New Lions Coach is a ‘Mystery,’ Which Is Nerve-Wracking

The Detroit Lions are coming off a tough and high-profile preseason loss to the Los Angeles Chargers which was downright embarrassing. Let’s not talk about that. What we can talk about is that the Lions have an exciting season ahead of them, with head coach Dan Campbell back and leading two new coordinators, as well as other new pieces of the Lions staff. So, what will it be like without offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn?

Thankfully, the Detroit Lions have Campbell and stellar players, such as Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson and others. But, with the new coordinators, some in the NFL are wondering if Campbell is going to have the same level of success that he did the past two seasons.

Now, ESPN has released its tally of the best coaching staffs in the NFL. In the feature, Ben Solak breaks down all of the NFL team’s staffs and ranks them from best to worst. So, where do the Lions and Campbell fall?

Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions Still Get Props

While there’s lots of talk about the best players in the NFL leading up to the 2025-26 season, and rightly so, sometimes, it’s easy to overlook that there are other factors to a team’s success.

GettyHead coach Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions looks on during the first quarter of the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on July 31, 2025 in Canton, Ohio.

 

One of the biggest measures of how well a team is going to do during the season, for any sport, is their coaching staff. From the head coach down to the coordinators and their staff, having a solid coaching staff is so critical to making sure a team thrives.

Solak ranks the Detroit Lions coaching staff the No. 11 best staff in the NFL. Hey, we’ll take it. He could have placed the Lions much lower on the tally considering that they have new offensive and defense coordinators. Losing even one would have been a blow.

Solak says his biggest question mark is with defense coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, who he calls a “mystery.”

“The trick in ranking the Lions is putting them low enough to acknowledge the loss of two excellent coordinators in Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, but not so low that Campbell makes me look like an idiot when he keeps this train chugging right along in 2025,” he notes in the feature.

He adds, “Sheppard is more of a mystery. A player as recently as 2018, he has only coached in Detroit under Glenn, so his coaching DNA is trickier to riddle out. Morton and Sheppard get the advantage of an excellent leader in Campbell, but also a sneaky good schematic mind — Campbell had a much bigger hand in the development of Johnson’s offense than is often appreciated.”

Finally, he says that he expects a “drop-off in play calling from Glenn and Johnson, but I’m confident it’ll be small.” We like that confidence.

PFF Names the Top NFL Coaches for 2025-26

PFF has also released their tally of the top 10 best NFL head coaches. What’s great is that Campbell makes the roster at No. 9. He picks Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid at No. 1, and Reid does have the stats to show he’s one of the top in the league now and probably of all time.

Maybe one day Campbell will get that No. 1 spot. For now, let’s just focus on getting the Lions back to the playoffs.