Open thread: Are you buying or selling the report that the Lions offered Matt Campbell an 8-year contract?

During the Detroit Lions wide-reaching coaching search, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell was the hot name from the college ranks and showed up on Detroit’s radar early on in the process.

The Lions never acknowledged that they interviewed him, as they did with other candidates, out of “respect for their current position and recruiting”, per team president Rod Wood—but most connected the dots and believe there were at least some discussions.

How far those discussions went had been an unknown until yesterday, when Dennis Dodd, national college football writer for CBS Sports, casually mentioned on The Cover 3 podcast that the Lions made an eight-year $68.5 million offer to Campbell.

News can break from anywhere, but an offer of this magnitude, effortlessly being dropped on a college football podcast episode that focused on ranking Power-5 coaches raises a few red flags.

That brings us to the question of the day: Are you buying or selling the report that the Lions offered Matt Campbell an 8-year contract?

Erik’s take: I’m selling this... for now.

The Lions were reportedly very interested in Campbell, and rightfully so. What he has done at Iowa State is very impressive, he fits the “culture change” the Lions front office has been searching for, and it wouldn’t even surprise me if they extended him a contract offer.

The money/years aren’t too far off either. Matt Rhule got a 7-year $60 million contract from the Carolina Panthers to jump ship from Baylor, and the Lions were offering up long contracts—they gave Dan Campbell a 6-year deal.

But...

A contract offer of this size surely would have leaked out before today, and likely from an NFL-sourced reporter. I’m not discounting Dodd either, but a quick Twitter search presents results that he has never even mentioned the Detroit Lions in the 12 years he’s had an account.

There is also the manner in which this was presented. Dodd brought this up on the podcast like it was a common fact, but based on the reactions of Lions writers most were caught off-guard by the news. Additionally, there had been no report of this in any form before yesterday. Is it possible a seasoned reporter such as Dodd didn’t realize the story hadn’t broken yet? Maybe. Wouldn’t CBS Sports want to break this story? Absolutely.

There’s enough here, from the way it was presented, to the source of the report, to the contract itself that leaves me a bit skeptical. Maybe it’s true, I have nothing concrete to dispute that, but I’m taking this with a grain of salt.

Your turn.