Dan Campbell Trust Index: The Lions’ 2026 rookie class is already earning an unusual amount of responsibility; one rookie is already approaching Penei Sewell territory
Blake Miller nearly maxed out the initial score, a fifth-round corner is already pushing for real snaps, and an undrafted rookie forced his way into the index.
Every year we do this thing with rookies where we convince ourselves that everybody is going to play right away and everyone’s going to be in some sort of big role. Training camp starts, somebody makes a play, somebody gets first-team reps for a day, and suddenly we’re talking ourselves into six or seven rookies having major roles. Sometimes that’s real. Sometimes it’s camp brain. This year, for the Detroit Lions, I kind of think it’s real.
Earlier this offseason, we built what’s called the Dan Campbell Trust Index. The idea was pretty simple: instead of trying to figure out which rookies are good, I wanted to figure out which rookies Dan Campbell actually trusts, because those aren’t always the same thing. Now that training camp is over, the preseason is done, and the Lions have made their roster cuts, I think we finally have enough information to start pulling the 2026 draft class through this thing.
Dan Campbell Trust Index Part 1
Dan Campbell Trust Index Part 2
Dan Campbell Trust Index Part 3
I’ve got to tell you, this is a really interesting rookie class. Not because I think the Lions desperately need these guys to save them. The interesting part is just how many of these rookies already appear to have clearly defined jobs. When you look back at the Campbell era, that’s not always been the case.
How the Trust Index works
How the Dan Campbell Trust Index works
This is not a talent ranking. The Trust Index measures how quickly Dan Campbell and the Lions coaching staff are willing to give a rookie meaningful playing time, responsibility and important roles.
| Category | Max points | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 role | 25 | Was the rookie active? Did he start? How many offensive or defensive snaps did he play when the games started counting? |
| Special teams | 5 | For backups and Day 3 picks, special teams are often the quickest path to earning Campbell’s trust and a game-day role. |
| Camp and preseason | 10 | How was the rookie used during training camp and the preseason? Was he working with starters, moving up the depth chart or receiving notable praise from coaches? |
| Early responsibility | 10 | Was the rookie given a defined job or responsibility that suggests the coaching staff already feels comfortable relying on him? |
| Initial Trust | 50 | The total amount of trust the Lions show a rookie before he has had much time to prove himself during the regular season. |
| Earned Trust | 50 | How much the player’s role grows during the season through increased snaps, starts, important situations and expanded responsibilities. |
| Total Trust Score | 100 | Initial Trust plus Earned Trust, creating the final rookie-season Dan Campbell Trust Index score. |
Trust Index tiers
You’ve got 50 points for initial trust and 50 points for earned trust. The earned trust part comes later during the season. At the end of the year, we’ll come back and evaluate whether roles grew, whether players became starters, whether the Lions put them into bigger situations in December than they did in September. We’re not there yet.
Right now we’re dealing with initial trust. There are 25 points based on Week 1: Are you active? Are you starting? How many snaps are you actually playing? Then you’ve got 5 points for special teams, 10 points for what happened during camp and the preseason, and 10 points for early responsibility. That last category is basically what the Lions are already willing to let you do before you’ve proven anything in the NFL.
2026 Dan Campbell Trust Index: Post-training camp
These are working Initial Trust scores entering Week 1. The full Initial Trust score is out of 50, but a major portion of the grade is determined by whether a rookie is active, starts and plays meaningful snaps in Week 1. Eric O’Neill is included as a UDFA exception to the original draft-pick-only Trust Index.
| Player | Rd. | Pos. | Working Initial Trust | Confidence | End-of-camp read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blake Miller | 1 | OT | 48 | High | Immediate starter-level trust |
| Derrick Moore | 2 | EDGE | 34 | Medium-high | Real rotational pass-rush role |
| Eric O’Neill UDFA | — | EDGE | 34 | Medium-high | UDFA who forced his way onto the 53-man roster and into the pass-rush rotation |
| Keith Abney II | 5 | CB/NB | 33 | Medium-high | Nickel and special-teams trust |
| Skyler Gill-Howard | 6 | DT | 30 | Medium-high | Legitimate defensive-line rotation |
| Jimmy Rolder* | 4 | LB | 18 | Injury caveat | Roster and special-teams trust; role still TBD |
| Tyre West | 7 | EDGE | 8 | High | Developmental player; practice-squad path |
| Kendrick Law | 5 | WR | N/A | Injury | Season-ending ACL injury prevents a fair trust evaluation |
UDFA note: Eric O’Neill is not part of the original draft-pick-only historical sample, but he is included here because making Detroit’s initial 53-man roster as an undrafted rookie is itself a significant coaching-trust signal.
Blake Miller: 48
Miller is sitting at a working initial trust score of 48, and this is about as high as you can get. The Lions appear ready to start him at right tackle. Think about what that actually means. You’re not talking about putting a rookie receiver on the field for 15 snaps. You’re not talking about giving a rookie defensive lineman a rotation role. You’re saying, hey, go protect Jared Goff, be the guy who replaces Taylor Decker. That’s trust.
When we built the historical version of this, Penei Sewell had a 47 initial trust score. That says something. It doesn’t mean the Lions trust Miller more than they trusted Sewell, but I think Miller gets that extra point in the system because of context. When Sewell came in, that offensive line was coming from nothing. Sewell was going to be the starter based on being drafted there. Miller comes in replacing a Lions lifer, a guy who’s been playing on this offensive line since before Sewell was here. Decker was here during the Matt Patricia era. That replacement factor carries weight.
But remember, this isn’t a talent ranking. That’s why we’re not saying he’s better than Sewell. The Lions are treating him like somebody they believe can immediately handle one of the most important jobs on the offense. That’s a massive signal.
