Alex Anzalone was the first to say it . In a heartbroken locker room in San Francisco after the Lions' loss to the 49ers in the NFC championship game, the leader of Detroit's defense and one of the team's co-captains said that the standard moving forward is "Super Bowl or bust." Quarterback Jared Goff and owner Sheila Ford Hamp echoed similar sentiments this offseason.
On Thursday, speaking publicly for the first time since the lead-up to the draft, Dan Campbell was asked to basically co-sign Anzalone's message. He was asked if this season is indeed "Super Bowl or bust" for his team.
“Yeah, I don’t see bust," he said. "I see Super Bowl. I don’t know what the bust is."
There are a handful of legitimate Super Bowl contenders this season, the Lions among them. It can't be Super Bowl or bust for all of them. And as Campbell went on to say, "Every team ought to be like, ‘Man, what are you playing for? You’re playing for a Super Bowl.’ So, we are no different than that."
"Now we work backwards from there," Campbell said. "So you’ve got to set yourself up no different than last year, certain things you’ve got to do to really make that valid, make that a reality."
For Campbell and the Lions, that starts, again, with winning the NFC North and setting up at least one home playoff game. That won't be as easy this year in a division where the Packers and Bears have emerged as threats, both of whom already beat the Lions last season. Detroit also has eight games against playoff teams from a year ago, starting with the Rams and the Bucs out of the gate.
And whatever underdog status the Lions could rely on in the past is gone. They are officially among the hunted.
"To get even further, we’ve got to think a little bit different here," Campbell said. "There’s got to be a different level of focus and detail to what we do. That can never be lost. You’ve got to go earn everything again. I mentioned this last year and I’ll say it again, it’s going to take a lot more than it did last year to get to where we were. That’s just the nature of how it goes.
"But we’re going to be more than capable of doing that. Things have got to go your way, but it does start with you. It starts with the players and the coaches. We’ve got to put the work in.”
The work has already begun in Allen Park, where the Lions held their third practice of OTA's Thursday. Campbell can feel the confidence of a team that lived up to every bit of the hype last season. In winning a franchise record 14 games including the playoffs and coming within 30 minutes of the Super Bowl, the Lions proved to themselves and the rest of the NFL exactly who they are.
But now that's who they were. From this point forward, they must prove who they will be.
"We all know what we are capable of here," Campbell said. "Yeah, it does permeate (the team). But you can’t just say it, and say we’re going to believe, and not put the work in. That’s the most important thing. There is a belief, but the belief comes from the work that you put in, and doing all the little things right, and starting from the ground back up, and surpassing where you were."
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