Lions News

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Hamp, Wood, Disner and Spielman were being thrown into a foxhole together, trying to figure out who to hire; and the task was herculean. The Lions had been trying to find a winning culture, that could be sustained, since 1957 — the team’s last title.

“We spent a lot of time, ahead of time, thinking about what are we really looking for?” Hamp said.


In the past, the organization had tried just about everything: young coaches and old ones, retreads and new treads, defensive-minded coaches and offensive ones, not to mention, Tom Izzo’s best friend. But the losing was so pervasive that Wayne Fontes, the winningest coach in team history, actually had a losing record (66-67).

As far as GMs, they tried everything from older schoolers to a converted TV guy to someone from the New England tree.

In short, nothing had worked for long.


The futility could be measured not only in years, but in decades, if not lifetimes.

So, instead of trying to fix the organization piecemeal, which is what the Lions had done countless times, churning through different GMs and coaches, they started to develop a much bigger plan. To change the organization at its core.


“What is your vision, Sheila?” Spielman asked. “What do you want? What type of team do you want? What type of organization do you want?”

As they brainstormed, trying to come up with the guiding principles of this new organization, Spielman wrote the cornerstones on a whiteboard:

Leadership.
Culture.
Staff.

Under staff, Spielman drew three arrows: “Manage, find the best and handling turnover.”


Handling turnover? It’s ironic, now, that the Lions have become so successful that everybody is trying to poach their coordinators and even Spielman, who just completed a virtual interview for the New York Jets GM role. But it’s also interesting this organization started preparing for turnover before it even started to taste success.

Out on the margin, Spielman drew an arrow pointing at culture: “Stay focused on this,” he wrote and underlined four times.


In Hamp’s mind, it went back to her “noble cause.”

“We wanted somebody that understood the city, understood kind of where the city had been, where it's going, kind of understanding our fans,” she said.


Hamp, Wood, Disner and Spielman all signed the whiteboard on 12/29/2020; then Holmes and Campbell signed it after they were hired, like it was a binding agreement.

Now, a framed copy hangs in their offices.


At this point, you could roll your eyes and say: Those are just buzzwords.

Or you could scoff: A noble cause? Get real.


But when you consider how this organization has been transformed, when you learn how those guiding principles determined whom they hired and how they built this organization and even how they select players, when you find how the rest of the NFL is trying to copy the Lions' way or just flat out poach their coaching talent, when you see how the fan base has become electrified from all the success — a noble cause indeed — the words on that whiteboard seem even bigger. They offer a road map on how they did it.

It explains why they were willing to risk hiring Holmes and Campbell.


“We have got a lot of great stories on this team,” Hamp said. “Everyone's in love with Dan Campbell. How can you not be? Dan is Dan. He's really one of the most charismatic leaders I've ever seen in my life. Plus, I think he's one of the most emotionally intelligent people I've ever met.

"You know you listen to his postgame speeches in the locker room, win or lose, he has the right thing to say. I hear him at practice, and he just knows kind of when the team needs maybe a kick in the pants, or whether they need to have fun, or whether they need a little encouragement. I mean, whatever it is, he's just got such a handle on it.”





But how they put together this team is a wild story on its own.


Elephant in the room

They interviewed 12 candidates for the GM job and eight for head coach.

“Each person we interviewed, we'd say, ‘Well, what do you think of our team?’ ” Hamp remembers. “And, you know, they said, ‘Well, at least you have a quarterback, right?' ”


Trouble was. They didn’t. Stafford wanted to be traded.


After every interview, the four would grade the candidates.

“We filled out a grade sheet — kind of like a scouting report,” Spielman said.


“Everyone kind of came at it from a different angle,” Hamp said. “And, you know, we didn't always agree, and that was perfect.”

The list of candidates kept morphing. Holmes wasn’t on the original list, but Disner found a video of a mock interview.

If you wonder if the Lions' success is sustainable, the fact Disner found Holmes in a pile of video clips should be encouraging.


“The NFL has these sort of canned interviews that you can look at,” Hamp said. “They've got tons of them — GMs or presidents, or whatever. And he found Brad's interview, and he said, ‘You guys have to see this guy.’

“And we all did, and we kind of went, whoa.”


Finding a fresh start

Hamp started every interview by being blunt with the candidates, describing the organization’s past mistakes as well as her vision.


“She would talk about the history of how we got to where we are, and philosophically, what she wanted to see going forward,” Disner said. “It's representing the community, the organization, her family, to the point where we are cohesive, working together, no real siloes, and ultimately, working together toward a common goal, as opposed to … “

Well, the way they had been doing it.

“She was very clear in terms of the direction the organization wanted to take and the pitfalls of the organization’s past,” Disner said.


They didn’t want to bring in a GM and coach from the same organization — that would be trying to copy somebody else.

The Lions were trying to create their own culture. They were looking for new leadership. Someone who would embrace it. But it was a complicated process. During every interview, they had to define Spielman’s role, because it was so unusual.


“It could be intimidating,” Wood said. “If you were coming in as a GM, well, who is this gonna be, this guy who played for the Lions, legendary player? He could be the GM. His brother is a GM.

"And same thing on the coaching side. So, we kind of described it as, he's here to help us. He's not looking to do your job. He's not looking to overlook you. And I think it would only work with somebody like Chris.”


Brad Holmes finds a home

When Holmes interviewed, he came across as smart, incredibly prepared and offered a sharp analysis of the state of the Lions.

“He blew us all away,” Hamp said. “He said things about our team specifically that no one else had said. His insights were incredible for someone who wasn't here.”


Holmes remembers how that interview was just so unusual.

“It just felt different,” he said. “It felt home, like family. It felt like it was a conversation.”


In the interview, Hamp made clear she wanted an organization built on collaboration.

“But it wasn't an in-depth conversation about culture,” Holmes said.


It was clear to him the Lions had “thoroughly did their homework, research and vetting thoroughly enough to know” what he stood for before they even interviewed him.

“I probably spoke more about my background and my upbringing and those kinds of things,” Holmes said, “more so than what kind of culture you need to have.”


Tell me about Dan Campbell

At the same time, the Lions were trying to find a coach, which was like trying to build a house, while trying to hire a general contractor at the same time the architect was drawing up the plans.

It was a whirlwind.


Spielman had noticed Campbell while calling his games on TV.

“I watched him,” he said. “Because he draws you to him. If you're a competitor or you're a player, you're drawn to that. He has an aura or that it quality factor.”


Spielman called then-New Orleans head coach Sean Payton, who had known Campbell for years, both as a player and from working with him as a coach.


“Tell me about Dan Campbell,” Spielman said.

Payton talked for 28 straight minutes.


“He didn't stop,” Spielman said. ”I was looking on my watch — 28 minutes.”

Campbell was put on the list of candidates.

But he was just a name on a list that kept morphing.


An interview for the ages

Campbell’s interview has become something of lore in Allen Park.

“Dan's interview was probably the most unique,” Disner said. “He was at a random hotel in New Orleans, I believe, and he was jumping off the screen. He was up in his seat. He was crushing the biggest Starbucks I've ever seen. You know, at one point he kind of did one of these — “


Disner mimicked slamming a gulp of coffee.

Like somebody guzzling a mug of beer.

“Just threw it down,” Disner said. “You could feel the energy through Zoom, which is really hard to do. And Brad, too, you know, there were two people that you could feel the energy. You could feel the desire and how they wanted to come here and make a difference.”