Derrick Moore: 34
Moore’s score probably would have been higher had he not missed some time during camp. He had a groin injury, lost some reps, and that’s a big deal for any rookie. But when he came back, Detroit didn’t slowly bury him at the bottom of the depth chart. They started getting him involved. You saw the sack in the preseason game. You saw the forced fumble. You saw the pass rush ability that made the Lions want him in the first place.
Now you’ve got a player who looks like he’s going to be part of the edge rotation immediately. He’s not Aidan Hutchinson. He’s not being asked to be Aidan Hutchinson. But the Lions appear comfortable enough to give him a real role right away. For some perspective, Tyleik Williams had a 36 initial score last year as a first-round defensive tackle who had a real rotational role from the beginning. Moore being in that general area tells you a lot.
I’m projecting that at the end of this whole thing, Moore will have a total grade of around 80 to 85. I think the Lions are going to continue to give him more leash as the season goes on.
Keith Abney: 33
Here’s a guy I think is the most interesting player in this entire thing. You have to understand, we’re talking about a fifth-round pick here. The Lions didn’t just keep Abney around because they like his potential. He’s been competing at nickel, he’s been playing on special teams, he’s on the 53-man roster, and he has a clear path to getting on the field.
This is where it gets interesting. Malcolm Rodriguez was one of the weirdest outliers we found when we built the original Trust Index. Sixth-round pick, initial trust score of 43. Why? Because the Lions basically said, we don’t care where you were drafted, you’re playing. Abney isn’t quite there yet. I’m not putting him in that category. But if Week 1 comes around and Abney is active, playing special teams, and actually getting defensive snaps at nickel, that score is going to jump.
You have to keep in mind that Christian Izien is hurt at this point, so there’s a real chance Abney could start at nickel cornerback in Week 1. And if not, I still think he shares the role with Roger McCreary in that first game.
Skyler Gill-Howard: 30
This might be my favorite progression of the entire class. Early in camp, this looked exactly like what you’d expect from a sixth-round defensive guy. Developmental, work him in, see what you’ve got, maybe practice squad, maybe bottom of the roster. Then he started making plays. Then he started getting more reps. Then he started working against better competition. Then suddenly you’ve got this sixth-round pick making the 53-man roster in the defensive line room where the Lions kept 11 guys in total. That matters.
Here’s the historical comparison I love. Alim McNeill had an initial score of 28. Nobody is saying Gill-Howard is McNeill. We’re saying from a coaching trust standpoint, you’re entering similar territory. That’s really impressive for a sixth-round pick considering McNeill went a lot higher in the draft. And you go back to Brad Holmes’ presser on Wednesday, Gill-Howard kept coming up. You go back to Campbell’s pressers during the last couple weeks of training camp, Gill-Howard kept coming up. The Lions like this guy.
Jimmy Rolder: 18 (with a giant asterisk)
I almost don’t even want to use that number. Rolder missed basically the entire evaluation period with a hamstring injury. If we just give him a low score and say Campbell doesn’t trust him, that’s not fair. We don’t know. What we do know is Detroit kept him on the 53-man roster. That’s something. They could have decided they needed roster spots elsewhere, and they didn’t. Before the injury, he looked like somebody who had a legitimate path to playing special teams. Rolder is basically incomplete. I want to see what happens when he’s healthy before we decide anything about Campbell’s trust in him.
Tyre West: 8
This is where you get a clear developmental rookie. Detroit waived him, he cleared waivers, and they brought him back to the practice squad. I don’t view this as some giant negative. It just means the Lions aren’t ready to trust him with a 53-man roster spot and game role yet. That’s exactly what the low end of this index is supposed to show. You can like a player, you can want to develop a player, you can think there’s something there long term. That doesn’t mean you’re ready to use him on Sundays.
Kendrick Law: N/A
Law tore his ACL before camp. There’s nothing to evaluate there.
Eric O’Neill: 34 (the first undrafted player in Trust Index history)
I’m going to break my own rule here and add one player who wasn’t even drafted. The original Dan Campbell Trust Index was built using only draft picks. O’Neill is the first undrafted free agent to ever be included in this, and come on, we have to put him in here.
Think about where this guy started. He wasn’t a first-round pick, wasn’t a Day 2 pick, wasn’t a Day 3 pick. He was an undrafted free agent out of Rutgers trying to make a defensive line that might have been the deepest position group on this entire roster. And he made the 53. Not only that, he was the Lions’ only undrafted free agent to make that roster. That’s a gigantic trust signal.
It wasn’t like he just survived because everyone else got hurt. O’Neill forced this. Campbell said during camp that he’s a guy who makes a play every day. He had a quarterback hit on Joe Burrow in the first preseason game. He had a pick-six and a sack in practice. He kept showing up throughout the preseason. According to Pro Football Focus, O’Neill finished the preseason with an 85.2 grade, which was 10th among all NFL rookies. He generated 6 pressures on just 53 pass rush snaps.
Holmes told us a really interesting story about roster cuts. When undrafted free agency started, O’Neill wasn’t just some guy they called after the draft because they needed another body. Holmes said there was always a handful of undrafted guys you want to make sure you get, and O’Neill was one of those guys. Detroit wanted him from the beginning, and then he came in and proved them right.
I’m not putting him ahead of Moore because I still think Moore has the clearer path to a significant defensive role. But in terms of trust, an undrafted rookie walking into that defensive line room and convincing Campbell and Holmes they couldn’t risk letting him go is one of the strongest trust stories in this entire class. If O’Neill is active in Week 1 and starts getting rotational pass rush snaps, his score could climb fast. But I don’t expect him to play a whole lot to begin with. I think he’s going to be mostly a special teams guy, and I don’t know if his earned trust score climbs much higher from here.
Detroit Lions News