Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell given A+ on NFLPA report card: 'The guys love him'
INDIANAPOLIS — The Detroit Lions ranked 13th out of 32 teams in an NFL Players Association survey of workplace conditions, showing slight improvement from last year after ranking highly in one new category.
The Lions were one of three teams to earn an A-plus in the head coach category along with the Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings.
"The guys love him," NFLPA president JC Tretter said. "There was plenty of guys that wrote open-ended responses just talking about how much he means to them and how much he leads them, how much they enjoy playing for that guy. So that’s always kind of interesting to see the relationship between guys, how much their experience matters. I think being a former player for Dan probably helps him there cause he understands what guys are going through and can motivate them and is very collaborative, too."
Tretter said players were asked to evaluate coaches based on workplace conditions such as how efficient they are with players' time, their willingness to collaborate and maintain open dialogue.
"It’s not how great of a football mind, are they going to win games," he said. "That’s not included. We try to keep this solely a workplace study."
Campbell finished third in NFL Coach of the Year voting last season behind the Cleveland Browns' Kevin Stefanski and the Houston Texans' DeMeco Ryans, and led the Lions to the NFC championship game for the second time in the Super Bowl era.
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Campbell received the third-highest ranking among coaches in an NFLPA survey of more than 1,700 members conducted during last season. Ninety-one percent of players felt Campbell was efficient with their time (16th overall), and he ranked third among coaches for being "very willing to listen to the locker room."
The Browns received a B-minus, while the Texans got an A-minus for coaching.
Asked Tuesday how his past experience as an NFL player has helped him as a coach, Campbell said "probably the biggest thing is just ... you've been in their shoes in different situations."
"You’ve been in their shoes during training camp, after two or three weeks of practice, the second two-a-day, which it’s really not two-a-days anymore, but you understand what that’s like," he said. "You understand after the game, you understand disappointment. You understand, on a whole different level, but when you don’t have a good game or the media’s on you, or your fans are on you. You kind of understand the pressures of it, the lifestyle of it and I think that kind of helps you understand where they’re at, too. And so you can deal with them on much more of a psychological level than just Xs and Os."
The Lions ranked 15th in last year's survey and showed improvements this year in categories such as food service and nutrition (28th last year to 19th in cafeteria food and 25th in nutritionist this year), training room (from 24th to 13th) and training staff (tied for 22nd to 12th).
They ranked slightly lower in team travel (from tied for fourth to eighth), and earned a B-minus in the new category of ownership (21st). Lions owner Sheila Hamp scored an 8.1 out of 10 from players for her willingness to invest in facilities.
Ownership and head coach were the two most important categories in the weighted rankings, Tretter said.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell given A+ on NFLPA report card
