Three years ago, on a whiteboard in Lions president Rod Wood’s office, there were scribbled notes in black marker detailing what he (along with owner Sheila Ford Hamp, top exec Mike Disner and new hire/franchise icon Chris Spielman) was looking for in a general manager and coach.
Number one on the list was “leadership,” a word that stood alone, without any notes. Second was “culture,” with “Stay focused on this!” underlined four times next to it. And third was “staff,” with three arrows pointing off it, one to “manage,” another to “find the best,” and a third to “handling turnover.”
The list could’ve used an editor—was actually spelled (I did get a look at it)—and the handwriting needed help. But the point of it, and vision for it, was crystal clear.
Wood, Hamp, Disner and Spielman all signed the board on Dec. 29, 2020, as they launched their search in earnest. Brad Holmes signed it about two weeks later on the day he landed the GM job. Dan Campbell did the same upon his hire on Jan. 20. And 36 months later, prints of that whiteboard, with pictures of Holmes and Campbell from the day they were introduced, hang in the office of all six of them.
They’re a reminder of a time, to those who were there, what the Lions were looking for then.
Want to know how Detroit got to its first NFC championship game since (the first) George H. W. Bush’s presidency? You can start with that whiteboard, and with the advice Wood now gives any team looking for a new head coach or general manager (a group that included a quarter of the league over the past couple of weeks).
“I would spend a lot of time defining what are we looking for and what are the personal characteristics that are important for us,” Wood says now. “I think in some organizations it might be that a play-caller’s really important. I wouldn’t argue that. It was kind of funny. Disner and I were talking about this a couple of days ago. The sweet spot lately seems to be an offensive-minded head coach who’s in their late 30s, whether that’s [Matt] LaFleur or [Sean] McVay or Kyle Shanahan, Zac Taylor, [Mike] McDaniel now.
“So if I were looking, I would certainly consider who’s the next 35- to 40-year-old good offensive mind. Our guy [offensive coordinator Ben Johnson] fits that definition with a couple of others. But that’s not necessarily what we were looking for. I also knew we were beginning a rebuild.”
The rebuild would be thorough, but it wouldn’t just be about adding new players. It would also be about bringing a totally new feel to the building.
Detroit—through three offseasons, a massive quarterback trade, a bevy of draft hits, and constant, relentless improvement—is now very clearly there. The identity of the team is as clear today as the list comprising the search committee’s vision three years ago.
The lessons others can take from that are bountiful, too.