Whatever makes a leader, Wood could see it in Campbell: “Some people just have it, and whatever the it factor is, Dan has it, you know, in spades. And it came through in the interview, same with Brad.”

While searching for a coach can seem like speed dating, this was different at its core. It was clear both Holmes and Campbell wanted the job desperately. During their interviews, it was clear both had done extensive research on the Lions, the city, the team’s history, the ownership and had ideas on how the organization could succeed.


“Dan desperately, passionately wanted the job,” Spielman said. “Wanted to come here. He wanted to be a part of what Detroit was doing. He believed in Sheila’s vision.”

Spielman picked up on something else he deemed vital.


“The other thing that really sold me on him, and I'll never forget this, he said, ‘I will get good coaches to come with me,’ ” Spielman said. “He said that without any arrogance or without any cockiness. And the reason why that's so important in this world, sometimes coaches are afraid to hire guys that are maybe smarter than them or better than them, because they may view them as a threat. He's not.

"He's so confident in his ability and what he does. He wants to hire guys that may have strengths that he does not have, because we all don't have every strength. And so that's what really sold me.”


Now remember, this was done during COVID-19. At a time when the world was adjusting to Zoom calls. But that didn’t stop either Holmes or Campbell.

“When a leader stands out, through a one-dimensional screen — and both Dan and Brad stood out, exuding leadership in that kind of tough environment — you say, ‘Oh, this is interesting,’ ” Wood said. “Let's learn more about this person.”


Revealing the Stafford news

Then came the tricky part. The elephant in the room — oh, by the way, you don’t have a quarterback.

“So how did they react?” I asked.


“I'll start with Brad,” Wood said. “And I said, ‘well, before you take the job, oh, here's something you should know.‘ ”

But Holmes didn’t blink.


“He said, ‘Oh, OK, let's go,' ” Wood said, slamming his fist on the table. “ 'Let's figure this out. I can really build my team, as opposed to one I inherited, and one I have to build around him.' ”

While going through different interviews, Wood preferred GM candidates with a strong draft background because he figured they would get a haul in trading Stafford.


What did Campbell say, when told that they were going to trade Stafford?

“Dan said the same thing — ‘Let's go. Let's go!’ ” Wood remembers.


There was one last but vital question: How would they work together?

The Lions were about to hire Holmes and Campbell, even though they had never met.


“I introduced them via cellphone,” Wood said.

“You guys talk,” Wood said. “Because you're likely going to be working together, and I want to make sure that they see the world the same way.”


That’s where there was a bit of luck, too.

It was like they were meant to be together.


“Brad said, ‘Did he read my book?’ ” Hamp said. “They were so on the same page about everything — what kind of team they wanted to build, what kind of players, so we were pretty sure, you know.”

The next day, the Lions hired Campbell.


It would be disingenuous to say the Lions knew this would work out so spectacularly.

“That was a little bit of luck,” Hamp admitted.


At its core, this was an arranged marriage. “We thought we were doing the right thing, but, you know, it could have blown up,” she said.

It took tremendous courage for a brand-new owner to hire a first-time GM and a first-time coach. There were all kinds of examples in the NFL where that had failed in the past.


“Big reward comes with big risks sometimes,” Wood said.

But they trusted their process, guided by the principles on that whiteboard.


“We were pretty sure these were the right people,” Hamp said. “Dan, of course, played on the 0-and-16 team. He was in Detroit for a couple years and he and his wife, Holly, loved the city. And he has seen the team at probably its worst and still loved everything about it and really wanted to be here.”

But hiring Campbell and Holmes was just the first step.


Coming Monday: Part Two, Brad Holmes defines the on-field product.


Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

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https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/detroit-is/2025/01/12/detroit-lions-fan-stories-brandon-celeste-lee-sidney-walker-jr/77597880007/

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2025/01/12/how-detroit-lions-jared-goff-chant-got-its-start-at-ford-field/77630312007/

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How Brad Holmes transformed Detroit Lions draft strategy to build NFL's best roster


Jeff Seidel
Detroit Free Press

Paywall article.


Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series on how the Detroit Lions became the best team in the NFC. If you missed Part 1: "Matthew Stafford's secret was rocket fuel that revived the Lions."


Detroit Lions president Rod Wood leans back in his chair, sitting in his office at Lions headquarters.

Owner Sheila Hamp’s office is across the hall.


The rest of the key members of the Lions front office, including general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell, are all within about a 10-second walk. About 25 feet.

That’s all by design. It’s like a central brain trust — everything kind of pulsing out of that group, like neurons firing through a spinal cord. Everybody talking. Or debating. Everybody contributing. No egos. No excuses.


Like the shirt Chris Spielman wears: “Nobody cares. Work harder.”

It’s all part of the new Lions culture, which has led to the best regular season in team history — 15 wins, a No. 1 seed and a second straight NFC North title. A major reason they enjoyed this past weekend off with a first-round bye in the NFL playoffs.



“It's hard for people who are in it to describe their own culture because it's like the air you breathe,” Wood said. “It's easier for people who come from outside. Somebody comes in the building, and I think we've had all kinds of people recently coming in and they say, 'This place is different. This feels different. This feels like people are happy.' ”


Breath of fresh air

The air you breathe — that’s where the Lions are now.


But it wasn’t like flipping a switch or opening the windows.

If it was that easy, everybody in the NFL would do it.


Because it’s one thing to talk about changing a culture. To create a vision. To hire the right GM and coach.

But it’s another thing to actually do it. To transform an organization.


“I thought that that was the hardest task, in my opinion, when we first got here, was to get the culture in place,” Holmes said. “I did not think that at first. When you first get the job, you're thinking, ‘Oh, it's roster and players and coaches.’ ”

He paused.


“No, it was like you had to get this right,” he said. “That was the hardest thing.”


For the culture to spread, they needed a new language. A new way of thinking, a new way of seeing things, a new way of doing things, a new grading system, a new approach on how they scout players — just to match that culture.

Holmes has had to teach his philosophy to his scouts, getting everybody to look for the same traits, to value the same intangibles.


“I think it's a very collaborative, collective approach that everybody knows exactly what type of player we're looking for,” he said.


This, too, is part of the culture.


“It's something that me and Dan were in total alignment and lockstep on,” Holmes said. “It took some time for people to truly buy in. You don't just set the standard and say, ‘Yeah, this is what we're doing. This is what we're looking for.’


“It's human beings evaluating other human beings. So everybody's going to have their biases, different likes and don't-likes and still have it.”


What exactly are the Lions looking for?


Long before they started wearing T-shirts with “Grit” emblazoned across the front, they had to identify what they wanted.


“It's smarts,” Holmes said. “It's toughness. It's will. It's relentlessness. It's passion. High football-character guys that really, really love football. Sports is too hard, not to actually have an elite passion for it.”


Over time, it has gotten easier for everybody in the organization to understand what the Lions want.


After drafting a high-character, football-loving player like Amon-Ra St. Brown in the fourth round and seeing how he has turned into a cornerstone of the franchise, it’s easier for a scout to say: Yes, this is what the coaches want.


After drafting safeties like Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph — and seeing how they have transformed the defense — it gets easier to identify what a Detroit Lion should look like.


“Now, I think, over time, everybody knows exactly what we look for,” Holmes said, “because now they've seen who has succeeded.”

And who has not.

How do they sustain it?


