Some of the Lions' young players are too out of control right now, Dan Campbell explains why that's a good thing

There seems to have been a real theme to Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell's presser on Tuesday morning. There was a lot of talk about control when it came to the younger players on the team. Right now, it seems as though some of the players are a bit out of control when it comes to aggression, going too fast, and missing their targets. There were three examples he had.

The first one was Safety Morice Norris. During the acclimation period in the first week of camp, Norris got dismissed for the day because he was being too aggressive on the field. Campbell talked about how he needs to control that.

"...I think some of this is - which is good to see. And look, we don’t have to worry about the aggressiveness in his style of play, it’s more now when the bullets are flying, are you so aggressive that you’re not doing your job? More so than the other stuff, it’s like stay focused on this is your gap, this is where you’ve got to get and here’s how you’ve got to get there and what coverage you’re in. And so it’s just staying focused enough to where reduce the aggressiveness so that you can stay focused on your job at hand. That’s the next step for him.”

The next was edge rusher Nate Lynn. While Campbell didn't exactly say that Lynn is having this problem, he talked about how the Lions are just going to stop paying attention to edge rushers if they overrun the quarterback and are just running behind. This was in response to a question about Lynn.

"...I’d say that if you’re going to go make your plays and I’m going to go get all these sacks and you’re rushing high and behind the quarterback, I don’t even see it. It’s not even worth talking about anymore. It’s not worth it. But if you do what you’re asked to do and what (Lions Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach) Kacy (Rodgers)’s teaching you to do and (Lions Defensive Coordinator Kelvin Sheppard) Shep, and you set it up and you push the quarterback and you’re even with him and you crush it or you make a move there, great. But if we’re just going to run behind the quarterback, no that does nothing..."

That's too examples there that some of the young players are dealing with control issues on the field. You're either being too aggressive to a fault, or you're moving too fast that there's no intentionality to what you're doing. To a point that feels like it can be a good thing. You want your players to try hard, right? But here's a difference between trying hard and being intentional, to just plain trying to play with your hair on fire and missing opportunities.

Speaking of playing with your hair on fire, that's been the wrap on Lions sixth-round pick Ahmed Hassanein through camp. Everyone can see that he is maximum effort on every single rep, and everyone can see that sometimes there's a loss of intention because of that.

This was the biggest example of the day from Campbell, and it was actually the one where you realized that to him, what Hassanein, Norris, Lynn, and every other young player on the team is doing is good from a coachability standpoint.

“Well, I think you’re always coaching the, ‘Hey man, don’t get to the point where you’re so out of control that you’re not able to make that transition into doing your job,’ whether it is upfield or it’s a counter. But I bring this back again, you would much rather pull back on guys than have to try to prod them and push them and, ‘Hey man, quit being so conservative.’ And so, we can coach backwards off of that..."

There you go. According to Campbell, it's much easier to try to slow down a player who's a little out of control than it is to get a player who maybe overthinks too much to stop overthinking. With that being the case, the Lions have these players right where they want them. If Campbell and company can get a guy like Hassanein to play with his hair on fire while also learning to be intentional with what he does on the field, he's going to be a major problem. The good news is that Campbell feels Hassanien is already putting maximum effort into that, too.

"...Love the effort, love his enthusiasm. And he is a sponge, he wants to know, he really does and he tries to take what he’s being told, he tries to think about it and take it to the field and grow. And he really is improving. He’s improving.”