NFL Announces Big Dan Campbell News Entering Offseason
The Detroit Lions had another incredible regular season, finishing with a 15-2 record. Unfortunately, their postseason did not go as everyone expected, suffering a surprising loss to the Washington Commanders in the divisional round.
While the 2024 version of the Lions was the last with offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, head coach Dan Campbell is determined to keep Detroit on track for success.
That said, before Campbell and the Lions start diving into the offseason, there is one major day left on the 2024 season calendar: the NFL Honors Award ceremony. This ceremony provides the chance for Lions players and coaches to get recognized for their amazing 2024 season. One of the more talked about awards is the NFL Coach of the Year award.
On Thursday, the NFL announced the finalists for this award. Among them is Campbell.
Dan Campbell is an NFL Coach of the Year Finalist
This is the second consecutive season Campbell has been in the running for Coach of the Year; last year, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was named Coach of the Year. While Campbell had a strong case for the award, Stefanski earned it for getting the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs with a slew of quarterbacks, including an aging Joe Flacco.
This season, Campbell has steep competition to win the award once again. Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell was able to help resurrect Sam Darnold's career and lead the Vikings to the playoffs. Sean Payton was able to make Bo Nix, who many discounted after being the last quarterback taken in round one, look like a franchise quarterback and help take the Denver Broncos to the playoffs.
Similar to Campbell last season, Dan Quinn brought a franchise that has struggled in the last decade and a half back to the playoffs and is one game away from the Super Bowl. More impressively though, Quinn is accomplishing this with a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels and what many consider a weak defense.
Even though the other five candidates for the award have all had impressive 2024 seasons, Campbell deserves to win the award. The amount of adversity Campbell led the Lions through this season, given all their injuries, was impressive. Furthermore, Campbel's aggressiveness on fourth downs was even more prominent this season, and he was generally very successful.
If the NFL awards Coach of the Year to someone besides Campbell again this year, Lions fans have every right to be upset.