes are probably the hardest-working dudes at practice,” Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins said. “Always saw Sam trying to block Jack. Always saw those two asking for the matchup and stuff. Definitely competitive on the field, and off the field, they were buddies.”
“I mean, it was every day at practice,” Frericks said. “Ones versus ones, Jack was lined up with Sam plenty of times. …It really helped to better themselves.”
But it didn’t end on the field. At the house, they would pick each other’s brains. When you get this coverage, are you told to break off your route or hit the seam? When you see this look, what are your responsibilities as a linebacker in zone? It set them up for great things in their careers.
LaPorta started a pair of games as a true freshman, before taking over full-time as a sophomore. He would never relinquish the starting job, setting a program record for receptions by a tight end. As a senior, LaPorta earned first-team All-Big Ten honors, won Big Ten Tight End of the Year and was a John Mackey Award finalist, given annually to the nation’s best tight end. He did it on an offense that ranked second-to-last in yards per game.
Campbell was on special teams as a freshman and says his favorite memory was teaming up with LaPorta blocking on a kick return touchdown in the 2019 Holiday Bowl vs. Amon-Ra St. Brown’s USC Trojans. Campbell joined the defensive rotation as a sophomore and was voted a captain as a junior — leading Iowa, and the country, in tackles with 143. During his senior season, he recorded 128 tackles and was named the Butkus Award winner as the nation’s best linebacker, on arguably the nation’s best defense. He also took home the William V. Campbell Award, otherwise known as the academic Heisman.
They helped Iowa to a 34-14 record in their four years, proving themselves as winners. And although Iowa fell short of expectations in their final year together, LaPorta and Campbell — both voted captains — wanted to set the standard for those behind them before they left.
The Hawkeyes (7-5) were selected to play Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. A lot of prospects with Day 1 or 2 grades would skip a bowl game that didn’t have championship implications. But Campbell played. LaPorta, meanwhile, rehabbed a torn meniscus to play.
“That’s just how they’re wired,” Ferentz said, nearly tearing up. “If you’re gonna have a good football team, you have to have guys like that.”
As they prepared for the next chapter of their lives in the months leading up to the 2023 NFL Draft, LaPorta and Campbell were asked which Iowa teammate they’d want to bring with them to the league.
“I just kept saying Jack Campbell, Jack Campbell,” LaPorta said. “I think the kid really speaks for himself. Phenomenal football player, an even better human.”
“Out of all my teammates, I feel like, kind of going back to just who he is as a person, he’s just competitive as hell and no matter what,” Campbell said of LaPorta. “If things are going good or going bad, he’s the same person every single day.”
On draft weekend, Campbell hosted a small watch party back in Cedar Falls, mostly with immediate family and loved ones. He rarely uses social media. He spent the hours leading up to the first round getting fresh air outside. You’d think it was a typical night. Then, he got the phone call that changed everything.
LaPorta was watching with a smile on his face. He sent his former roommate a congratulatory text, knowing how busy Campbell would be. He thought about what a good spot Detroit was for his friend. He was still thinking about it the next day at his own watch party, surrounded by immediate family, extended family, friends, teammates, pretty much anyone who wanted to show up and celebrate.
Just a few picks into the second round, LaPorta received a call from Lions’ GM Brad Holmes. He assumed it was about Campbell.
“He called me,” LaPorta told Inside the Den. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you got Jack!'”
“I don’t even think Sam knew that I was calling to draft him,” Holmes said, laughing.
When LaPorta hung up and informed the party that he would be a Lion, the room erupted. Not only would LaPorta be joining an organization he respected, but he’d be doing it with one of his closest friends.
“Everybody just started getting hype,” Frericks said. “We were like, ‘No way. They’re together again?’ It was nuts.”
“I was just so pumped,” Campbell said. “…I was just like, ‘Bro, there’s no way.’ …He works so hard. He comes from a little town in Southern Illinois and just everything he’s done, he’s been above and beyond. He deserves everything.”
LaPorta and Campbell have been more than the Lions could have hoped for. Last season, LaPorta set an NFL record for receptions by a rookie tight end (since broken by Brock Bowers) and earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors. Campbell, meanwhile, has hit his stride as a sophomore. He looks like one of the best young linebackers in the league and a guy who could anchor the middle of a defense for the next decade-plus.
