Campbell's rank among Lions HCs?

[RedRamage]

As of today, Campbell has 21 wins. That ranks him 10th in terms of regular season wins in Lions coaching history.

In case you're curious:

[djhutch]

Man is that a sorry list.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

The Big Buck is still my favorite head coach of all time. I still believe with a better QB and a slight upgrade along some positions of the offensive line his Run & Shoot offense could have really thrived. Fontes had some great weapons on that team. Obvious among them is Barry Sanders. But he had Pro Bowl WRs in Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, and Johnny Morton as well. He had a three headed monster for a season or two at WR with all of them in place.

It's really too bad Fontes, Russ Thomas, and Schmidt kept settling on terrible QBs to be their starters. Rodney Peete, Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, were all terrible. For the Lions to give Scott Mitchell such a big contract was really an all time bad move for a franchise that has many qualifying all time bad acquisitions. Forget having Steve Young, Brett Farve, Troy Aikman or Jim Kelly (all of whom they could have had in the draft), with even a decent starting NFL QB Fontes' teams could have really been something. Oh well, that was my childhood in the 1990s.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Mr.TaterSalad

[Jason_R]

I’m ready to call it already. DC is the best coach the Lions have ever had and Brad Holmes is the best GM. 

Caldwell was a good head coach. The team was competently run. Wayne Fontes… Rasputin… there was always a little bit of circus side show to him. 

[ben9753]

I can easily see DC ending with the most wins by the time he's finished here. Crazy that he's already a 1/3rd the way there, and half of his time here the team was terrible. The Lions really have a sad history.

[Motown Bombers]

I still believe Schwartz was a better coach than he was given credit for and should have been given a second chance. He's proven to still be an elite defensive coordinator and a little maturity and lessons learned from his Lions tenure would make him a good hire. 

I think Campbell is the best of the Super Bowl era. He is the first coach I've seen actually build an identity and team and improve year to year. 

[RandyMarsh]

It was only 4 years but Bobby Ross deserves some love for going 8-8 and 9-7 in 99 and 00 with that sorry squad he had to work with. 

[NYLion]

In my lifetime? #1 by a very large margin and Holmes is the best Lions GM by an even larger margin. It's a combination of these guys knowing what they're doing and also how low the bar was set in the last 35+ years, I can't speak on the regimes prior to the Schmidt/Fontes regime.

Edited December 6, 2023 by NYLion

[Motown Bombers]

I think you can make the case that the team Campbell inherited was worse than the 0-16 team Schwartz inherited. That team at least had Calvin Johnson and the #1 pick. The team Campbell inherited only had a couple good pieces on the offensive line and no stars. 

[buddha]

fontes was awful.  they had an identity with barry and the run and shoot and then he changed them to a two tight end team overnight.  he lobbied for andre freaking ware.  pat swilling.  every mistake the lions ever made in that time was because of that moron.

he went into philly for the playoffs against an 8-8 philly team led by RODNEY PEETE and got obliterated.

fontes was a clown, not a football coach.

[MichiganCardinal]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

I still believe Schwartz was a better coach than he was given credit for and should have been given a second chance. He's proven to still be an elite defensive coordinator and a little maturity and lessons learned from his Lions tenure would make him a good hire. 

I think Campbell is the best of the Super Bowl era. He is the first coach I've seen actually build an identity and team and improve year to year. 

I agree wholeheartedly about Schwartz. I liked him a lot and with a little maturity I think he'd have been a great coach in the right situation.

I don't disagree about Caldwell being the best of the bad, but I still maintain that it was the right call to fire him when they did. Just because they replaced him with the worse half of Dumb & Dumber who happened to have a degree from RPI doesn't mean Caldwell was a good coach. The team was never motivated for the must-win games and was never going to win anything significant with him at the helm. He was our Marvin Lewis.

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The Big Buck is still my favorite head coach of all time. I still believe with a better QB and a slight upgrade along some positions of the offensive line his Run & Shoot offense could have really thrived. Fontes had some great weapons on that team. Obvious among them is Barry Sanders. But he had Pro Bowl WRs in Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, and Johnny Morton as well. He had a three headed monster for a season or two at WR with all of them in place.

It's really too bad Fontes, Russ Thomas, and Schmidt kept settling on terrible QBs to be their starters. Rodney Peete, Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, were all terrible. For the Lions to give Scott Mitchell such a big contract was really an all time bad move for a franchise that has many qualifying all time bad acquisitions. Forget having Steve Young, Brett Farve, Troy Aikman or Jim Kelly (all of whom they could have had in the draft), with even a decent starting NFL QB Fontes' teams could have really been something. Oh well, that was my childhood in the 1990s.

