Lions head coach Dan Campbell has been known for an interesting communication style since he first arrived in Detroit and proclaimed that his players would bite the kneecaps off their opponents. And he’s not showing any signs of changing.
Campbell said the Lions have constructed his kind of roster, without the kinds of players he wouldn’t want to coach.
“I think we’re fortunate because I do believe we have some talented players on this team that have grit, and that’s a good thing, you know?” Campbell said, via Kyle Meinke of Mlive.com. “I said this when I walked in — there’s a number of guys that were here, and I think [Matt] Patricia and [Bob] Quinn did a great job of, there’s no turds here. There’s no bad guys. These guys work now. We don’t have lazy [guys]. We don’t have those [lazy] guys, and that’s a good thing.
“That’s not always the case when it hasn’t been a successful program. Usually that’s not the case. [But] these guys work, and they are. They’re pretty tough-minded. It’s just a matter of, ‘Hey, this is how you got to win. This is what it takes to win. This is what it takes to be a winner. This is what it looks like.’ That’s all it is. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. That’s all.”
Whether a no-turd roster translates into a winning record remains to be seen, and the oddsmakers view the Lions as one of the worst teams in the NFL. But Campbell says he has the players he wants.