Notes: Lions coaching staff ranked among best by ESPN

Ben Solak of ESPN has the Lions coaching staff at number two in all of the NFL.

There is an old saying around the NFL that goes, “Players make the plays.” And while that is true, players are the ones out there making the plays happen on the field, coaching still matters—especially when a staff is really strong.

Ask around the league today and many familiar with things will tell you about how the Detroit Lions have assembled one of the best coaching staffs around. In fact, ESPN analyst Ben Solak thinks they are the best there is—apart from the two-time Super Bowl Champions in Kansas City.

“There’s not a single thing Campbell doesn’t do right,” wrote Solak of Lions coach Dan Campbell. “He has been consistently correct on fourth-down and 2-point decisions. Perhaps more importantly, his team is behind him when he makes judgment calls on 50-50 calls, as he had to do in the NFC Championship Game loss last season. That’s culture right there.”

I give kudos to Solak for writing this article. Ranking 32 coaching staffs in one of the most competitive leagues in all of sports feels like a truly daunting task, and something that would take a ton of research to do properly. However, I do like how he boils down coaching early on in the article, calling it, “An exercise in maximization.”

You can read the entire article from Solak here ($).

And now, onto the rest of today’s notes:

• You may have missed it since there was a preseason game over the weekend, but the Lions media department gave us one more episode of, “Inside the Den,” prior to the regular season getting underway.

• If you asked me whether or not I would have thought the Ford Field crowd could top what they accomplished last year in terms of noise, I would have probably said no. Now, I am not so sure. Sunday night might reach new levels of pandemonium.

• The Lions released some pictures from the preseason win over the Pittsburgh Steelers .

• Lions’ defensive tackle DJ Reader appears happy to have been removed from the PUP list.

• Lions kicker Jakes Bates’ preseason numbers. Not bad, rookie.