Every summer, Holmes holds a camp for the Lions scouts reinforcing what the organization values, adding nuances.


One of Holmes’ tenets?


No college football scouting on TV.


“I always preach to our guys, like, 'Let TV be for what it is,' ” Holmes said. “It's television. It's made to be good, you know, but don't try to form evaluations off of it.”


Sustaining the culture? It’s far easier than building it.


“To sustain it, it's being who you authentically are, your real core values,” Holmes said. “We aim to do the right thing all the time.”


In the middle of everything

Why did Hamp move her office into the middle of everything?


“I felt like it was important to be present,” she said, sitting in that office. “But don't meddle. You know, I'm not going to tell Brad who to draft or what play Dan should call.”


But her physical presence is important, not only symbolically, but also practically.


The Lions' success stems from everybody being in alignment: the owner, the front office, the coaches, the players and the business side.


Which is more important than you might think.


“That was the vision, that was the whole organization,” she said, moving her hand from side to side. “Horizontal.”

There was a time when the Lions were out of sync. Back when general manager Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia were running the Lions (2018-20), the organization was splintered into parts that didn't meet until the very top — with Wood at the president’s level.


“I remember living through the Matt Patricia early days when the whole thing broke about the alleged rape in college,” Wood said. “I became the chief communication person. I'm writing the press releases that we were putting out there, dealing with the press. I'm dealing with the HR people. I'm dealing with the league, and you could do all that, but that's not a sustainable business model.”

Clearly, the Lions had some holes in their structure. So they hired Brian Facchini as the chief communications and brand officer — he came from Nike.


“We didn't have a Brian position,” Hamp said. “We went out and, you know, did a national search. And look what we stole from Nike.”

She smiles. That’s the competitor in her — always wanting to win. Even if it’s beating another company for talent.


The Lions hired Lindsay Verstegen, as the chief people and diversity officer. “Lindsay is amazing,” Hamp says proudly. “She's the head of HR. It’s bringing in people that fit the culture and understand it. As my friend Sandy said way back in the beginning, you get a few key people to buy in, and it will all come together.”


Facchini and Verstegen, while not known to the general public, are part of the core executive team.

In May 2022, the Lions promoted Mike Disner to chief operating officer. He has been in the NFL for 18 years, six with the Lions. He started as a salary-cap guru but has added business-side duties.


“We created the job that Mike now has, which is very unique,” Wood said. “I don't think anybody in the NFL has responsibility for football admin and business revenue.”

Now, everybody who reports to Wood has tentacles that touch both the business and football sides, which both fits the collaborative culture as well as being practical.


“I could not be the only person who knew (everything that) what was going on,” Wood said.

And now, there is so much collaboration, so many people taking different responsibilities, it has turned into a spider web of responsibilities.


That’s by design.

It goes back to Hamp’s philosophy: Hire good people, get out of their way and let them use their superpowers.


“It's not rocket science,” Hamp said. “It really isn't. I think I've always been a pretty good judge of character, just because of my family and how I grew up. I could always tell who was coming at me for whatever reason, so I think that was helpful.

continued..

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"I really wanted to dig into this thing and try to figure it out. No, I really didn't have any background in any of this. But, I think you realize what you don't know, and you bring in the great people to fill the holes. So when people ask me about Chris (Spielman) a lot — you know, and other teams and owners have called and I said, 'You know, yes, it's been fantastic, but has to be the right person.' ”

On top of the additions, there have been subtractions and organizational turnover.


As Wood has said: “Be slow to hire, quick to fire.”

If somebody is the wrong fit, move on.


“Once I dug into the organization, there were a lot of issues, just a lot of issues that needed to be cleaned up,” Hamp said. “Once I think people saw what was happening at the top, they realized maybe they would go out the door. So a lot of people left on their own, which was great.


"I thought, if you don't like this new vision, then you shouldn't be here. A lot of people self-selected, which was great. And other people that have been here a long time loved it and stayed.”


Like Disner?

“Exactly,” she said.



Disner’s role morphed several times, so he could manage Holmes and Campbell, a first-time GM and a guy who had never been a full-time head coach.

“We had brought in these two new leaders on the football side,” Wood said. “Dan had been an interim head coach, Brad had never been a GM, and they were going to need some help, building their staff out, hiring people, doing their contracts.”


Disner did that.

But he also represents those who stayed in the organization and have been through the bad times.


“I think there are a lot of good people in the organization that are still here, that saw the bad times and now are living in the good times,” Disner said. “It was a lot of listening, not only to each other, but to them as well on what they've seen over their time here.”


Again, give Hamp and the front office credit for truly listening.

So, they changed reporting structures. Changed job descriptions.


“We did bring in a lot of new people,” Disner said, “but we have had a lot of good people here that are still here.”


Brad Holmes' first NFL draft

One of the pivotal moments was Holmes’ first draft, in 2021.


There are some fascinating videos of the moment Holmes selected Penei Sewell with the seventh pick. As Holmes celebrated, jacked up on adrenaline and relief to get his guy, Hamp welcomed Sewell to the organization on a phone call.

But she wasn’t there just for a photo op.


“I wanted to make sure that he was going to do what he said he was going to do,” Hamp said of Holmes. “So I sat in a lot of the draft meetings, and oh my gosh, his process is incredible, so thorough. All the scouts are involved, the coaches are involved, the medical teams are involved.


"Obviously, he is the last word with Dan, but he listens and he gets his mind changed. He’s certainly not 'my way or the highway.' And that's really everybody in this organization.”

In the third round, Hamp questioned Holmes about not taking a receiver, a moment that was captured on a team video.


“What would we do if we don’t get a receiver out of the draft?” she asked.

That’s also part of the culture — open, honest dialogue, questioning each other, challenging each other. This isn’t all kumbaya — there are healthy disagreements and arguments.


“Well, we’ll still look at all of those receivers,” Holmes told Hamp. “You know we still got the USC kid and all of those kids, so we’ll still be in the position to get one because of the depth at the position.”

The USC kid? Well, that was St. Brown.


Trying to get over the hump


The transition was rocky to say the least, in that first season.

They scored 33 at San Francisco — and lost.


They experienced pure shock and heartbreak— a pure welcome to the Lions moment — when Baltimore's Justin Tucker kicked a game-winning NFL-record 66-yard field goal as time expired at Ford Field, the ball bonking off the crossbar.


And they lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 19-17 — a game that left Campbell in tears in a postgame interview.


“When you see your players give all that they have, and you lose that way, it's tough," Campbell said. "You don't want that for them. But we'll be better for it.”


The Lions went winless in their first 11 games (10 losses and a tie), and the heartbreak, if possible, went to another level.


“I think maybe the really big moment that I remember was the first game that we won against Minnesota, the first year and we scored … on the last play of the game,” Wood said. “It was almost like, OK, we're not going to lose every game.”

Behind the scenes, the Lions were changing everything, while trying to live with the remnants of the Patriot Way.


“You don't really want to come out and say we're rebuilding,” Wood said. “That's a word I know teams try to avoid, but it was what was really happening. We kind of had a roster that was really built in the vision of the New England way of playing football. And the New England way of playing football is different than other teams.”


It was a painful transition.


The Lions went 3-13-1 in 2021.


Then, they started 1-6 in 2022.

Behind the scenes, Wood, Holmes and the coaches were giving Hamp different tools to measure progress, even though they weren’t winning.


