Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs was in the news lately for accidentally revealing Detroit’s protections, visible on a whiteboard at the team facility, in a Snapchat video of fellow RB Jermar Jefferson. Coach Dan Campbell has had to answer about it multiple times since.
The screenshot of the video spread on Reddit prior to the Lions’ Thanksgiving win over the Chicago Bears. On Saturday, Campbell was asked about the incident and said he didn’t know about it. The clip of Campbell and his reaction to hearing about the visible protections, perhaps a bit surprised, then made the rounds on X.
When asked Monday if changes were made to the game plan on the heels of the leaked screenshot, Campbell told reporters, “No comment.”
When asked for a third time about the situation on Detroit’s 97.1 The Ticket, Campbell finally put it to rest.
“I know what it is, but I’m like, you know what, we might as well just put everything out there,” Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket. “I don’t really give a crap. I mean, if we’re gonna lose because of code words, then we’re not good enough anyway. So, I think we’ll just post the whole freaking playbook out there and every code word we’ve got. It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna hurt us, it won’t affect us. It’s all good.”
Campbell said he joked about the incident with Gibbs and said he’s “not even worried about it.” Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson had some fun with it, too, expressing confidence in his offense with the fact that teams have known what’s coming in the past based on film and still haven’t been able to stop the Lions, who are tied with the Kansas City Chiefs at a league-best 11-1.
“Have you guys thought about maybe we wanted them out there? So now we know what they know,” Johnson joked Tuesday. “No listen, each week we like to try to keep guys off balance, teams off balance, opponents off balance, and we certainly don’t want them to know when a play is coming, but you look back at the first time we played the Packers this year: Third-and-5, it was our first third down of the game and we made a check, and you can see (Packers DL) Kenny Clark giving that signal right there, which is usually universal for run. Well, we ran it, and we got nine yards.
“So even if teams know what’s coming, it’s still challenging to stop us and so that’s the mentality that we take. We don’t use those code words at the line of scrimmage a ton, but we’ll make any necessary adjustment we need to.”
Consider it a teachable moment for Gibbs, 22, who’s only in his second season in the league. The Lions seemed to have handled the matter internally, with an eye toward a crucial divisional contest against Green Bay (9-3) on “Thursday Night Football.”
Required reading
(Photo: NurPhoto / Getty Images)
