Nobody wanted the Detroit Lions season to end. An 8-2 run to finish the regular season, capped by a primetime win in Green Bay to prevent the Packers from making the playoffs, made the 2022 season finish on a higher note than has been sung in Detroit in a very long time.
It took longer than hoped to get the positive reaction and results, but the Lions’ team chemistry made a huge difference down the stretch. Head coach Dan Campbell talked about the importance of having a team identity and players who bought in and stayed bought in even with the 1-5 start.
“But I believe in the team,” Campbell said Monday in his season-ending press conference in Allen Park. “I believe in the chemistry, the identity of this team, and the work they put in, and so I really do believe we’re only going to grow and get better, and as that’s happening, we’re going to add more pieces too. But ultimately, that’s what this was all about was eventually get into the tournament because once you get into the tournament, anything can happen.”
One of the reasons the chemistry is so strong is because the Lions have a more exclusionary process for who goes into the chemistry experiment. Campbell explained why that’s so important to him and the rest of team leadership,
“I just know that the coaches that I have here, the players that we’ve drafted, the players that we’ve kept that were here before us, the free agents we’ve signed, it was the right decision. These are the right guys for us, particularly in 2022. Now, there’s going to be decisions that have to be made moving forward, but they fit us, man. They fit the mold, and to us, you have to meet a certain type of criteria to be here. We don’t just strictly look at talent, and our guys have created that culture. They’ve embraced it, and it’s part of who we are, and it’s why we’ll always compete.”
Several important Lions, among them WR DJ Chark, DL John Cominsky and RB Jamaal Williams, are free agents once the league year ends.
