Former NFL GM: Dan Campbell Has 'Balls Bigger' Than His Brains

The Detroit Lions are a team that is still considered by many pundits to be an ascending team.

With a young core that are all under contract, Dan Campbell's squad should have many more opportunities to try and appear in and win their first ever Super Bowl.

On the latest edition of "Inside Football" featured on The Trey Wingo Network, former NFL general manager Steve Keim, Trey Wingo, former NFL head coach Marvin Lewis and former wideout Chris Carter discussed the Lions upcoming 2026 season.

Keim appears not to be a fan of the aggressiveness the former NFL tight end deploys on fourth down. While Campbell's strategy had early success, going for it at such a high rate was not as successful in 2025.

It will be interesting to observe if Campbell and new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing will go for it on fourth down consistently this season.

"If I'm Brad Holmes, one of the first things I'm going to say is 'Danny, I'm like, I love you. But right now your balls are bigger than your brains. Like, we don't have to play like that.' You know what I'm saying? Let's play within the system. Let's do the right things. And more than anything, I think the one thing that's going to be a telltale sign for the Detroit Lions this year is, quite frankly, I think that they've got to feel embarrassed the way they finished the season last year. So, what are you made of? Are we really that team that was ascending or are we now all of a sudden just the old Detroit Lions again?"

Wingo wonders how the Lions, who play in one of the toughest divisions in football, will get back on track in 2026. He is also wondering, given the team went 9-8 last year, if the team is still on an upward trajectory.

"I think that the Lions are really in an interesting position, because two years ago they were the No. 1 seed, and talk about a team that was decimated by injuries," said Wingo. "I think they had more defensive players on injured reserve that season than they had (staters). I think they had, you have 11 starters on defense. I think they had 18 defensive players on injured reserve. It was brutal. They lost that game at home to the Commanders. And then you had this past year where it kind of went sideways."

Lewis believes that Detroit's head man will have the team ready to perform, once the season kicks off in a couple of weeks.

"Dan will have them fired up. Coming out of the blocks, they are going to be ready," said Lewis. "They know that. And you know, that's going to be part of the theme, and the theme is we have to be better. We didn't finish right. This is not how we play football. I mean, he set a tone from the time he started there. And they bought in and they were successful. They just got to get it back."

Are the Lions an ascending team? pic.twitter.com/dTw1mWfYhX
— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 19, 2026

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