Lions head coach Dan Campbell sees value in being underestimated

The Lions and Dan Campbell are easy to overlook and tab as a punch line, but the head coach sees value in being underestimated.

Right off the bat, with talk about biting knee caps in his introductory press conference, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was interesting in his own way and clearly not going to be a cookie cutter NFL head coach. During his first season, he got emotional at the podium after a loss.

As we’ve gotten a closer look at during “Hard Knocks”, Campbell is uniquely authentic and it trickles down through his coaching staff and all the way down to the players. The Lions are a long-running punch line, and Campbell is trying to change that by doing things his way. It would be easy to dismiss what he does and the things he says as a schtick, but it’s clearly who he is and he won’t apologize for it.

Dan Pompei of The Athletic (subscription required) did a profile piece on Campbell. There were some interesting off the field revelations, as cited in the tweet below.

Dan Campbell sees value in his being underestimated by opponents

Campbell is easily set aside by some as just a “meathead” football coach, with little in terms of actual nuts and bolts coaching intelligence. But that is to ignore who he played for (Bill Parcells) and coached under (Sean Payton), and just see the quotes that come off as cliche’ or over the top. The improvement in the Lions’ offense when he took over play-calling after the bye week last season speaks volumes.

But via Pompei’s piece, via Pro Football Talk, Campbell doesn’t mind it if opposing teams underestimate his intelligence

It doesn’t bother me,” Campbell said. “If you’re an opponent, the dumber you think I am, the better off we are.”

The Lions are going to be underestimated until further notice, as in until they win more games. As such Campbell will be underestimated too, but opposing teams will do so at their own risk.