“So, one of the things we were doing, without the wins showing up, was tracking, are we really getting better?” Wood said. “And how can we track it? It’s all these rookies that we have.


"How much more are they playing? Are they getting better grades in this game than the last game? It’s the margin of victory. How much closer are the games we play? Are teams having a hard time coming back after they play the Lions because we're so physical and so violent? And so you could show all this progress without the wins and losses, so that you still had confidence the plan was working,”

Because it was a tough ask — another year of patience.


“Dan and Brad and I were doing that,” Wood said. “We're showing Sheila, we're showing her whole family that, trust us, this is going to work and the wins will come because they had to be patient during a pretty rough period of time, especially coming off of three years were really rough. So it wasn't like this was starting from scratch to be patient. This was restarting after a tough three years and we had to be patient for almost a year and a half.”

But Hamp did indeed remain patient.


“We talked about it all the time that, like, when it turns, it's going to turn,” Disner said. “Because you could tell the way Brad approached the draft and free agency, the way Dan approached practice, dealing with the team. You know, everything that you know that goes into being a head coach. You could tell that, we were inching closer and closer despite losing. ... But you saw that it was building towards something, and you knew that once it hit, it was gonna hit.”


Hitting a home run in the 2022 draft

Holmes knew everything was changing after the 2022 training camp.

The Lions had had a great 2022 draft (including taking Aidan Hutchinson, Jameson Williams and Kerby Joseph with three of their top four picks).


“When it first hit me, like, man, OK, it's working,” he said.

He could see how the players were buying in.


“I was like, these players know Dan has their best interest, like he knows how much they care, how much he cares about them,” Holmes said. “And that's when I really was like, OK, we're going to be just fine. So even when it got dark there and then it was like, we're so close, we're so close. That's why it's like, it gave you so much confidence.”

In many ways, how the Lions were viewed nationally changed after appearing on “Hard Knocks,” the annual weekly HBO series filmed during training camp. Most teams don’t want to be on the show because it can be a massive distraction and creates a lot more work for the staff; most NFL teams lean into secrecy, not transparency.


“Rod and I had a lot of conversations about it,” Facchini said.

So, the Lions volunteered to do it because this team was so compelling.


“We knew this is a really likable group,” Facchini said. “Didn't have a ton of success. There's a chance they could pick us anyway. So let's just raise our hand. Let's lean into it.”

While the team continued to struggle under Campbell in his first year, the front office believed there was progress.


“We believe there's something here,” Facchini said. “We believe that we're on the right track and we think that if we elevate this and give the country a view of this, they're gonna understand what we are going through.”

Obviously, it went better than they could have imagined.


The nation fell in love with Campbell and this compelling group of characters. Everything about them came across as so real and genuine. It was like the nation got a peek into the Lions' culture, a glance through the window.


And nobody could foresee all the special moments that went viral, nothing bigger than Hutchinson singing Michael Jackson's hit "Billie Jean."


“You couldn’t script some of those moments that went over the top, but you knew there was something exciting about this group,” Facchini said.


Frustration for Hamp

Perhaps, the absolute lowest moment — at least for Hamp — came earlier in that 2021 season.

The Lions held a ceremony on the field at Ford Field for Calvin Johnson and Hamp was booed relentlessly by fans.


It hit Spielman in the gut. Like one of his family members had been insulted.

At that moment, Spielman knew that he was all-in. That he cared deeply for Hamp, this woman who he really didn’t know that well when he took the job.


“She's extremely competitive. She cares deeply,” Spielman said. “I took that personal and it felt like they're doing that to a family member. You know you're involved when you start taking things personal.”

Looking back on it, Spielman said Hamp’s patience was key to everything.


“I think we knocked it out of the park with both Dan and Brad, obviously, where we are now,” Spielman said, recently. “There was also an understanding that this is going to take a minute to do if you want to do it right. So, we got to have the assurance that you want to stay patient with this and trust what we're doing. And she was and she kept to her word, which is great, because a lot of times there's outside influences, outside pressure.”

And yet, the team kept struggling.


To take some of the pressure off the growing criticism and to throw her support to this regime, Hamp made a rare in-season public appearance on Oct. 26, 2022.


"I know this is difficult," Hamp said in a four-minute meeting with reporters.


At that moment, the Lions had the worst defense in the NFL, an offense that had not scored a touchdown in eight quarters, and Campbell was getting eaten alive in the news media for making mistakes managing games.


"A rebuild is hard," she said then. "But we really believe in our process, we really believe we're going to turn this thing around the right way, through the draft.


"It requires patience, it's frustrating. Am I frustrated? Absolutely. Are the fans frustrated? Absolutely. Are you guys frustrated? But I think we really are making progress."

Spielman, too, could see it coming.


“It was just a matter of getting over the hump,” Spielman said.

And that’s when something magical started to happen.


Part 3, coming Tuesday: Chris Spielman builds bridges to front-office success. Read Part 1 here.


Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

[whatever_gong82]

Behind scenes, Lions rookie Manu finding himself: 'He's using that big-ass frame of his and he's using it right'

Justin Rogers
Jan 13


Allen Park — During the 2024 regular season, 80 players took the field for the Detroit Lions, including 51 of the current 53-man roster and 11 of 16 on the team’s practice squad.

Signed the day after Christmas, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s lack of playing time was understandable. He dressed the final two games as the emergency quarterback, remaining behind Hendon Hooker on the depth chart to close the campaign. Maybe the two swap roles for the postseason — that remains to be seen — but the only way anyone wants Bridgewater seeing action is if the Lions unexpectedly annihilate a playoff opponent, giving them the ability to pull starter Jared Goff early.


The other Lion who hasn’t taken a snap this season is rookie offensive tackle Giovanni Manu. Drafted as a project, he’s been a healthy scratch for all 17 games, quietly being developed behind the scenes.


Detroit is enjoying a stretch of unprecedented success, at least since the inception of the Super Bowl. Coming off an NFC Championship appearance in 2023, and earning the No. 1 seed for the first time in the modern era, fans are enjoying the present more than fixating on the future for the first time since the mid-1990s.

Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lingering fascination with what’s next. And despite establishing a franchise record for victories in a season, as well as a new longest winning streak, people remain curious about what has been going on with the massive Tongan who captured the attention of NFL talent evaluators during the pre-draft process despite attending the University of British Columbia, a program about as far off the radar as a prospect can play.


Reports on Manu’s progress dried up after training camp. That’s when media is barred from watching the entirety of practice, transitioning to a truncated viewing of stretching and a handful of individual drills. Nothing meaningful beyond attendance is gleaned during those windows.

Unable to get eyes on Manu, we’re left to the observations of those not facing restriction. So ahead of the team’s first playoff game, I checked in with the player, the veterans who share his position, those he battles against daily in practice, and the assistant coach who has been closely working with him behind the scenes to paint a picture of how Manu has been coming along.


A potential reward worth the risk

Every NFL draft pick is an investment, but each carries distinctive expectations for delivering dividends.

First-round picks typically bring the quickest returns. That’s certainly been the case for Lions general manager Brad Holmes. During his four years in the role, he's landed multiple blue-chip talents in the opening round. Offensive tackle Penei Sewell, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, and running back Jahmyr Gibbs are franchise building blocks, already viewed among the league's best at their positions. Linebacker Jack Campbell is on that path, as well. And while it’s too early to say with cornerback Terrion Arnold, he did log 15 starts and more than 900 defensive snaps as a rookie on a 15-2 team.


