Dan Campbell headed back to New Orleans, sees plenty of his old Saints in Detroit Lions

Dan Campbell’s first trip to New Orleans since he left the Saints to become Detroit Lions head coach nearly three years ago brings back fond memories, and gives him considerable hope for the future.

Campbell spent five seasons as assistant head coach/tight ends coach with the Saints in 2016-20. The Saints won 56 games and four division championships in that span, came a missed pass interference penalty away from making the Super Bowl and, in some ways, laid the blueprint Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have followed in building the Lions into NFC contenders.

“I saw how fast you can flip it over there,” Campbell said Friday. “In the matter of two drafts, all of a sudden, we were a totally transformed team that already had these certain principles and a core about us, but man, we added talent, the right talent to what we wanted our players to look like and how we wanted them to play inside of our system.”

The Saints were coming off back-to-back 7-9 seasons when Campbell joined his good friend and mentor Sean Payton’s staff in 2016.

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They made good use of limited draft resources that spring, taking four bone fide starters with their five picks — defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, wide receiver Michael Thomas, safety Vonn Bell and defensive tackle David Onyemata — before landing a historic draft haul in 2017 that formed the nucleus of teams that won four straight NFC South titles.

Cornerback Marshon Lattimore, the 11th pick of the 2017 draft, is a four-time Pro Bowler. Ryan Ramcyzk, who the Saints took with the extra first-round pick they acquired by trading receiver Brandin Cooks to the New England Patriots, is one of the best right tackles in football. Third-round Alvin Kamara is closing in on 10,000 career scrimmage yards. And safety Marcus Williams (second round), linebacker Alex Anzalone (third) and defensive end Trey Hendrickson (third) were defensive starters in New Orleans who are now key cogs on new playoff-contending teams.

Anzalone, who followed Campbell and former Saints defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn to Detroit in 2021, leads the Lions with 87 tackles this season but has been ruled out for this game.

Collectively, the Saints’ 2017 draft class has made 11 Pro Bowls and two of the picks — Kamara and Ramczyk — rank among that draft’s top five players according to Pro Football Reference’s weighted career approximate value statistic.

Patrick Mahomes, TJ Watt and Myles Garrett are the other players from that draft in the top five.

“I feel like we’re very much in that kind of mold, if you will,” Campbell said. “We’ve hit on some guys and there’s a ton of guys that still have so much room to grow. They’re only going to get better and better and better.”

The Lions have strung together what appears to be three straight strong drafts since Campbell and Holmes joined forces in 2021.

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They landed cornerstone players Penei Sewell and Amon-Ra St. Brown, both among the 2021 draft’s top 10 in wAV according to Pro Football Reference, plus defensive starters Alim McNeill and Derrick Barnes. They added two more defensive starters in Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph in 2022. And the 2023 class is off to a hot start.

Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs have been impact offensive players through 11 games, ranking second and third on the team in catches and tying for second (with St. Brown) in touchdowns. Brian Branch and Jack Campbell project as long-term defensive starters.

Campbell said he sees “a lot of similarities” between Gibbs and Kamara, who had 1,554 yards from scrimmage as a rookie for a Saints team that went 11-5 and lost in the divisional round. Gibbs has 804 yards despite missing two games with injury for the Lions (8-3).

“He’s got a long way to go before you get to that but we certainly like where Gibbs is at,” Campbell said. “A.K. was a guy we had high hopes on, we liked him. Sean identified him early and knew he would just be a perfect fit for our offense and everything that Sean thought was dead-on. And he just took off, and he took off fast.

“We worried about giving him too much because he could take on so much, he could absorb so much in the game plan and play multiple spots. It was more about not wearing him out during the week to get him ready for the game because you’re asking him to do so much. But Gibbs has got these traits, these qualities about him. He’s highly intelligent, he’s explosive, he does have versatility. So we’re excited about our guy.”

The Saints have regressed since Campbell left in 2021, though their slide is more attributable to a change at the quarterback position than anything.

Kamara, Ramczyk and Lattimore, who is currently out with an ankle injury, remain key contributors. Quarterback Drew Brees retired after the 2020 season and the Saints are on their third different starting quarterback in as many seasons since — Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton and now Derek Carr. Payton stepped down as head coach after the 2021 season; he’s now working his magic with the Denver Broncos.

Still, the Saints, coming off consecutive losing seasons, are in the playoff hunt in the middling NFC South at 5-6 entering Sunday’s game with the Lions.

Campbell said playing at the Superdome, where he was a part of 40 wins with the Saints, will be a “special” experience, and Lions assistant coach Kelvin Sheppard said he can sense how excited Campbell is to face his former team.

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Opponent aside, Campbell said the Lions need to get back on track after playing less than their best football since the bye. The Lions have won two of three games, but have seven turnovers the past two weeks and are in need of a bounce-back performance to stay on track to win their first division title and host their first playoff game in 30 years.

“It’s a little bit like going home,” Campbell said. “That’s why I’m fired up to go back there, cause I know winning in that area, I know winning in that building. That’s why I’m excited.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him @davebirkett.

Next up: Saints

Matchup: Lions (8-3) at New Orleans (5-6).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday; Caesars Superdome, New Orleans.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Lions by 4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Campbell sees plenty of Drew Brees era Saints in his Detroit Lions