Dan Campbell's biggest worry for the Lions is the hype

The Detroit Lions are officially back to work. The Lions rookies all reported on Wednesday and the rest of the team has now joined them. Training camp is officially under way. We're that much closer to the Lions regular season. Lions head coach Dan Campbell took the podium Sunday before the team hit the field […]

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer

Jul 23, 2023 9:24 AM EDT

Lions head coach Dan Campbell took the podium Sunday before the team hit the field and talked about the thing that worries him the most about his team.

"I think, as always, the thing that's gonna worry you is the hype train. I mean, as with most coaches, you know, this thing has just taken off and it's out of control right now."

He's right. The hype for this team has taken off and it is out of control. It's somewhere out in the solar system right now. There's people saying the Lions can win the division, win playoff games and even win the Super Bowl. There's people out there saying that Jared Goff can win the MVP and that Dan Campbell can win Coach of the Year. This is hype like we've never seen before.

Maybe I'm too young or maybe I just don't remember, but I don't recall seeing the hype be at this level when the Red Wings were killing it in the 90's or when the Pistons were on their way in 2004. Detroit has just always kind of been overlooked. The Lions are anything but overlooked right now and while that's cool, it can be concerning.

It's sort of a born on third base and thinking you hit a triple sort of thing. The worry on Campbell's part is that he doesn't want the team to buy so much into the hype that they forget they have to put in the work. This team hasn't accomplished anything yet. The last thing you want is for them to feel like they have because they're getting respect from the media and football fans. That can go away immediately.

With all that said, it seems like Campbell is staying on top of this whole hype thing.

"You keep the message consistent and and you call it what it is, you say what it is." Campbell said. "And it just goes back to the work and when you see it not, not going that way, or we have some guys that are deviating a little bit or they think they've arrived and they haven't, you call them out on it. And I think as long as we do that as coaches and players as teammates, we'll be fine. I think that's what you have to do but if we all just turn a blind eye and think that all right, this is great. Everybody's saying we're this then we will be this that's that's not true."

We'll see where things go from here, but Campbell and the Lions seem to be on top of what they need to do to quell Campbell's concern. It's time to put in the work and cancel out the noise. Let's see if the Lions can do it.