By Kieran Steckley
The 2022 Detroit Lions are being closely watched.
And I’m not talking about “Hard Knocks.”
Sheila Hamp, in the first defining hire under her ownership, opted to take a chance on Dan Campbell to lead the Lions onto the field.
Bucking the League’s hiring trend in the process.
Campbell had never been a coordinator. He was not some QB guru. He’s grit not glamour. He speaks his mind instead of talking in circles. He’s Copenhagen not Cabernet.
He’s a Football Guy.
The Lions were in all likelihood the only team that would have hired him.
One of the most important duties of a head coach is putting together a high-level staff – even more so when the HC isn’t a specialist on either side of the ball. Campbell surrounded himself with men who shared his values – chief among them Duce Staley.
Staley came from a comfortable situation in Philadelphia. He was well on his way to being a legacy coach in the City of Brotherly Love.
Respected players turned assistant coaches, Campbell and Staley have the same path. Campbell recognized this and sold Staley on coming to Detroit for this grand experiment with one promise – preparing to be a head coach.
And that is why Staley has as much stake as anyone in the Lions’ success.
NFL Head coaching gigs are among the most rare jobs in the American workforce. The hiring managers (i.e. team owners) are statistically prone to implicit bias and prejudice as well as being easily swept up in the candidate fads of the day.
Staley, an African American former 10-year player who has never called plays nor been a coordinator, faces near astronomical odds to be an NFL head coach.
But this Motor City operation has the potential to drastically shift those same odds.
Staley, like Campbell, has the natural ability to relate to players. His baritone voice carries more weight. He can challenge them in ways 99 percent of coaches can’t.
Look no further than D’Andre Swift.
Staley was frank in front of microphones and TV cameras challenging Swift to be the best version of himself leading into the 2022 season. That means toughness, trusting the scheme and finishing runs.
Swift took the hard coaching and posted a career day (175 total yards and a touchdown) vs. the heralded Philadelphia Eagles defense in Week 1.
It’s no coincidence.
Staley, from Day 1, has coached as if his present and his future depends on it. He is metaphorically fighting for every yard, diving for every pass, digging his feet in the ground on every pass protection drill and sprinting through every gaser.
That matters.
Analytics aren’t going anywhere. They help. Purposely, they have removed much of the human element from sport.
But football is an emotional game played by men. It needs coaches like Staley who bring a more complete skillset to the podium.
Google Duce Staley right now. He’s been an NFL coach for more than a decade – longer than his playing career – and that includes an “assistant head coach” distinction since 2018.
Yet the search engine assigns him the title of “football player.”
“This city that we are in, they know us as former players,” said Staley during a “Hard Knocks” interview. “Our job is for them to know us as coaches that were former players before we leave here.”
The Detroit Lions can do just that. Their success will allow more men like Staley to be given a chance in the Captain’s chair.
In other words, every Lions win is a step toward changing the landscape of the NFL. And that is special.
The Deep 