Chuck Long was also in the horrible QB mix. The Lions of the '90's were pretty good compared to many other decades. Of course, that isn't saying much. IMO, the Lions are the very worst run franchise in all of sports.

[Sports_Freak]

33 minutes ago, buddha said:

fontes was awful.  they had an identity with barry and the run and shoot and then he changed them to a two tight end team overnight.  he lobbied for andre freaking ware.  pat swilling.  every mistake the lions ever made in that time was because of that moron.

he went into philly for the playoffs against an 8-8 philly team led by RODNEY PEETE and got obliterated.

fontes was a clown, not a football coach.

I still remember his firing Mouse Davis because "we scored too quickly." Seriously. 

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

I still remember his firing Mouse Davis because "we scored too quickly." Seriously. 

exactly!!!!!

he was a moron.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

fontes was awful.  they had an identity with barry and the run and shoot and then he changed them to a two tight end team overnight.  he lobbied for andre freaking ware.  pat swilling.  every mistake the lions ever made in that time was because of that moron.

he went into philly for the playoffs against an 8-8 philly team led by RODNEY PEETE and got obliterated.

fontes was a clown, not a football coach.

Wasn't the Run & Shoot Fontes' scheme that he brought in? I thought Fontes was the one who implemented the Run & Shoot with Mouse Davis and June Jones? The Andre Ware thing I get, that was an all time bad move, followed closely by bringing in Scott Mitchell.

[Hongbit]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The Big Buck is still my favorite head coach of all time. I still believe with a better QB and a slight upgrade along some positions of the offensive line his Run & Shoot offense could have really thrived. Fontes had some great weapons on that team. Obvious among them is Barry Sanders. But he had Pro Bowl WRs in Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, and Johnny Morton as well. He had a three headed monster for a season or two at WR with all of them in place.

It's really too bad Fontes, Russ Thomas, and Schmidt kept settling on terrible QBs to be their starters. Rodney Peete, Andre Ware, Scott Mitchell, were all terrible. For the Lions to give Scott Mitchell such a big contract was really an all time bad move for a franchise that has many qualifying all time bad acquisitions. Forget having Steve Young, Brett Farve, Troy Aikman or Jim Kelly (all of whom they could have had in the draft), with even a decent starting NFL QB Fontes' teams could have really been something. Oh well, that was my childhood in the 1990s.

The Big Buck?   His nickname was Cocaine Wayne.  

No way the bindle the cops found in his car was his son’s.  I still can’t believe he got away with that.  

[buddha]

9 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Wasn't the Run & Shoot Fontes' scheme that he brought in? I thought Fontes was the one who implemented the Run & Shoot with Mouse Davis and June Jones? The Andre Ware thing I get, that was an all time bad move, followed closely by bringing in Scott Mitchell.

and then scrapped it because they scored too quickly.

and then brought a similar scheme back when they had moore/perriman/morton.

because he had no identity other than clown.  those teams underachieved massively because they had a clown running the team and not a real coach.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

3 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

The Big Buck?   His nickname was Cocaine Wayne.  

No way the bindle the cops found in his car was his son’s.  I still can’t believe he got away with that.  

I always called him the Big Buck or Rasputin. I forgot all about Fontes' coke habit.

[Hongbit]

50 Years of Lions HC Rankings

1. Campbell

2. Caldwell

3. Fontes

4. Ross

5. Clark

6. Schwartz

7. Rogers

8. Morningweg

9. Mariucci

10. Marinelli

11.  Fat Azz ****

Edited December 6, 2023 by Hongbit

[Hongbit]

4 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I always called him the Big Buck or Rasputin. I forgot all about Fontes' coke habit.

It was the 80’s.  A different world.  

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Where's Gary Moeller on this list? He went 4-3 and had a winning record.

[Motown Bombers]

17 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Wasn't the Run & Shoot Fontes' scheme that he brought in? I thought Fontes was the one who implemented the Run & Shoot with Mouse Davis and June Jones? The Andre Ware thing I get, that was an all time bad move, followed closely by bringing in Scott Mitchell.

Scott Mitchell was pretty good in 95. The Lions have made some bad moves but I'm not sure the Mitchell move was that high. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Having Wayne Fontes as the winningest coach of all time is really sad and sorry for the organization. I think/hope when it's all said and done that Dan Campbell will be high atop this list. I think we're trending in the right direction for sure, so let's hope he can eclipse the low, low bar of Wayne Fontes.

[Hongbit]

8 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Where's Gary Moeller on this list? He went 4-3 and had a winning record.

 

50 Years of Lions Interim HC Rankings

1. Moeller

2. Bevell

3. Jauron

4. Prince

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

**** Jauron is the only Lions HC in the Super Bowl era to ever go onto get another HCing job after having coached the Lions. Way to go ****!