Allen Park — If you’re busy starting fires, you’d better be able to put them out.
Duce Staley seems to understand that, and it’s one reason why the Lions’ running backs coach is relishing his new role — and responsibilities — in Detroit.
But it’s also why he’s out there doing what he was doing Monday as the team returned to practice field following the first off-day of training camp. The pads won’t come on until Tuesday, but the gloves already are off, and the fans in the stands might’ve caught a glimpse of it as Staley engaged in some seriously entertaining trash-talking with linebacker Alex Anzalone, among others, at the end of a team period.
It’s another sign of the more animated environment surrounding this Lions team, with the coaches jumping into drills occasionally — I think I saw offensive line coach Hank Fraley was lining up as a nose tackle at one point Monday — and loudly making their presence felt.
“Yeah, especially with Duce,” laughed Anzalone, who’d sparked some of Monday’s fun after a run-in with tight end T.J. Hockenson near the public grandstands. “He just talks. Duce just talks. But I think anytime during training camp if you can keep it fun and competitive, that’s really the biggest thing.”
‘Gotta have juice’
And that’s a thing this coaching staff appears to have prioritized this summer as the Lions try to turn the page from another failed coaching regime and start fresh.
“(The coaches) all have this energy, we all have this juice,” explained Staley, who spent the last decade as an assistant coach in Philadelphia and a decade before that as an NFL running back for the Eagles and Steelers. “And we talk about it before we leave our meetings. In order for (the players) to have juice, you’ve gotta have juice as a coach. And there’s nothing fake about it — it’s real. We go out and have fun between the lines, and we have fun with our players.”
Few more than Staley, who wants nothing to do with a quiet day at the office.
“Nah, not when your coach is Duce,” said Jamaal Williams, the self-proclaimed “swaggy” half of the Lions’ backfield tandem with D’Andre Swift. “He loves football. And he’ll tell you about yourself if you ain’t into it. He’s always going to come out with that fire. He always tells us that he’s playing through us, you know what I mean?”
They do, if only because Staley and the rest of the coaches keep reminding them of that, in words and deeds.
“It’s fun being able to coach the position you played, of course,” said Staley, 46, a three-time 1,000-yard rusher during his career with the Eagles. “And just living vicariously through them, that gives me juice, that gives me energy.”
Again, that’s why it matters that Dan Campbell filled his staff with a collection of former NFL players. Because if you’re a coach making demands of players, it helps if you’ve done the work yourself.
But that’s also why it matters that the Lions’ rookie head coach is making the same demands of Staley that Saints coach Sean Payton made of him when Campbell was his understudy in New Orleans.
More than a title
Staley isn’t just the running backs coach in Detroit. He’s also the assistant head coach, and that’s more than just an honorific. It’s a job that’ll help him — particularly as a minority coach in the NFL — as he builds out his resume to be a head coach someday. (“I thank Dan for that: He put me in position to actually use my title,” Staley said.) And it’s one that’ll undoubtedly help Campbell do his now.
“Duce is a guy that carries around his fire extinguisher — that’s what he’s got in his hip pocket,” Campbell said. “There are things that I won’t even know about and don’t need to know about because that’s what he does. He’s going to put out fires before I have to worry about them or even need to know about them. That is invaluable.”
And while Staley laughs at the terminology Campbell used, he understands the importance of that role.
“Sometimes you want to grab some things before they get to his door,” Staley said. “Because he has so much on his shoulders and he’s carrying so much. If it’s the small things that I can handle, I would take ’em.
“No matter how many reminders you get, no matter how many sticky notes are on your desk and your door, you’ll forget. I mean, it’s natural. I’ve never been in that position (as a head coach) before, but … you need someone that’s gonna have your back.”
That back and forth started almost immediately this offseason, with Staley jumping in on preparations for free agency and the draft, evaluating players and prospects — and not just the running backs. But it has continued through this summer, whether in dealing with player discipline and fine schedules or coordinating some specialized practice periods and other various projects. Campbell also is giving Staley a chance to get in front of the media for weekly Q&A sessions along with the coordinators, just like he’s in front of the full roster for team meetings.
“There’s going to be days where it’s his day,” Campbell said. “Where he’s getting up in front of the team and today is third-down day and he’s talking about third-down (situations) and just kind of talking about how we’re going to handle things as a team.”
He says he plans to have Staley handle the officials report during the season and, at times, address the team on Saturday nights to talk about the keys to the game and so on.
“But my point is, I plan on using him. I really do,” Campbell added. “How far does that go? As far as I can take it. I want these (players) to understand who I am, but I don’t want them getting deadhead from listening to me time after time after time. I think it’s great to have somebody else get up there who’s got a presence about him, particularly like Duce. He’s got knowledge, he’s got presence, we’ll be on the same page, we think alike, he’ll know what I want. I think it keeps them engaged, too. It’s just a different way of presenting the same message.”
And at the same time, it’s a way to help a coach find his own voice.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo