Dan Campbell is proving his elite status despite coordinator changes

The Detroit Lions gave us a scare in Week 1, but since then, it's clear that this team is as well-coached as there is in the NFL. It's rare for a team to lose an offensive and defensive coordinator in the same offseason. That happened to the Detroit Lions in 2025, as Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson earned head coaching jobs with the New York Jets and Chicago Bears.

It's been a mixed bag for those two, as their teams are a combined 2-7 through nine games, but Johnson's Bears seem to be on the right track. Well, the Lions replaced each with John Morton, formely of the Denver Broncos, and Kelvin Sheppard, who is a former NFL player and has spent his entire coaching career with the Lions.

The team's Week 1 loss against the Green Bay Packers was about as bad of a game as we've seen this Lions' team play in quite some time, and the chatter about Detroit regressing only got louder. Well, in the month after that, Detroit has gone 4-0 and now found themselves at a sensation 4-1. It's clear that despite both coordinator losses, the Lions' ship is stable with Dan Campbell at the helm.

Dan Campbell is taking his coaching to the next level in 2025 with the Lions

The last time an NFL team saw both coordinators leave in the same offseason for head coaching jobs was the Philadelphia Eagles after the 2022 NFL Season. Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon both got poached for jobs, and the Eagles proceeded to regress big-time and went one-and-done in the postseason.

And in this last offseason, there were a ton of predictions that had Detroit set to endure a notable regression. Fortunately, though, that hasn't happened, and the Lions are still so good that they're likely to beat both the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the coming weeks.

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I will be the first to admit that I was quite 'out' on Dan Campbell from the beginning, as it felt like he was all bark, no bite. However, he could not have proven me any more wrong thus far, and his toughest year of coaching with the Lions is indeed 2025.

Keeping both sides of the ball at their previous level despite losing Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson would have been a tall task for any coach. While the Lions are among the most talented teams on paper in the NFL, they will only go as far as a coach will take them.

For Campbell, that seems to be pretty far, as the 4-1 Detroit Lions feel like the best version of Campbell's Lions that we've seen.