Mr. Scot

Well, it's not quite that simple. If it were, we could do it The heart of it is that the offensive staff (not Campbell himself) figured out a weakness of the Fangio based concepts that are in use all over the league right now and they're exploiting it. Combine that with some effective OL scouting and building and you've got an approach that so far is working pretty well. Meanwhile, we're tipping play tendencies with our formations

Yeah, a couple of our local guys are finding examples where it wasn't the case, but that's kind of not the point. If we did it enough to be predictable, those occasional examples don't excuse it.

I like Wilks, but It's probably valid to say he wasn't "highly sought after" before coming here. He did have a couple of interviews.

As I understood it, he was saying it happened on plays run out of shotgun formation only.

It's a fairly simple principle: When everyone is doing things a certain way, try something different. Mind you, it doesn't always work, and it takes some courage to do. But when it does work...

Luke might disagree, though it's fair to say there aren't many film junkies quite like Luke. The problem though is his statement that our "tells" are obvious.

A couple years back, I was pretty high on Dan Campbell as a head coaching candidate. Since getting the Lions job, he's put some people off with his antics but the Lions do actually seem to be headed in the right direction. Ted Nguyen of The Athletic did an extensive analysis of the Lions offense, a unit that's currently averaging over 7 yards per carry rushing (that's not a typo). According to Nguyen, it's doing so by using old school tactics. If you've got a subscription, you can check it out here: Why the Lions old school offense is the antidote to modern NFL defenses Excerpts... In the age of analytics and airing it out, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell’s old-school approach and commitment to running the ball stands in contrast to much of the league — and it’s working. The Lions are making life miserable for defenses, bludgeoning them with a gap scheme run game that’s successful, in part, because it’s different from other offenses. The popularity of the outside zone system that stems from Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay has led to more teams employing a Vic Fangio-style defense, which asks defensive linemen to play slower and take on a gap-and-a-half, rather than fly upfield and play only one gap. Theoretically, the defense can live in light boxes and invest more personnel in defending the pass as long as its front can slow down ball carriers long enough for the secondary to help. This works well against zone runs because offensive linemen move laterally, but the Lions like to run right into the teeth of defenses with authority. They want their offensive line, one of the best in the league, firing off vertically and punishing defenders. ... Perhaps most impressive, the Lions lead the league in yards before contact per rush (3.79), according to TruMedia. That means on average, no defender is even touching their ball carriers until they are almost four yards downfield. That is a credit to how good their offensive line is. “I’m not a system guy,” Campbell said when he was first hired. “I’ve been through all of them. I’ve seen all of them. So I’m not caught up on that. I’m going to find the best coordinators that are going to come in, and he’s going to have a vision of how he wants to run it with mine. There’s concepts that I know work, that we did well (in New Orleans), that I’m going to implement and want to implement. But other than that, let’s put our guys in the best position to have success. That’s what I’m about.” ... If running a wide variety of gap scheme run concepts is the answer for modern defenses, why doesn’t every team do this? Because it’s difficult to teach and learn all these schemes, and not every team has the personnel. “It takes a smart offensive line who understands the ins and outs of each concept,” former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz said. “When you understand the rules, then you can block most any front. The offensive line coach and the scouting staff knowing all the defensive looks to their formations is important also. They need to have all of them ready to show the linemen during install. ... There's a load of more detailed analysis in-between these paragraphs. If you're a deep study type, you'll probably love it. Either way though, it's a very interesting read.

Not as a coach, but he's working with the radio team this year. This is the kind of thing I could imagine him picking up on as he watches.

Ellis Williams...

Dungy... Which leads me to a question... Did he see it? And if he did, did he say anything or did he not give a sh-t?

If Tepper Burns it all down then there's nobody left but Tepper to build it back up. That scares me as much as anything.

This is Dorsey's first year as an OC too. I think it's also just Mike LaFleur's second. The guy who intrigues me the most right now is Rich Bisaccia. If you look back at his career, he's been titled as assistant or associate head coach for about the last 15 years or so.

He's been in the league about as long as Dorsey. I prefer more seasoned coaches myself but the league trends aren't going that way.

Rich Bisaccia Not sure I do yet either but his connection to Dan Morgan likely means he'd at least get a look.

Lions OC Ben Johnson is getting some attention for what he's doing in Detroit. He's also from the Carolinas and went to UNC.

I was hoping there were parts of the playbook we hadn't gotten to yet that we were working on installing in practice. Seeing this I'd say there damn well needs to be something

I haven't made the time nor had the energy to go back and review much, but I certainly feel like I want to now.

Well, I certainly hope we spent some time installing some different plays this week because it's frigging Thursday evening and we've got a game on Sunday. I question whether we can install a bunch of new stuff in just the next two practices.

We've got an entire offensive and defensive staff, including some seasoned NFL coaches. Did nobody see this or was everybody just afraid to say something about it? How the hell does Phil Snow not see this?

Good grief

I'm not saying wait for him. Just saying he's looked great so far. And he's got great size / arm for the NFL.

Players supported George Seifert.

To be fair, Drake Maye looks pretty damn good.