Dan Campbell and Jared Goff are leading the Detroit Lions back to relevance. They have been in lockstep together as they try to make one of the NFL's biggest losers a winner. The head coach vouched on the quarterback's behalf when he arrived in Detroit.

Before they joined forces with the Lions, Campbell was an assistant head coach and tight ends coach of the New Orleans Saints and Goff quarterbacked the Los Angeles Rams. Within a five-year window, their teams faced off five times, including in the NFC Championship Game in 2019.

Campbell said that seeing Goff multiple times in their previous respective positions was a “powerful exposure” to what Goff could do and a major factor behind the Lions' decision to acquire him in a trade. The Detroit coach told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated that Goff's toughness made a significant impression on him.

“I just remembered, when you’re on the other sideline—and we had at New Orleans, that was a hell of a defense now, and we had it built up übertalented, and those guys, it was aggressive, and man, you knocked the crap out of this guy—and I mean, he’s back on his feet, making throw after throw after throw,” Campbell told Sports Illustrated. “I just remember that’s what I came away with is like, This guy, you can’t break this guy. He just keeps making plays. We weren’t a slouch over there defensively, and so it just always impressed me. So the thought of being able to add him as our guy, our signal-caller, I’m like, Absolutely. Why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we if we can?”

Originally seen as merely a placeholder until a new quarterback came along, Goff led one of the best offenses in 2022. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson became a massive fan of his and found it too hard to leave him this offseason despite garnering interest as a head coach. Although the Lions did draft a quarterback, Hendon Hooker, in the 2023 NFL Draft, the job is Goff's to lose as it stands right now.

The Lions took on a new sense of intensity under Campbell and the results started to show down the second half of last season when they almost snagged a playoff berth. However, they are not losing the underdog mentality they developed. The third year of the Campbell-Goff Lions is shaping up to be the best one yet.