ALLEN PARK, Mich. — The energy is the same, even two weeks later. Dan Campbell is rocking back and forth in his chair inside his office as he starts talking about his new team and his new job as head coach of the Detroit Lions.
In Campbellās first two weeks on the job, the landscape of the roster has drastically changed. Matthew Stafford, the Lions’ quarterback since 2009, will be headed to the Los Angeles Rams when the new league year opens in March. In exchange, Detroit will receive three draft picks — including two first-rounders — and the quarterback who will potentially be the starter of the immediate present, Jared Goff.
Campbell, due to league rules, couldnāt talk about Goff and couldnāt discuss the trade that reverberated throughout the NFL over the weekend. But the coach could explain how the offense might change and shift now that Stafford is westward bound.
Whether the quarterback ends up being Goff or another player, Campbell said what he and offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn create as a scheme will largely flow through whatever that player does particularly well.
āThereās overall things that A-Lynn and myself believe in. But ultimately, this was going to be built around the quarterback anyway,ā Campbell told ESPN on Sunday. āAnd so depending on, letās say you were able to go get our boy from Clemson [Trevor Lawrence], well, weāre going to be running a lot more gun runs, things that he was familiar with, things that he did at Clemson. If itās not, then youāre looking at someone that is more like Stafford and you can still do your gun stuff, you could still do under center, you could still do a little more traditional.
āSo the schemes are going to be things that we feel like fit that player because heās the one.ā
A source with knowledge of the situation said Saturday night that Detroit was excited about Goff. Meanwhile, ESPNās Jeff Darlington spoke to Goff on Saturday night, and Goff told Darlington based on conversations he had with Campbell and other members of the Detroit staff that the Lions view him as the teamās starting quarterback.
So if that ends up being the case, Lynn and Campbell will build the offense around Goff. Campbell said the plan — once it is assembled around the quarterback — will be to put his players in the best position possible for both the signal-caller and the offense to have success.
Donāt be surprised if that means a lot of running the ball and playing off of that.
ā[Lynnās] like me in that of course we want to find ways to run the ball because there is a toughness about it,ā Campbell said. āIf itās an 8-man box and we want to run the ball, weāre going to find a way to run it into an 8-man box because there are ways to do that. Now, you got to have some tough guys and they got to understand that. But heās just like me in regards to, if youāre not going to take our āXā out of the game, and youāre going to play off eight yards and youāre telling me we can throw hitches the whole game and let him run, then weāre going to throw it out there.
āWeāre not so far into the Stone Age to where itās like weāre going to run it 40 times.ā
So expect somewhat of a balance but a clear understanding of the quarterbackās strengths and weaknesses. Lynn is capable of doing this too. With the Buffalo Bills in 2016, he had the NFLās top rushing offense. With the Los Angeles Chargers as a head coach, they consistently had a top-10 passing offense.
So flexibility is there with whatever the Lions might do.
Even with Goff in place for at least the short term, Campbell will look to the New Orleans Saints for his philosophy on the backup quarterback: Drew Brees and Taysom Hill were different players with some similar elements the Saints could carry over from one quarterback to another.
āItās more about letās find the best guy for that position,ā Campbell said. āI donāt think we have to be stuck in stone as far as, āWell, it needs to be a guy thatās been — heās an athletic, truly mobile guy, heās got 4.3 speed.ā I think weāll adapt to whoever that guy is thatās the starter.ā
Because in Campbellās eyes, the plan for the offense is simple: Whatever fits its starting quarterback best will be Detroitās offensive scheme. That could mean a lot of passing. It could mean a lot of running.
How it evolves will remain to be seen as Detroit builds its offense around a new signal-caller for the first time since Campbell was last with the Lions, as a player in 2008.
āWhen youāre talking about, āOK, well, hereās the quarterback, heās got to start for you, man, weāll work around him,ā” Campbell said. āYou have to make it work for him.ā
