When Dan Campbell was asked for his reaction to the Los Angeles Rams’ blockbuster trade for pass rusher Myles Garrett, he said something that concerned me and spoke volumes about why the Lions may never become a great team under their current regime.
Oh, it wasn’t Campbell’s flippant attempt at humor that bordered on hubris.
“Yeah, I mean good for them,” the Lions coach said Thursday, June 4. “I mean, they’ve won it now, right?”
Hey, I’m glad Campbell can laugh about it now because the joke might soon be on Lions and every other NFC team.
But that’s not the comment that concerned me. It was the subtle caveat he issued about the June 1 trade, in which L.A. had to send the Browns edge rusher Jared Verse, the Rams’ 19th overall pick in 2024 who has made the Pro Bowler his first two seasons.
“I mean, he’s a hell of a player,” he said. “Verse is hell of a player, you know? And they’re two totally different players, but that was what they felt like they needed to do and good for them.”
Yep, it was a whopper of a trade for Garrett. Rams general manager Les Snead reluctantly parted ways with Verse and also sent Cleveland a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick.
All the Rams got in return was Garrett, the NFL’s best edge rusher, a seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro who set the league’s single-season sack record last year.
“I mean, everybody knows he’s one of the best,” said Lions left tackle Penei Sewell, who has faced him twice. “I mean, so yeah, him on any team, he’ll make that team so much better.”
Yet when Campbell was asked what it would take for the Lions to one day become players in the high-end trade market, the silliness evaporated as he turned dead serious.
“Well, I guess I would tell you when that time happens,” he said flatly.
If Campbell can’t tell you, I can. General manager Brad Holmes will pull off a huge trade like the one for Garrett when snowball fights breakout in the toasty netherworld.
An uncomfortable fact
My concern isn’t about the Lions not going after Garrett or any elite edge rusher. It’s about their unwillingness to make the kind of bold move that could move them beyond being merely a promising Super Bowl contender to a team that consistently makes deep playoff runs and, you know, actually gets to the Super Bowl.
Right now, there’s an uncomfortable fact the Lions need to accept. They’re regressing. They went from playing in the NFC title game in 2023 to getting some bad health luck and being bounced in the first round of the 2024 playoffs to not even making the playoffs last year.
To sum it up: In the five years since Holmes and Campbell took over in 2021, they have two playoff wins.
So how is that going to change? They aren’t going to get Ben Johnson back and it’s starting to look like he might have been their true window to get to a Super Bowl, even if the Lions probably prefer to believe that window opens and closes with Jared Goff.
Yes, the Lions have their draft-develop-sign philosophy. It’s a sound one, but only to an extent. When a team like the Lions has filled most of its holes with good, young players, it’s time to acquire difference-making elite stars. You do that by boldly pushing your chips all in either via free agency or by turning young players like Verse into trade capital.
But can anyone imagine Holmes trading a player like All-Pro linebacker Jack Campbell for … anyone? Holmes adores his own draft picks so much he’s practically a pigskin Pygmalion.
It isn’t just about the Super Bowl
There’s another problem with Dan Campbell’s glib comment about the Rams winning it all with the addition of one player. The end game is certainly a Super Bowl title for the Rams. But I’m pretty sure Snead is smart enough to have looked around the NFC West and realized it was the NFL’s toughest division last year and happens to include the Super Bowl champion.
Snead’s perspective probably isn’t too far off that of Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst’s. After the Lions swept the Packers in 2024 and won the division with a 15-2 record, Gutekunst traded three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark and two first-round draft picks to Dallas for elite edge rusher Micah Parsons.
Last year, Parsons helped the Packers sweep the Lions while he racked up 3½ of his 12½ season sacks in those two wins, which were the difference in keeping the Lions out of the playoffs. Parson suffered a torn ACL in Week 15 and missed the playoffs as the Packers went one-and-out, but they likely wouldn’t have even made it that far without Gutekunst being bold enough to acquire Parsons.
As much as the NFL is a copycat league, there’s still no formula for winning that applies to every team. But you can’t argue with the success the Rams have had under Snead and coach Sean McVay since 2017.
In those nine previous seasons, the Rams won a Super Bowl, played in another, won four division titles and made the playoffs seven times. They’ve done all this by making big, bold moves, like acquiring Matthew Stafford and Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller and Trent McDuffie and now Garrett. Meanwhile, in those nine years, the Rams have had only two first-round picks.
So which team would you rather be? The answer’s pretty obvious. It’s the one that’s had the last laugh a lot more often.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions must make bold moves like Myles Garrett trade to win big
Reporting by Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
