Football can be absolutely ruthless, and the Detroit Lions know a thing or two about that. Finally, when the new regime managed to turn the franchise around, it now looks like their Super Bowl window is about to shut right before their eyes.
General manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell deserve all the credit in the world for bringing this franchise from the ground up. However, this is a short-memory business, and they haven't yielded the expected results in recent years.
This team might be 2-2 after four weeks, but it certainly feels a whole lot worse. They're two plays away from being 0-4, and they have the absolute worst pass defense in the league by every objective and subjective measure. So, should they be worried about their jobs?
The Lions should fire Brad Holmes and give Dan Campbell another chance
Let's start with the executive. Holmes has had plenty of success in the NFL Draft, putting together this Super Bowl-caliber core and making the most of the Matthew Stafford trade to build an offensive juggernaut.
Likewise, he's had some pretty bad misses, overpaying for depth pieces like Desmond Trufant and wasting picks on guys like Giovanni Manu or Josh Paschal. He's been pretty hit-or-miss, and he's been either unwilling or unable to fix the team's lifelong woes at cornerback.
One could argue that, as bad as Kelvin Sheppard has been this season, he's only working with the hand he's been dealt. This cornerback room was mediocre at best before the season began, and he wasted multiple opportunities to upgrade it.
The Lions should've gone all-in when Ben Johnson was still in the building. Instead, they kept pushing money toward the future, as if they were trying to win their second Super Bowl before their first. Holmes didn't do a good job of maximizing the team's cap space when all of the young stars were on rookie deals.
Given how the team has fared this season, and considering that most of these woes were predictable and avoidable, they should probably let him go. Thanks for Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, and Aidan Hutchinson, though.
As for Campbell, things are a bit more complicated. Yes, his 'let's be aggressive just for the sake of it' approach has hurt this team way too many times before. Injuries, failed fourth-quarter conversions, and poor clock management have cost this team.
That said, he's learned from most of those mistakes, and he's built such a strong culture in the building, not just in the locker room. Campbell took the reins of the organization when the Lions were a laughingstock, and he raised the bar by showing how much he cared and by setting a new standard.
His haters have a valid point when they claim that he might only be as good as his assistant coaches, but he's not the only head coach who has struggled after losing a top-tier workmate like Ben Johnson.
Every single player in that locker room would run through a brick wall for Coach Campbell, and rightfully so. Just for the way he changed this organization's culture, he deserves one more chance to get the job done, albeit with a different general manager.
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