When Dan Campbell Brought Electric Leadership to the Dolphins

Former Dolphins linebacker Kelvin Sheppard played under Campbell in Miami and has been an assistant for him the past five seasons

Miami Dolphins interim-head coach Dan Campbell, celebrates with players in the closing seconds of their game against the New England Patriots Sunday January 03, 2016 in Miami Gardens. | Bill Ingram / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If the Miami Dolphins indeed do wind up making a coaching change before or after the end of the 2025 season, there's little doubt that the issue of leadership will come up when discussing Mike McDaniel's tenure.

It was something that most definitely was not lacking in the final 12 games of the 2015 season after Dan Campbell replaced interim head coach Joe Philbin, and there was some pretty startling testimony from Detroit on Thursday.

During his weekly media session, Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard was asked when he knew Campbell would be successful as a head coach. Sheppard began his coaching career when Campbell was hired by the Lions in 2021, but he was a player on that 2015 Dolphins team when Campbell replaced Joe Philbin and became interim head coach after four games.

That's when he first was struck by Campbell's leadership ability and the energy he brought.

"I know what those guys in that locker room are feeling, because I felt it," said Sheppard, who played linebacker for the Dolphins in 2014-15. "Listen, I love Joe Philbin, but in the Miami Dolphins facility, all the lights were off. We didn't pay the electric bill all year, and then when Dan took over, he paid the whole six months because guys had a fire. You went to practice with a purpose and, I'll say it, I was one of those guys, shame on us as players, to let the environment or the situation dictate how we put forth to our profession. But it just shows you the quality of a head coach. It's not a guru, which Dan is. It's not this. It's a leader of men and guys that believe in what you're saying and follow you, and that's the coaching staff as well.

"I wouldn't be who I was if I didn't get mentored, and I didn't watch Dan Campbell every day for the last five years of my coaching career. But it was when I was a player man. I knew. I believed. I believed every game we were going to win because of the way we the way we prepared during the week."

Sheppard then relayed a story of how Campbell immediately set the tone whe he replaced Philbin after a 1-3 start that had the Dolphins looking like a listless team.

"The first day he took over in 2015 he told me and Mike Pouncey, go line up," Sheppard said via Detroit Lions On SI. "He put a circle around us. That's illegal to do now, I guess, in the league, but go. Whatcha you mean, go? Go. And it was mano a mano. And it set the standard for how we played the rest of that year. And it's just carried over here to him getting the ultimate chance. You see kind of the fruits of the labor."

WHY DIDN'T THE DOLPHINS KEEP CAMPBELL?

Campbell interviewed for the chance to become full-time Dolphins head coach in January 2016, but Miami eventually decided on Adam Gase, who did guide the team to a playoff appearance in his first year but was replaced after three seasons.

Campbell, meanwhile, took a job on Sean Payton's staff with the New Orleans Saints as assistant head coach/special teams coach and spent four years before landing the Detroit job.

After a brutal 0-10-1 start to his head coaching career, Campbell turned the Lions around, to a 9-8 record in 2022, an NFC title game appearance in 2023, the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs in 2024, and a 5-3 start this season.

It's now been 10 years since Campbell was the Dolphins interim head coach and while his obvious leadership qualities made an immediate impact — MIami won his first game at Tennessee by the score of 38-10 and his home opener against the Houston Texans after racing to a 41-0 halftime lead — the team did finish with a losing record under him at 5-7.

And it's fair to question whether he was ready to become a full-time head coach in 2016 and would have produced the same results in Miami without those four years of apprenticeship under Payton.

What's undeniable is that Campbell was a born leader and that 2015 Dolphins played with a passion regardless of the results. Without question, to paraphrase Sheppard, the lights most definitely were on.

And maybe, if the Dolphins do move on from McDaniel, this is the kind of coach who could fit the bill.