The deeper into the draft a player is selected, the lower the expectations. That dip is countered by an increased ability to take risks in search of reward, something that's easier to do when you’ve cultivated a roster as deep and talented as Holmes has during his tenure.

Without a doubt, Manu is a risk-reward swing, and a sizeable one at that. Holmes coughed up a future third-round pick to the New York Jets to snag the lineman in the back half of the fourth round.


The general manager had initially planned to be patient, hopeful Manu would slide to the Lions, where they held pick No. 164 toward the end of the fifth. But Holmes' determination to not let the prospect get away shifted before going to bed the night before the draft’s third day. And when coach Dan Campbell expressed a similar sentiment about Manu before the fourth round kicked off, Holmes tore up the phone lines in search of a willing trade partner.

Manu looks fresh off a factory assembly line charged with building the perfect offensive tackle. He’s big, long and athletic, standing 6-foot-7 and tipping the scales at 354 pounds. We’re not talking a sloppy 354, but lean and proportioned, relative to his size. And to seal the deal, he showcased elite speed and explosion at his pro day, which he paired with above-average strength.


After senior personnel executive John Dorsey brought Manu to Holmes’ attention, the GM asked the team’s offensive line coaches Hank Fraley and Steve Oliver to evaluate the prospect's tape while scheduling one of the team's 30 allotted pre-draft visits with the behemoth. A few weeks later, the Lions pulled the trigger on Manu, banking on their ability to transform his gifts and raw talent into a future starter.


A predictably sluggish start

Even in a world of giants, Manu stands out. He towered over the other players at the team’s rookie minicamp, and when the veterans reported, only veteran Dan Skipper stacked up.


Measurables matter, of course, but you won't get far in football without the other stuff. Fundamentals, technique, knowledge of the playbook, it all matters. Manu matched up physically, but he didn’t fully grasp what he was doing in those early months. Who could blame him given the jump in competition he was making? Not only is an NFL playbook far more voluminous, there were rule adjustments to consider. For example, there’s one less down and one more player on the field in Canadian college football.

Totaled, Manu often looked more like a baby giraffe than a player ready to block a starting-caliber NFL defensive end. Hell, he was struggling against guys who would be out of the league by the end of camp.


“My journey was way different than most guys in this locker room,” Manu said. “I come from another country, different level of ball, and then you come here to the highest level of ball, playing against the best in the world. It was a big step, a huge learning curve.”

What gave the Lions confidence, from the pre-day process through the end of camp, was Manu’s willingness to grind and how well he seemed to grasp what he had been asked to do in college.


“A lot of the stuff with the run game was the same, watching his tape,” Oliver said. “We knew that. The box is very similar for them. In Canada, Canadian rules, they ran very similar run concepts that you'll see on college and NFL tape. In terms of pass protection, their blitzes are different because there's an extra player.


“…He had a good coach in college and Gio knew their stuff,” Oliver continued. “One thing where I felt very confident about him was that he'd be able to learn the stuff because of his knowledge of everything they did in their offense. He could tell you what they did, what they called it, everything that pertained to him, their keys and rules and stuff like that. He was able to explain that in detail, so you knew he had the ability to learn it. It was just how quickly would that be with our volume of info?”

As the saying goes, there’s only one way to eat an elephant: One bite at a time. So while trying to get Manu up to speed on the big picture, Fraley and Oliver took the approach of focusing on one thing at a time with the rookie — getting his pad level better, then his kick slide, then his hand placement on an outside zone run scheme. Day after day, bite after bite, they leaned into the incremental improvements adding up.


And, by all accounts, they have.

Recently, Manu watched the film from his first practices with the Lions, those rookie minicamp sessions in May. He couldn't believe it was the same guy.


“Yeah, looking back at those times, I was like, 'Geez,’” Manu said. “So it's definitely coming along. There's still a lot more room to improve, but I'm just thankful to be here in this organization. They knew my journey, and they knew it'll take some time to develop, but it's nice to see there's some light at the end of the tunnel.”

continued..

[whatever_gong82]

Finding confidence

Things turned a corner when Manu started grasping the playbook and his role within individual calls. That got him past overthinking and allowed him to rely more heavily on his instincts and athleticism.


“I'm getting to that point now where like I'm not thinking, I'm just going out there and I know what I have to do,” Manu said. “When I first got here, many of the plays were unique to me and a lot more complex. Now, when a certain pass pro is called, I know what my assignment is, so as soon as we're up to the line of scrimmage, I already know what I have to do. Boom, snap count is called, I know who I've got to block. Compared to when I look at minicamp, it's like play's called in the huddle and I'm still thinking. Then, by the time I finally know what I have to do, the ball's snapped. Now, I'm late off the ball and I'm scrambling trying to find out who to block.”

Knowing his assignment manifests as confidence. And while Oliver said Manu’s made tremendous growth in all facets of his game, it’s the rookie's confidence translating into consistency that shows up above all other improvements.


“I can't pinpoint one specific thing because he's a more confident, totally transformed player,” Oliver said. “You see the strength when he gets hold of guys, plus the feet and the athletic ability.


“...Even early on, you'd see a flash of what you saw on his college tape, just a man amongst boys,” Oliver said. “Every so often, you'd get just a glimpse of it. When you started to see him make strides, it would show up more consistently in the same week or the same practice. Now, when it doesn't show up, it's like, 'Dude, what happened?' Instead of being surprised and happy when you see it, now you're wondering when you don't. ‘Hey, why didn't that happen?’ Now, he can answer that question, which shows he's understanding it and feeling it.


“You can ask, 'Hey, why did you miss here?' He'll say, 'Yeah, my aiming point was too wide. I missed with my hands. My eyes got bad,’” Oliver said. “Before, he didn't know why he lost a rep or why something went wrong. He couldn't feel it. That's been great because there's so much more self-correction at practice and he can fix things the next play.”

Importantly, Manu's teammates are seeing the growth, as well.

“I think he just needed to play more physically,” offensive tackle Taylor Decker said. “I've seen that progress a lot in the last couple of months. He's a physically imposing person when he chooses to be.


“I'm sure it was a lot of him, and everybody is going to take their different amount of time, but he's done a really good job of trying to take that next step,” Decker said. “Quick feet, size, speed, he's got all that. It's about getting that mindset shift where I'm not just happy to be here, I'm trying to improve and get better. I think that the big thing for him is tapping into that physicality. That's what I've seen recently.”

How about the starting defensive players who match up against Manu daily in practice? Defensive end Josh Paschal can see the confidence shining through.


“It all starts knowing who you are, especially at that size and with that strength,” Paschal said. “You need to tell yourself, 'I belong here and I can exceed everybody's expectations.' …He has a very strong reach block. In the run game, I feel like he's going to be a menace. I feel like the coaches have done a great job developing him. I'm excited to see what his future holds.”

Defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike took the praise to another level. He said in his four years with the team, he's rarely seen players develop as quickly as Manu and the team’s other rookie offensive lineman, Christian Mahogany. The latter notably impressed during his first start last month.


“He's out of the baby-giraffe stage and he's a full-grown giraffe or whatever the hell you want to call it,” Onwuzurike said about Manu. “He's using that big-ass frame of his and he's using it right. Any run plays, he's coming downhill and he's scooting guys out of the way. His form is good. I don't know what Hank has been teaching him, but he's learning quick.