The discourse has changed since the 2023 NFL Draft — when the selection of Campbell was viewed as poor positional value, and Detroit received backlash for taking LaPorta over some of the other tight ends available.
But the Lions knew better.
“For as competitive as they are against an opponent, when you put those two against each other, it’s ridiculous,” Dan Campbell said. “They do stuff right, man, and they’re reliable. You can trust the work they’re going to put into it and the type of production they’re going to give you.”
These days, LaPorta and Campbell are stationed on opposite ends of the locker room — LaPorta with the tight ends, Campbell near the linebackers. They don’t live together anymore, as both have significant others. They don’t see each other as often as they did in college, living in different parts of the city.
But they’re still there for the big life moments. LaPorta was a groomsman in Campbell’s wedding in Iowa this summer, attended by all the Hawk House members. LaPorta is engaged to his long-time girlfriend. Expect a Hawk House reunion there. They’ve been there for their biggest professional moments, too.
No moment would be bigger than delivering the city of Detroit a Lombardi Trophy.
It is not lost on them that they get to do it together.
“When we were there, I don’t know if we could really fully grasp how unique that situation was — and then getting the opportunity to play here together,” LaPorta said. “We’ve taken full grasp of that.”
“Definitely not taking anything for granted,” Campbell said. “I feel like a little things are just gonna carry with us. The fact that I get to experience it with Sam — someone I’ve been working with the last four or five years — it’s been awesome.”
(Top photo: Robin Alam, David Berding / Getty Images, Michael Owens / AP, Jorge Lemus / NurPhoto)
Colton Pouncy is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Detroit Lions. He previously covered Michigan State football and basketball for the company, and covered sports for The Tennessean in Nashville prior to joining The Athletic. Follow Colton on Twitter @colton_pouncy
Last edited by whatever_gong82; December 15, 2024, 02:17 PM."I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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DMO being out is feels like the death nail to me, McNiel, Davis, and Dorsey (updated from vildor) are just more insults.
Holy cow what could have been might become should have been.Last edited by The Ken; December 16, 2024, 04:39 PM.Brand New Detroit LionsComment
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Dorsey, not Vildor. Of which losing Dorsey hurts special teams and depth at CB.
Jamaal Williams had zero carries for the Saints yesterday. It would be cool if they cut him and he re-joins the Lions in a committee behind Gibbs. I’m down for a little 2022 Jamaal magic.AAL 2023 - Alim McNeillComment
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At this point the Lions either step up or stand aside. The 2010 Packers had tons of injuries similar to the Lions this year and still found a way to win the Super Bowl so the Lions really have no excuse.
Of course it’s going to be extremely difficult and the odds are being stacked against us but if they can get Iffy, Analzone, Rakestraw and a few other guys step up they MIGHT still have a chance on defense. Goff and the offense is going to have to play beyond what they can do. It really is go take more and grit to make a run at this point.Last edited by Lionsfan123; December 16, 2024, 04:06 PM.Comment
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"Your division isn't going through Green Bay it's going through Detroit for the next five years" - Rex RyanComment
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Come 1st playoff game GB had 9 starters on defense, including Charles Woodson.Originally posted by Lionsfan123 View Post
The Lions right now have 2. Campbell and Branch. That is it.
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Remember, there is still 3 games to go in the regular season - and our guys are dropping like flies.Comment
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Campbelll, Branch, Joseph, Reader and Arnold.Comment
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Truthfully if they don't win the Superbowl, they can use injuries as an excuse. If they are going to win it now, it's going to have to be much different than what was imagined 6-8 weeks ago. But if you looked at the DVOA of the team it was in all time great teams range. Even with the injuries they can put up points and yardage all the time. They cannot afford to peter out in red zone like they have for a few of the games. That is a luxury the defensive injuries will not afford them anymore.
Let's wait for the next couple games to see how it is going. Losing 4 guys in a game is terrible, but some of the other guys will come back. A does of Vitamin W against the Bears would do wonders.Comment
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