DETROIT – Matthew Stafford joined “The Morning After” podcast and talked about the Detroit Lions’ playoff success, head coach Dan Campbell, and looking ahead to next season.
Stafford spoke to Local 4′s Hank Winchester on his podcast with Kelly Stafford to talk a little bit about this NFL season after the Super Bowl.
Stafford’s Rams made the playoffs as a wildcard team and visited Detroit for the first-ever playoff game at Ford Field last month. The Lions beat their former quarterback of 12 years and ultimately came up just short of a Super Bowl appearance.
Stafford said he wasn’t surprised by Detroit’s success this season.
“No,” he said. “I thought they were built for it, no. I mean, you never know how far they’re going to go and all that, but the fact that they were a good team -- that didn’t surprise me at all. Their offensive line is really talented, when they’ve got both the backs going, Jared (Goff) was playing at a really good clip.
“It takes some emergence, right? That rookie class that they had was really, really good. I’d put it up against, I mean, ours was great, as well. Two of the teams that had success in the league had a bunch of rookies that were playing at a high clip and those guys showed up for their team, for sure.”
Hank asked Stafford about his impressions of Campbell.
“From afar, he seems like a player’s coach,” Stafford said. “Guys love playing for him. He’s as aggressive as it gets.”
“Which has got to be fun as a player,” Kelly Stafford said.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Matthew Stafford said. “You feel like your coach is putting the ball in your hand.
“I got a chance to talk to him before I left. He just wanted to talk to me a little bit, pick my brain about some of the stuff around there, and I spent an hour, maybe an hour and a half, talking to him and came away, I was, like, ‘Man, I don’t know what the team will look like, but he’s an engaging guy to talk to.’ I think he does a great job with the media and then obviously does a great job in his locker room. He cares a lot.
“I think one of the biggest things that head coaches that have success in the league are is authentic, and you can be authentic and be Dan Campbell or you can be authentic and be Andy Reid, and they’re just polar opposites, right? But it also plays in the locker room because you can’t sit there and fake it. There’s too many eyes on you. Guys will call you out and it won’t work. Those guys are two of the most authentic guys as it gets, and it works for their team.”
After coming so close in 2023, Campbell and the Lions are hungry to get back to the playoffs next season. But this time, it won’t be as an underdog.
“Yeah, you’re going to get everybody’s best shot,” Matthew Stafford said. “But, you know what, you were getting everybody’s best shot in the playoffs, and they handled themselves fine.”