“…His improvement, I would say, has been the same as Mahogany's,” Onwuzurike said. “Both of them during the offseason, I'd say it was really easy to beat them (one-on-one). Really easy. Three months later, they've developed so quickly, they're playing so much better.”


Lofty goals

Manu's ambitions are as large as his frame. He wants to be the next great Polynesian star, joining the ranks of Sewell, who Manu listed as an inspiration the night he was drafted.

“My goal is to be that star tackle here when my name's called, just like Penei,” Manu said.


Perhaps a more appropriate comparison is Philadelphia’s Jordan Mailata. Unlike Sewell, who entered the league polished and ready to start immediately, Mailata had no formal experience playing football. He was a rugby player in Australia before pursuing a career in the NFL.

Like the Lions, the Eagles banked on Mailata’s potential, taking him in the seventh round of the 2018 draft. It wasn’t until the middle of his third season he got an opportunity to see the field, but in the years since, he’s developed into an All-Pro talent.


“He's a huge inspiration to me,” Manu said. “In the Polynesian community, when anyone makes it to this level, you instantly hear about them. When he made it, I remember my parents told me about it. This was when I just recently moved to North America. I just tracked his story throughout my whole collegiate football career up until he got his contract extension.


“I keep telling myself every day, if he can do it, why can't I?” Manu said. “I'm hoping to relive that story or even go beyond that.”

Manu is surrounded by the right pieces to maximize his potential. In addition to the coaching of Fraley and Oliver, he’s soaking up knowledge daily from Decker and Sewell. With the latter, he admits he hasn’t been able to invest much time in his protege, but looks forward to building a stronger bridge during the offseason.


“Right now, I'm in a mode where I have to be on my Ps and Qs,” Sewell said. “I don't really have time for that. Like, if I see something during practice, of course I'll say something, but my main focus is getting ready for the next game, the next opponent.

“…But you see his attitude developing on the field,” Sewell said. “There are glimpses of him having great finishes, things you don't see from other people, even the great ones in this league. He's on the right trajectory.”


What might get lost in Manu’s development is the role of Detroit’s defenders, particularly Aidan Hutchinson. Before he went out with injury, Manu was tasked daily with slowing the potential Defensive Player of the Year in practice. Not surprisingly, the rookie often took a beating. It could be frustrating, but the coaches offered continuous encouragement through those one-on-one defeats.

“I've never sensed any fear,” Oliver said. “He's never been afraid of any of those guys. It was more about being afraid of making a mistake than worrying about Aidan being across from him. That works in his favor. He'd be like, 'Hey, what happened on that rep?' And you have to say, 'Hey, that's just a really good move, man. You can work on this a little bit, but sometimes that's as tough or good as it's going to get.' You can see, yeah, he set pretty good, and maybe you can do this or that a little bit better, but you have to anticipate it and do what you can sometimes.”


It brings to memory former Lions guard Larry Warford, who battled similar mental hurdles after getting repeatedly bullied as a rookie by teammates Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley. Those practices nearly broke Warford’s spirit, but ended up making him a much better player, one that would earn multiple Pro Bowl honors later in his career.

Recently, Terrell Williams pulled Manu aside. Detroit’s defensive line coach has had a front-row seat to the rookie’s development through coaching his position group and he wanted to let the rookie know what he was seeing.

“I think it was in Chicago, Williams came up to me, and he told me, with the way I'm going, I could be a star in this league,” Manu said.


Oliver is reluctant to speak out of turn and put any timetables on Manu’s development or when he’d potentially be ready to contribute. But while there’s a clear focus on the team’s immediate future — the pursuit of a Super Bowl championship — the coach can’t wait for people to get eyes on his pupil’s progress next offseason.

“Absolutely,” Oliver said. “I love working with him. We have such a great room, but I love the way he comes in every day. He's ready to work, he's ready to learn, he asks good questions, he asks good questions to the veterans, as well. It's really good to have somebody who cares to the level he cares and puts in the work. That makes my job easy and fun. Obviously, it's rewarding to see the confidence building in him. That's one of the best things I get to see every day.”



Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net

X: Justin_Rogers

Bluesky: Justin-Rogers

[froot loops]

After reading those last three articles, I'm going to go run through a wall.

[DanO]

After reading those last three articles, I'm going to go run through a wall.

Maybe I should read them and join you.

[froot loops]

One of the most interesting parts of the first article is how they came across Brad Holmes. Disner watched an interview and was mesmerized and showed it to the others. That story has been told before but I never really knew the origin of the video. It turns out the NFL has canned general interview videos for all kinds of candidates for different positions. That is something I never knew and it also tells a story of the thoroughness of their candidate search. NFL teams are notorious for not doing that expansive of an interview process.

[Mainevent]

Yeah, I thought that was interesting as well. Lots of good stuff in those articles - also Spielman's call to Payton about Campbell, Campbell telling them he'd bring good coaches with him.

And I'll keep saying this, I took plenty of shots at Sheila in that first year, but she really is a smart leader. Glad to have her running things.

[froot loops]

Before Lombardi left for North Carolina a constant theme on The GM Shuffle podcast was that it was important to look back on what got you into this place when you make a GM and/or coach hire. What were the things you did wrong? He specifically mentioned this in regards to the Bears and Giants, but it could have been just as easily the Lions four years ago. I'm reading that article, it sounds like that is what they did.

One thing that made it easier for the Lions is they did have a quarterback and they were able to make a trade to get another quarterback along with picks. But they had to hit on the picks and they had to rehabilitate the new quarterback. Not easy.

[Sanders Fan]

Dan Graziano of ESPN fame thinks Johnson is going to the Raiders and Glenn to the Saints.

[whatever_gong82]

Pride of Detroit Direct
by Jeremy Reisman


It’s been a nice little break for myself and the Detroit Lions, but we’re back into the swing of things and have a full slate of newsletters for this Divisional Round week. That kicks off with a little mini-newsletter to start the week. With no game to recap, I’ll just be offering my thoughts on the Wild Card round and this week’s opponent, the Washington Commanders.

The Lions finally catch a few breaks in the Wild Card round


All season, Lions Twitter was plastered with the Thanos “Fine, I’ll do it myself” GIF that google tells me is from a mid-credits scene of a movie called “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The Detroit Lions were doing everything humanly possible to win the division and earn the top seed in the NFC, but the rest of the league wasn’t doing them any favors. Despite going 15-2 in the regular season, the Lions never had more than a single game lead in the division, and for nearly the entire year, the No. 1 seed was a three-team race. As the Vikings escaped every possible pitfall, the season was becoming almost as frustrating as it was thrilling.

Ultimately, the Lions did have to do it themselves. Thankfully, they did. But it was hard not to feel a little pissed off that while the Chiefs, Eagles, Rams, and Bills all got to rest starters in Week 18, the Lions still had to go full-throttle to the very end to earn their rest week.


Thankfully, the Wild Card round finally provided some of that respite for Detroit. Not only will the Lions face off against the six seed in the playoffs, but their two biggest rivals were knocked out in the opening round.

