Historic Aidan Hutchinson contract extension well worth it for Lions
Reacting to the Aidan Hutchinson contract extension with the Detroit Lions and what it means, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
It’s easy to think of Dan Campbell in certain ways. To label the Detroit Lions coach because he’s so fascinating.
He’s the builder – the guy who has played a key role in creating the Lions’ culture. He’s the gambler – the guy who will risk anything on fourth down. He’s the general – the guy who can stand in front of a locker room and command complete respect. He’s “Mr. Intensity” – the guy who is guzzling caffeine and ripping out rah-rah catchphrases.
But I saw something different this week.
This week, he became a scientist.
A mad scientist, actually.
Because he approaches football with far more intellect than anybody ever gives him credit for. And he approached the Lions’ bye week by employing a scientific method. Science starts with observation, of course, and some of this was obvious: The Lions have struggled on third down, converting just 37.6% of their opportunities, which ranks No. 22 in the NFL.
That doesn’t make any sense when you think about the talent the Lions have on offense.
The next step in the scientific method? Formulating questions. And that’s where it gets so interesting: What the heck is wrong? Is it the play-calling? The players? The technique? The line? The QB? The receivers? Could it be the scout team defense and the looks it is showing the Lions’ offense in practice?
Campbell considered everything.
“Third down is the most glaring thing right now,” Campbell said. “We have to be better. That is, it’s right there. So, those are things that (Lions offensive coordinator John Morton) looked at, myself. And that’s been the big focus for us is making sure we find a way to convert.”
Figuring out why it’s not working
The Lions spent the bye week trying to figure out what they are doing wrong.
To be clear, it’s not unusual for teams to self-scout during a bye week.
But I did find it interesting how Campbell used different coaches to study different problems. I’ll get to that in a second.
While his staff was looking at different issues, Campbell was studying his team using metrics, trying to determine the value of certain players by weighing their productivity against how often they mess up – the dreaded negative plays.
“I look at production versus negatives,” Campbell said. “Sometimes you have guys you may think that there’s a lot of production but yet there’s a lot more negatives that could outweigh those. Those are little things that I looked at across the board and vice versa. It’s like this guy does nothing wrong, but yet there’s no production.”
Think about your own life or your own job. There are people who can do amazing things but they might seriously mess up at other moments. And there are people who never do anything extraordinary, I mean ever … but they never mess up, either.
Which one would you prefer?
Personally, when it comes to football, I would take the guy who has proved he can make plays and be great and coach him up to reduce the negatives.
On the other hand, you can create value by trying to take somebody who never messes up and finding a new way for them to make plays.
“There’s some guys that certainly we can help them,” Campbell said. “By helping them, they’re going to help us tremendously.”
Getting more from Jamo
That brings us to Jameson Williams, a player who can help the Lions tremendously. He has the talent to be one of the best receivers in the NFL, but he has only 17 receptions, tied for 120th in the NFL. He has only 289 yards, tied for 64th . And he has a pair of TDs, tying him for 49th league-wide.
But when he gets the ball, he can be productive. Williams is averaging 17 yards per catch, which is 22nd in the NFL.
So, Campbell tasked assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery to study Williams. To figure out a way to get more productivity out of him.
“We got to get to the ceiling,” Montgomery said. “It’s one of those situations that I studied.”
More specifically, Montgomery studied how effective Williams has been in different passing situations: as the first option for quarterback Jared Goff, or as the second one, and so on.
Yes, that brings us back to scientific questions: Is he not open? Is Williams open but not at the right moment in the progression of reads? Does something else mess it up?
Montgomery found there is no rhyme or reason to it.
“It’s kind of been all over the place,” Montgomery said.
And that’s what they have to fix.
“He’s got to get more opportunities,” Montgomery said. “We’re working on doing that and how you get those opportunities, right? And it’s directly connected also to our third down production.”
Stealing ideas from other teams
This research went beyond the Lions. During the bye week, Campbell had his coaches also study how other teams are doing on third down.
Maybe the answer isn’t throwing a pass beyond the first-down marker.
Maybe the answer is throwing short, getting the Lions’ weapons in space and trusting a receiver can gain yards after the catch to get the first down.
“A lot more catch-and-run,” Montgomery said. “We’re doing a good job in catch-and-run in the games that we’re playing well”
As far as the Lions defense, those coaches did their own analysis. Their own research.
And it started with more questions: What defensive plays are working? What aren’t working? What should they do more? Or less?
And what haven’t they shown yet?
“We install a lot of defenses during training camp,” Lions safeties coach Jim O’Neil said. “There’s still quite a bit of calls we haven’t called yet. So that’s good too, because you got calls that you kind of put in the bank during training camp. You got great reps in and you haven’t shown them yet, so you can pull them out, and the guys have cumulative reps already on this call.”
It’s all tied together of course.
Getting the Lions’ defense off the field will give the offense more chances.
Getting Williams the ball more will increase third-down conversions.
Getting more yards after the catch will increase third-down conversions.
And most of all? Getting players who can be productive, while eliminating their mistakes, will help.
What does all of this add up to? What’s the end formula? A better team and a better chance to make a long playoff run.
“I really believe we tighten a screw here and a belt and all the sudden, this thing is running like a well-oiled machine,” Campbell said. “Just a couple things, that’s all. Easily correctable.”
That’s the hypothesis, of course.
Of the mad scientist Dan Campbell
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
