Campbell recap: Barnes likely done for season, excitement for Cowboys rematch and reflections on opponents struggling after playing Lions

Linebacker Derrick Barnes’ knee injury is looking as if it will likely end his season. (Getty Images)

Allen Park — In the immediate aftermath of Derrick Barnes’ knee injury, there was enough optimism that the team didn’t readily commit to a stint on injured reserve. But nearly two weeks later, it’s looking more and more likely the Detroit Lions linebacker’s season is over.

“Yeah, I think it’s tough to say right now,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday. “I think we will be fortunate to get him at any point this year. I don’t want to say it’s not going to happen, but I think we would be pretty fortunate if it does.”

Replacing Barnes, the fourth-year linebacker out of Purdue, proved to be a challenging lineup adjustment in last Monday’s game against Seattle. As expected, due to his versatile role within the scheme, the team leaned on multiple options to replace his workload, including expanded snaps for cornerback Amik Robertson, linebackers Ben Niemann and Trevor Nowaske and edge rusher James Houston.

It’s also a difficult blow to the individual as Barnes is in the final year of his rookie contract and was on track to continue increasing his value through his aforementioned versatility.

After struggling to carve out a stable defensive role his first two seasons due to inconsistencies, Barnes took a significant step forward in his third season, recording a career-high 81 tackles in 13 starts. He rubber-stamped those improvements with a game-sealing interception in Detroit’s postseason victory over Tampa Bay.

Barnes’ intricate knowledge of the scheme, which facilitated his breakout campaign last season, led to a further expansion of his role in 2024. The two games before the injury, he was lining up at five different spots and playing more than 85% of the team’s defensive snaps.

Positive injury news

Contrasting the negative news regarding Barnes’ status, the Lions offered encouraging updates on All-Pro center Frank Ragnow and safety Brian Branch, acknowledging both returned to practice following the team’s bye week.

Ragnow is dealing with the more significant injury, what’s been reported to be a partially torn pectoral muscle. He suffered the injury in the team’s Week 3 game against Arizona, but was able to finish the contest without missing a snap.

Branch, who suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter against Arizona, cleared protocol and was on track to play against Seattle before contracting an unrelated illness that temporarily put him back on the shelf.

No reason to ignore the obvious

Following the team’s bye, the Lions are prepping for a trip to Dallas to battle the 3-2 Cowboys. The upcoming opponent squeaked by the Pittsburgh Steelers with a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of a weather-delayed contest Sunday night.

Everyone knows the narrative here, and there’s no reason to put our collective head in the sand. The Lions controversially lost to the Cowboys late last season when the officiating crew declared the wrong offensive lineman as eligible, negating a go-ahead, two-point conversion in the closing seconds.

Campbell was asked if he still has the same “controlled fury” he talked about immediately following that contest.

“Well, that never really leaves,” he said. “But yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited for this one. And really, look, it’s the next one in front of us, and it’s a conference opponent, and they’ve had our number for a while, and I grew up down there, so I have a lot of people there. I think it’ll be a special game.”

Campbell has never shied away from using plugging into emotionally motivating factors, so there’s little doubt he’ll pull from last year’s fiasco during the preparation, as well as Detroit’s six-game losing streak against Dallas, which extends back to 2013.

“You’ve got to keep your head about you no matter what it is, and I think each game, look, you can always find something,” Campbell said. “To me, you always find a nugget. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. There are reasons behind why you want to win them, and you find what those are and they’re different every week.”

And just like he seeks a motivating factor coming into games, he also wants his team to gain something from the result, win or loss. Last year, the Lions validated their ability to bounce back from adversity after stumbling in Dallas, going on to win their season finale against Minnesota before winning the franchise’s first two playoff games in more than three decades.

North on the rise

A little more than a month into the season and the NFC North is looking like the league's best division. All four teams are over .500 and each has outscored their opponents by at least 20 points.

Campbell claims he’s not surprised.

“I expected this,” Campbell said. “I mean, I expect us (to be) sitting here in another month and it’s going to look very similar. We’re all in there together. I think it’s going to be one of the toughest divisions. I felt that way going in this year and so I’m not shocked one bit.

“We knew it was going to be a competitive division,” Campbell continued. “You don’t want it any other way, really. I think that’s awesome. I think it’s a good thing. You get to duke it out with some teams that are playing really good football. They’ve got players over there too and they’re getting coached well, so it’s kind of exciting, honestly.”

In their quest to repeat as the North champions, the Lions expected to get a stiff challenge from the Green Bay Packers, but the Minnesota Vikings have been the division’s biggest surprise. They've marched out to a 5-0 start behind the stellar play of an aggressive defense and a breakout performance for former top-five draft pick Sam Darnold, who is playing for his fourth team in five years.

The Lions have yet to play a divisional opponent in 2024, but they have a road game against the Vikings on tap after Dallas.

Battered and bruised

An early-season theme has emerged where Detroit’s opponent from the previous week has lost their next game, often by a significant margin. The Seahawks kept that streak going Sunday, falling at home to the lowly New York Giants, who were down one of their best players, star rookie receiver Malik Nabors.

In total, Detroit’s first four opponents have been outscored 138-51 their next game. It has raised questions about whether teams are experiencing a hangover after playing the Lions.

“I’ve heard that,” Campbell said. “I don’t know if there’s anything to that. Look, we play a certain style and it’s what we do, and no matter whether we win or lose, we always say, ‘No matter what it is, you’re going to know you were in a dog fight.’ And so, we’re trying to play that way. I don’t know what to say other than that.”

As a player, Campbell said he remembers feeling the lasting impact of battling certain opponents, particularly the dominant Baltimore defenses led by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis.

"I mean they played a physical style," Campbell said. "Their brand of football was relentless and physical and violent and everything they did was that way. I know when you always played those, you knew you were in one of those when you woke up the next day."

Close to the vest

With the team’s bye coming so early in the season, Campbell wanted his staff to use its downtime to reflect on their job performances rather than evaluating the team’s personnel.

Not surprisingly, the coach was asked if any insights were obtained, but he wasn’t particularly interested in sharing. But before completely passing on the question, he shared one morsel.

“I knew you were going to ask that,” Campbell said. “We went through all of it with the coaches. I would tell you one, communication on my part. Overall communication, particularly with the staff, is where I can be much better.”

Campbell declined to elaborate any more on the matter.

The only glaring communication error from the first four games came at the end of the first half during the team's Week 2 loss to Tampa, when Campbell shouldered the blame for confusion between Detroit's offense and field goal unit, which led to a penalty for having too many men on the field and saw the remaining time run off the clock.

Practice squad swaps

The Lions cut safety Erick Hallett and kicker Matthew McCrane off the practice squad and signed a pair of linebackers, Cam Gill and Al-Quadin Muhammad.

Despite being listed as linebackers, both veterans have far more experience playing along the line of scrimmage.

Gill, who went undrafted out of Wagner in 2020, spent his first three seasons with Tampa, where he averaged 256 special teams snaps. A two-time defensive player of the year for his college conference, he’s flashed some pass-rush ability in limited opportunities during his NFL career, generating 15 pressures on 140 rushes.

As for Muhammad, he was a sixth-round pick for the Saints in 2017, overlapping with Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn in New Orleans.

Muhammad only played one year with the Saints before spending the next four with Indianapolis. He most recently appeared in a regular season game for Chicago in 2022.

Like Gill, nearly all of Muhammad’s defensive snaps — more than 2,900 during his career — have come as a defensive end. Muhammad has tallied 12.0 sacks during his career, with half of them coming in 2021 with the Colts.