The NFC playoff field was littered with a bunch of tired matchups and teams who have been thorns in Detroit’s side. While most Lions fans wanted to see the Packers in the second round–likely because it would mean the two-seeded Eagles would’ve been eliminated and Detroit has beaten Green Bay five out of the last six times–an in-division game has many pitfalls. No teams know you better, and even the slight possibility of getting eliminated by a divisional foe is a nightmare scenario. Certainly, I don’t have to remind some of you folks about the 1992 season, when Detroit beat Green Bay in the final week of the regular season, only to have the Packers come back to the Silverdome in the Wild Card round to defeat Detroit and advance. We could’ve had Brett Favre-to-Sterling Sharpe part two with Sam Darnold-to-Jordan Addison. Oof, I’m sorry for making you visualize that. Send me your therapy bills for the PTSD.


Thankfully, the Commanders won, rendering Monday night’s game relatively meaningless to Detroit. Plus, the clock struck midnight on Darnold, anyways.

That Commanders win also took out one of the two teams the Lions have lost to this year. I don’t know if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are as good as the Week 2 team that defeated Detroit all the way back in September, but it’s clear they presented a matchup problem for the Lions. In the past two years, the Lions have averaged 30.0 points per game. In their three matchups with the Buccaneers, they managed just 22.3. The Lions are now spared of that challenge moving forward, and we, the audience, are spared of a boring fourth installment of an old NFC Central rivalry.


Washington also, debatably, offers the best matchup for the Lions in the Divisional Round. Of the seven playoff teams, the Commanders have by far the worst run defense (26th in DVOA, 30th in YPC), the most points allowed (23.0, 18th), and they headed into the postseason with a 1-4 record against teams who made the playoffs.

The only teams that have really given the Lions offense trouble are those who can either stop the run or provide a pass rush without needing extra defenders. They’re terrible at stopping the run, and per NFL Pro, the Commanders rank 17th in pressure rate despite the fact that they’re sixth in blitz rate. Dan Quinn is still in the very early stages of building that defense, and while there’s been improvement as the season has gone on, they are still a below average unit that will have offensive coordinator Ben Johnson–arguably with some extra motivation this week–drooling.


Things are a little less imbalanced when it comes to the Commanders offense against the Lions defense. Detroit is still in the exploratory phase with their defense after production dropped off a cliff following a litany of injuries. The return of Alex Anzalone certainly stopped some of the bleeding against the Vikings, but a one-game sample size is not enough to definitively declare their defense “fixed.”

Meanwhile, the Commanders offense ranks fifth in points scored (28.5 PPG), sixth in DVOA, and fourth in EPA. They’re well balanced, they offer tight ends and running backs who will test Detroit’s linebacking corps, and they pass protect well enough (ninth-lowest pressure rate) to give Jayden Daniels time in the pocket. And Daniels’ late-game magic is now a thing, and he proved last week going on the road in a playoff game is not too big of a moment for him.


Still, one has to wonder if things will eventually catch up with the Commanders. They’ve won each of their last five games on the final play from scrimmage, they’re 8-3 in one-score games, and at some point, Daniels is going to make some rookie mistakes, right? RIGHT??? Amazingly, Daniels has avoided most rookie pitfalls. He only has nine interceptions on the season and his 1.7 turnover worthy play percentage is THIRD BEST among the 26 quarterbacks with at least 360 dropbacks this season.

Regardless, I’d still rather face Daniels than a veteran quarterback like Matthew Stafford, even with the added threat of mobility. Ford Field will do everything to make this the toughest, most high-pressure situation Daniels has ever played in. And given he’ll have to keep up with the best offense in the league, I like the Lions’ chances.

 

[whatever_gong82]

Chris Spielman is Detroit Lions' secret weapon who unlocked this Super Bowl track

Paywall article.


Jeff Seidel
Detroit Free Press



Editor's note: This is Part 3 of a three-part series on how the Detroit Lions became the best team in the NFC after decades of agony. If you missed Part 1: "Matthew Stafford's secret was rocket fuel that revived the Lions." And Part 2: "How Brad Holmes transformed the Lions' draft strategy to build NFL's best roster."


There is no honor among thieves. Especially in the NFL.

But it is the highest form of compliment.


You want to know how much respect the Detroit Lions have gained in the NFL? You want to know how this organization is viewed?

The rest of the NFL is trying to steal — or at the very least copy — what the Lions have built.


Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn are both candidates for head coaching jobs. Chris Spielman has interviewed for the New York Jets general manager job.


This is what happens in the NFL, when you taste success — the Lions won the NFC North and enjoyed a weekend bye.

This is what the Lions had done for years, trying to import success from other teams.


“Right now a lot of people are asking me, ‘How do they find their own Dan Campbell?' ” Lions president and CEO Rod Wood said recently, smiling. “Well, good luck."

For years, Wood said everybody tried to find the next legendary coach Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. Now, other teams are trying to copy the Lions Way.


“They're asking us,” Wood said. “And we said, ‘Well, what do you want?' ”

But they answer: “Well, we don't know.”


“How are you going to find the right person if you don't know what you want?” Wood said.

Right there. That’s the essence of what has changed with the Lions' culture.


You have to know what you want before you can look for it. Whether that’s front office people. Coaches. Staff. Or even players.

“What we wanted was a leader,” Wood said. “We wanted somebody who was going to embrace culture as a big part of their job, and not necessarily the offensive genius or the defensive genius, or an experienced head coach or a young person or an older person. It was somebody who was a true leader. And leadership is hard to identify unless you see it.”



Spielman's unique role


Suddenly, other teams are trying to mimic the Lions' structure, trying to recapture the magic happening in Allen Park. And while the Jets are reportedly interested in interviewing Spielman, other teams are trying to copy his unusual role.

But the truth is, it’s impossible to copy because Spielman is so unique.


He floats through the Lions organization touching everything. He sits in on executive meetings. He watches film with the scouts. He bounces ideas off Holmes, sometimes challenging him, sometimes praising him — “it can be a lonely job,” Spielman said.


He slips ideas to the coaches, offering trick plays to Johnson.

It’s like the spirit of the Lions — the heart and soul — floating through every corner of the organization.


“I will tell you several teams got very intrigued with it and have reached out to me to ask me how this role works,” Wood said. “One team, I even got so far as — I won’t tell you the team or the person — but I talked to one of their legendary players who was considering taking the job, right?”

Wood basically said: You gotta be egoless. You gotta be a servant.


“And when I talked to him, he said, ‘Well, I don't know that I could do that,’ ” Wood said. “I said, ‘Well, yeah, you have to do it the way Chris is doing that or you're going to be viewed as the owner’s spy or the president’s spy.'


"So, I think, as far as I know, we're the only team that has this kind of specific role that is kind of working.”

And it works because of how Spielman is approaching it.


“I think it would only work with somebody like Chris,” Wood said. “You know, he has to be somebody that doesn't have an ego, doesn't look for credit, doesn't look to do somebody else's job. And I think that's the way he was as a player. I mean, he's kind of still a player in his mind. And he just wants me to tell him what to do, and then he'll go do it. So, it wouldn't work if it was somebody else.”

Over time, Spielman’s role has morphed.

“He sits in a lot of the top scouting meetings, just like one of Brad's assistants,” Wood said. “He goes over to Ford Field and talks to the folks over there about the game, talks to ownership about the game. We have an ownership call every week.


"Chris is on that and helps explain to Mrs. Ford what happened in the game from a football perspective, and he brings a ton of credibility, not only inside the organization, but with the Ford family, because they remember him as a player, loved him. So … our organization structure, I don't think it could be easily replicated.”

It might be the most unique role in the NFL.


“Everyone wants a piece of Chris,” Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp said. “The coaches love him. The players love him. You know, everyone on the staff loves him. You know he's incredible.”

