The Detroit Lions are the only National Football Team that has not drawn one single pass interference call from officials.
In 2024, the Lions only drew one single pass interference penalty.
Prior to practice on Friday, Dan Campbell was asked what he believed the reason was for the discrepancy, compared to NFL teams.
“No, it’s interesting. We’ve talked about that before, it is interesting. Sometimes I guess that, like (Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint, Saint’s so freaking strong that he can pull himself out of being held pretty good," said Campbell. "And you don’t necessarily, whereas there’s some other guys, if you don’t have a lot of strength at one tug, you can really notice it. I do think there’s something a little bit that falls into that. As far as everything else, I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Detroit's fifth-year head coach expressed his receivers do a good job of separating and it is a point of emphasis regularly talked about by the coaching staff.
“We tell our guys we know we’re playing tight man coverage, tight match. We know these guys are going to really try to play sticky like our guys do," said Campbell. "Man, it’s about separating. You do everything you can to separate violently. And we just preach it, we talk it, and I do feel like our guys do a good job of separating. But I don’t know why we don’t get calls.”
Lions returner Kalif Raymond is quite close to breaking the team's record for punt return yards.
Campbell indicated, when asked what it would mean to the veteran wide receiver, that Raymond would certainly credit his teammates and not make the accomplishment about himself.
“Knowing Leaf, he’s not going to say much about it if it happens," said Campbell. "And if it does, he’s going to credit the rest of the guys around him because that’s just how he is and how he thinks, the only reason he would’ve had a chance is because of the people around him blocking, helping him get there. For everybody who knows Leaf and what he’s capable of, it would mean a lot.
"The way the guy works, all the different jobs he does for us, the unselfishness, the quickness, the explosion, the tenacity, the fearlessness to take some of these. I mean, he’s busted some of these big ones by being fearless, man," Campbell added. Getting over there making a tough catch with a guy in his face and then cutting it loose. I mean, not everybody can do that. ...