Saints’ Dan Campbell reportedly the favorite for Lions’ coaching job; Todd Bowles visit canceled

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions have picked their general manager. Now, it seems, they just might be closing in on their head coach.

Dan Campbell has emerged as the favorite to replace Matt Patricia in Detroit, according to NFL Network. Campbell is the assistant head coach and tight ends coach for the New Orleans Saints, and cannot be officially hired -- or even interviewed in-person -- until the Saints’ season is over. They host the Tampa Bay Buccanneers in a divisional playoff game on Sunday at the Superdome.

The Lions said they wanted to meet with their next head coach and general manager in person before making their hires, so Campbell -- who interviewed virtually earlier this week -- is very far from an official thing. But it seems he has emerged as the leader, and Detroit could pull the trigger when he comes to town once New Orleans’ season is over.

Campbell is a former NFL tight end who was taken by the New York Giants in the third round of the 1999 draft. He later spent three seasons with the Lions, catching 23 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns from 2006-08, and also spent time with the Cowboys and Saints during an 11-year playing career. New Orleans won Super Bowl XLIV in his final season in 2009, but Campbell did not play that year after tearing his MCL in training camp.

“I was fortunate enough to have a pretty long career, so I’ve tried everything,” Campbell once told nola.com. “And I’ve been coached a lot of different ways and techniques. The beauty of that is you take the best of that with you.”

“I feel like now that I’ve gotten to this point, I’ve got a lot of good things in the toolbox to give these guys that either I’ve tried or I’ve seen good players do,” Campbell added. “That goes from (Jeremy) Shockey to (Jason) Witten ... and it’s all kind of talent level, what a guy can do or can’t do with his ability. But you give them enough tools no matter what that they can perform. And I think that’s where it helps because ... you know exactly what they’re thinking before they even say it because you’ve been there before.”

Campbell began his coaching career as an intern with Miami in 2010, before quickly moving up to tight ends coach in 2011. He was so highly regarded that he was appointed interim head coach when Joe Philbin was fired after a disastrous 1-3 start in 2015, even though Campbell was still just 39 years old. He was the youngest head coach in the league at that time, yet led Miami to a respectable 5-7 finish and was praised for his steadying hand.

Once Adam Gase was hired the following offseason, Campbell left to reunite with Sean Payton in New Orleans. Campbell played his first three seasons for the Giants, when Payton was that team’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, then they left together for a three-year run in Dallas from 2003-05. Campbell wrapped up his career with Payton in New Orleans in 2009, but did not play that year because of injuries.

Campbell served as the assistant head coach and right-hand man to Payton the last five years, while also working with the tight ends.

“You don’t know exactly what you’re looking for (as a head coach) until you get thrust into that role like I did at Miami,” Campbell once told ESPN. “Well, once that doesn’t work out, I have a chance to come and learn under Sean, and now you know what you’re looking for, and now you know the questions to ask. So to be able to watch and learn under Sean and see how he deals with situations, see how he deals with management of a game, how he deals with personnel, how he deals with scheme. Just dealing with people, scheduling -- everything.

“You talk about a wealth of knowledge now. So it’s been extremely helpful.”

The Lions seemed keen on poaching new leadership from the Saints, also interviewing executives Terry Fontenot and Jeff Ireland for their vacant GM job. They opted for Brad Holmes instead, the longtime college scouting director for the Los Angeles Rams.

Holmes is a first-time general manager, just like all the GMs before him in Detroit, and the Lions were interested in pairing him with some experience. Former head coaches like Marvin Lewis and Darrell Bevell also interviewed for the position, and Todd Bowles was expected to be in town for an in-person interview on Friday. That is now reportedly off, along with a second interview that had been scheduled with Arthur Smith.

It seems Campbell could be the Lions’ guy, a high-character coach who became a locker-room favorite in New Orleans. The Lions were looking for those attributes in their hire after enduring 43 games under the difficult Matt Patricia. Campbell is a tough coach on the field -- including bringing back Oklahoma drills when he took over in Miami, and having the first teams square off against each other rather than scout teams -- but also knows how to connect with players.

“He knows when to kind of loosen up and have fun,” quarterback Drew Brees once told ESPN. “He’s a guy who played a long time, so he’s got a level of respect coming from guys for how he played -- he’s a tough, physical guy. He just really cares about his players. You can see that in the way he talks to us, talks to his position group. He’s just got a lot of great leadership qualities in that way. And I think he’s just a good person.

“He’s a person that you want to follow, and a person you believe in, and you know he’s gonna be honest with you.”

Saints offense tackle Terron Armstead said Campbell has a healthy, collaborative relationship with his players, which wasn’t always the case with Patricia and especially early in his reign.

“He got it, man. He got it. Everybody here would do whatever for that guy,” Armstead told ESPN. “Being so relatable, having done it for so long, just has a great connection with the younger players. I’ve never seen him badmouth anybody, (it’s) more talking up to you. Even when they mess up, he’s gonna talk up to them. And you just want to play for somebody like that.

“You want to run through a brick wall for him. I would.”

Campbell has spent a long time winning a lot of games by Sean Payton’s side. Assuming he takes the Lions’ job, he will be charged with cleaning up a level of dysfunction he hasn’t seen since his days in Miami. But he’s seen dysfunction before, including during a three-year spell in Detroit that included the winless 2008 season, and that experience gives him a unique insight into the franchise that most of Detroit’s other coaching candidates couldn’t match.

“I like the fact that he has ties to the organization,” former Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Podcast. “I think that’s important for a place like Detroit. Like, they got to get somebody in there who understands the organization, understands where the organization has been and the struggles, why some of those struggles happened, but also understands the city as well. I love the fact that he’s been a part of multiple organizations, both as a player and a coach. You learn so much being around certain locker rooms -- ‘They do this really well,’ or, ‘This locker room stinks because of this,’ or, ‘This head coach is really good because he did it this way,’ or whatnot. You know, the ability to learn so many different people skills and teaching skills and communication skills in multiple places is great (to learn from).

“Probably is as widely-respected as a dude in the NFL -- as a guy that we have in the NFL coaching ranks. Yeah, just really well-respected. And I just think he’s going to be able to put together a great staff. Something that I’ve really leaned into over the past couple months is we get so enamored with head coaching hires, as we should -- they’re important -- but the staff that the guy brings with him is as important, if not more. I think his connections and the people he knows within the league is going to give him a really good opportunity to put together a big-time staff.”