Dan Campbell isn’t backing off the belief that Detroit’s path to the Super Bowl is still wide open.
The Lions coach told Eric Woodyard of ESPN that last season’s stumble doesn’t change how he sees the franchise’s ceiling. Detroit finished 9-8 and never found enough consistency on offense, but Campbell said the bigger picture still points up.
“Our window is not closed,” Campbell said. “It’s not closed.
That was the whole reason why we did this. We fell short last year.
But needed to get in [the playoffs], and now it's about the matchups, where you're playing and who you're playing...”
That optimism comes after a year in which the offense never fully clicked, even with Jahmyr Gibbs putting together a huge season and Amon-Ra St. Brown delivering another strong one.
The Lions also moved on from David Montgomery, which means Gibbs and St. Brown will be leaned on even more, with Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta in the mix and Jared Goff operating behind a revamped offensive line.
On the other side of the ball, Detroit still has reasons to feel good. The defense is in a decent place even after cutting ties with 2024 first-round pick Terrion Arnold. Aidan Hutchinson is positioned for what could be a massive season, and the linebacker room gives the roster another strong foundation.
Looking ahead to 2026, the expectation is that Detroit can bounce back. If the team stays healthy and Drew Petzing’s new offense performs better than last year’s unit, Campbell’s confidence won’t look so far-fetched.
He’s not the only one around the league who sees it that way, either. Woodyard reported that coaches such as Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers view the 2026 Lions as something better than the 9-8 group the league saw a year ago.
For Campbell, the message is simple: the opportunity is still there. And for a team that has already spent the last few years in the postseason conversation, that belief matters.
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