Quintez Cephus, Detroit Lions (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
Detroit Lions‘ new head coach Dan Campbell seems to be winning over many fans. But ultimately the only thing that matters is; will he win games?
We are now about a week and a half away from the NFL’s new year. Once we hit March 17 the questions will start to be answered. We will know what new general manager Brad Holmes has decided about Kenny Golladay. We will be getting ready for free agency. Then of course the draft will be here in April and much of the pieces of the puzzle will be answered about the Lions roster.
It won’t answer too many long-term questions, but it will have us pretty much prepared for next fall. That’s the first real step for this new regime. Getting the newly assembled pieces together on the field and seeing what Dan Campbell and his staff can do with the odds and ends he is being given for the start of the Lions rebuild.
The very fact that Campbell has been given a six-year contract means two things. The first is that Campbell entered into his situation with the Lions fully aware of how much work and time it will take to turn over this roster.
The second thing is that Sheila Ford Hamp has learned her lesson from years of seeing her family try to get away with just ‘retooling’ and what the results have been. She understands the work that will be required to turn this franchise around from top to bottom in an attempt to actually build a winner isn’t going to happen overnight.
Now, Brad Holmes has referred to this as a ‘retooling’, but he knows better. In the course of evaluating the roster and what occurred here last season alone combined with the departure of Matthew Stafford and Holmes’ own experiences as part of a highly competitive team in Los Angeles himself, he knows the cupboard may not be completely bare, but it certainly has a ways to go before it is fully stocked.