Yes, now some teams want him as well.

There is something intriguing about what Spielman has done. When Spielman gives his weekly talks to the business side, he will tell them secrets about the team.


“With the understanding that whatever said in there stays in there, and it's establishing trust,” Spielman said. “It's like marriage or relationships. Once trust is gone, it's over, it's done.”

Anyone who works for the Lions is invited.


“We don't want people to feel like they work for the Lions,” Spielman said. “We want people to feel like they are Detroit Lions. And in order to do that, you have to invest in them. You have to extend trust to them, and you have to take some risk involved with that. And you know, I thought that it's worth the risk. It's worth the investment.”

Spielman and his wife went to a cheerleading practice.


“We did football drills with the cheerleaders,” Spielman said. “We're doing one-on-one tackling and showing how to wrap. It was fun.”

And Spielman has given talks to the people who work in ticket sales, role-playing talking to a customer.


“You didn't make the sale today. So what?” he said. “Make the next one.”

He paused: “That culture has to permeate throughout the whole organization,” he said. “Has to permeate with suite sales, ticket sales. I mean, when I go and talk, I don't just talk about football. I talk about life and stuff I believe in.”

As he explains it, it starts to feel like a motivational talk.


“There's also a standard that has to be set within all parts of the organization,” Spielman said passionately. “And that standard must never be compromised. It can't be compromised, or you can't be a part of it. ...

"Don't be afraid to fail. Don't fear. Can't operate out of fear. You operate out of victory, right? And I think that's what we do.”


And yes, that, too, is now part of the new Lions culture. From the way they hire to the way they draft. To the way Campbell goes for it on fourth down.

You can’t live in fear — that’s part of the culture.


Culture to the test


Earlier this season, in late November, Lions GM Brad Holmes was driving to Lions headquarters, and his phone started going crazy.


“I think it was after the Thanksgiving game,” he said. “We had multiple players on IR. I'm driving in and I'm getting these text messages. So and so is on IR. So and so is on IR.”

It has been the story of the 2024 team: A ridiculous number of injuries.


“I hate it for the players — that's who I hate it for,” he said.

He pauses: “But I’m not gonna pout about it.”

No. It’s another challenge. Another obstacle. Another fierce test of the culture.


“Again, it's back to the culture, back to what Dan says all the time, ‘it's about the work,’ ” Holmes said. “I'm the same way. It's about the work.


"This what it's about and we just were aggressive in attacking guys that we thought could fit.”

Now, from the outside, it looked like the Lions went into scramble mode, pulling guys off the streets, just trying to find bodies.

But that’s simply not true.


“A lot of people say, ‘How do they find these guys off the street?’ ” Holmes said. “Really, the only guy that was technically on the street was really Jamal Adams. All these other guys were on practice squads.”


They were players the Lions had identified long ago. After all, players on any team's practice squad are fair game to sign with another club.

They were players the Lions were monitoring because they fit the Lions. Fit the culture. Fit everything. These were Lions who didn’t know they were Lions yet.


“We knew these are the guys that we like, guys that fit,” Holmes said.

The Lions have truly become an egoless organization. No one takes the credit, but everybody seems to credit somebody else. And Holmes gives all kinds of credit to Rob Lohman, pro director of scouting. "We had those guys stacked up," Holmes said.

The other part of the culture is being patient.


So, when the outside world was screaming for a defensive end to replace the injured Aidan Hutchinson, Holmes didn’t rush or do anything rash.

“It got to five edge rushers (who were hurt),” Holmes sighed. “That was like, whoever thought of that? But it was like, well, you can't be a prisoner of the moment just because the whole world is creating this urgency of, 'What are you gonna do?' ... And it's like, no, we have a process. We're gonna find the right person. We're gonna be patient.”


Laughter in the halls


Winning, of course, makes everything easier.


But the vibe around the Lions is unmistakable.

It’s a culture where “everybody's in it for the right thing and the right result, with nobody looking for credit and nobody looking to blame anybody if things don't work,” Wood said.

And it’s making everybody feel valued.


“Really, I wanted everyone in this organization to feel that their role is important, that they're honored and I think, you know, they really do,” Hamp said. “And it's, you know, it's, it's a joy to see.”

Actually, she can hear it.

“You'll hear laughter in the halls,” she said. “We actually have fun. It's apparent. You know, it was never that way. It was like creeping around here. To hear, people chatting and laughing and having a good time — it's all over the organization.”



But no one is satisfied.

“We are in no way a finished product,” Lions chief operating officer Mike Disner said. “But hopefully we're trending toward a place where players want to be here, coaches want to be here, staff wants to be here, and everyone is moving toward the same direction and thinking about the whole organization, the whole community, the city of Detroit and what each of us can do to improve every aspect of the organization.”


Before every game, Campbell meets with ownership and explains how he expects the game to play out.

“It almost always goes the way he envisions,” Wood said. “If we do this, this is what's gonna happen if they do that. It's amazing how accurate he is.”


For all the work they put into hiring Campbell, he turned out to be a home run.

“I don't know if I've ever been around anybody who's as good a leader as him or as emotionally intelligent as he is,” Wood said. “He knows exactly what to say at the right time, the right way, when to not say something. He's incredibly funny. I mean, it's just a fun guy to work with, as is Brad.”


Holmes is known for his draft picks, but Wood has seen him grow as a manager.

“He had never really managed people,” Wood said. “I think he's got a really good eye for talent, not only players, but people that work for him, right? And he's grown a lot in terms of how he grows his staff. So I think, right now, he's become an excellent manager of people. In addition to being a good general manager.”

continued..

[whatever_gong82]

Primed for playoff run


Campbell sprang up in the Lions locker room.


“You guys look like you remember who the (expletive) you are!” he screamed a week ago after the Lions won their 15th game, clinched the NFC North, earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs .

Pacing back and forth, brimming with pride, Campbell flashed a huge smile.


“That was awesome!” he screamed. “All I could think about is, man, we’ve been forged in this stuff now.”

Forged — what a perfect word, as if they were formed in a fire.


“This has been three years in the making — some of it four,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Like that just doesn’t happen.”

No, it doesn’t. It’s an incredible story, really. How this organization has been transformed — blasted and hardened and turned into something new.


Hamp was in that locker room that Sunday night, celebrating with her team after the Lions beat the Vikings. St. Brown, that kid from USC, took a photo with her, which only seemed fitting.

She set the culture and he embodies it.


What a story.

How the daughter of an auto icon turned a losing organization into a winner. She had never hired or fired anybody before taking over this organization. Didn’t study business at Yale. Didn’t even study it while getting her master’s degree.


But she had a vision, hired the right people, stayed patient during the rough times and was smart enough to get out of the way.

This was her vision.


Actually, it’s bigger than her vision.

“I thought if, if we could actually do this thing, the city would go crazy,” she said. “What I didn't anticipate was the state, the country, in a lot of ways.”


It all comes back to people. Hiring the right people.

“You know, I think about my dad a lot,” Hamp says. “I know he knew Chris, from the old days. He loved Chris. I know he would love Brad. I know he would love Dan. I know he loved Rod. And he would love Mike.”


And now, Hamp is carrying her father with her into the playoffs.

“I think he loves what's going on,” she says. “I really do. I think he's watching.”


Editor's note: To read the first two parts of this series, find Part 1 and Part 2.


Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.