Notes: Dan Campbell is not discouraged by how the Lions started the season

I think collectively, everyone surrounding the Detroit Lions organization needed that bye week. From the fans, to the coaching staff—after the 29-0 clunker in Week 5 against the New England Patriots, some time off was in order.

Now with the bye week in the rearview, Lions coach Dan Campbell knows it’s time to start stacking good days. Because as much good faith as this regime built up towards the end of last season and through training camp—it’s tough to keep preaching the same things when you only win six or seven games in two seasons. With that said, it’s only Week 7, and there is a lot of football to be played. And even with his team beginning the year 1-4, Campbell is “not discouraged” writes Dave Birkett of the Free Press.

“I’m not discouraged,” Campbell said to the media. “I’m not happy with where we’re at. I mean, I don’t think anybody is, but when you really look at it, you’re one or two plays away here and all of a sudden you’re sitting here with three wins. But the reality is we only have one, so that’s where we’re at.”

This is largely life in the NFL. A handful of plays typically decide games, and the margins between a team being 3-2 versus being 1-4 are incredibly slim. And these first several weeks may have felt like an entire season, but there are still 12 games to play for the Lions.

“This league looks a lot different this year,” Amon-Ra St. Brown said Monday during his media availability. “But the thing that I always think about, it’s a long season. We’re only what, six weeks in for us, only five games played, so you look at the teams like you said, the Packers, some teams that might not be in the position that they want to be now, there’s a lot of football left and the best teams usually in this league they peak towards the end. Yeah, all I have to say to that, it’s a long season.”

Despite only being in year two of his young career, St. Brown is already wise to how this thing works. Think about this time last year, when the Lions offense was a non-starter, and fans were clamoring for the coaching staff to turn the keys over to then backup quarterbacks David Blough or Tim Boyle. Then, as they always do, things changed over the course of a season. Campbell made a call as to who was calling the plays on offense, St. Brown burst onto the scene, and the Lions finished 2021 relatively strong after a start to the season that had many wondering if they could be the first team in NFL history to go 0-17.

It may sound crazy right now with the way some things have looked, but it’s a long season. Let’s wait and see how things play out before we make any sweeping and definitive statements about the direction this regime is headed. I know the Patricia and Quinn era has many fans feeling extra skeptical, but hiring and firing people every two years is bad business. There was a reason owner Sheila Hamp signed both Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes to six-year deals.

You can read the entirety of the article here.

And now, onto the rest of today’s notes:

• Big congratulations to Lions’ receiver DJ Chark and his family on the birth of their son, Zachariah.

• Since Campbell’s arrival in Detroit, the team has frequently utilized a sixth offensive lineman. Jeff Risdon of the Lions Wire takes a look at just how effective it is.

• An update from Campbell on defensive back Saivion Smith.

• Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott looks as though he is going to be ready to play this week against the Lions. ESPN’s Todd Archer has more on just how determined Prescott is to get back on the field.

• One of the better “then and now” pictures I have seen in sometime.