Kalif Raymond has been playing for the Lions since 2021, but he became a Lion before that. From 2016 to 2018, Raymond was released five times by four franchises. Well, he was a 5’8″ undrafted receiver/returner from Holy Cross. Those guys are out. He now says that “No matter what, there will be a bubble of preconceptions” because of his size. But then he says this:
“It’s not their job to see things differently. It’s my job to show them they’re wrong.”
Raymond says: “I was always cut for a reason, and it was never the same reason twice. »
He did what so many players don’t do: He assumed the coaches who ruled him out were right. Then he got to work. The goal was to eliminate each of these reasons, so a team had to keep it.
Raymond ultimately stayed with the Titans. He returned kicks and punts and caught 18 passes in two seasons. On one play against the Colts, he ran a route so perfect that he said to himself, “Man, I can do it.“The play didn’t even get a warm welcome. But that’s the moment Raymond knew he had his place.
Register. SI NFL Bulletin. Receive the free MMQB newsletter. dark
“[There] There was no way to express that in any way,” Raymond says, “but that’s what I had been working on. »
After the 2020 season, he became a free agent. Lions coach Dan Campbell called Raymond. Campbell mentioned Raymond’s comeback skills, and then…
“I saw that run against the Colts, man,” Campbell told Raymond. “I was like, ‘Oh, this guy can play.'”
Raymond was stunned.
“What are the chances?” he says now.
Pretty good, actually.
There are two types of franchises in the NFL. One has Patrick Mahomes. Everyone is the other gender.
To make the Super Bowl, these other franchises generally need good health and some good rebounds. But what they need most of all are opportunities: keep playing in January and you’ll eventually get to February.
The Lions, who host the Packers on Thanksgiving, are 7-4 and in third place in the NFC North. In Week 11, the Eagles showed that a great defensive front can thwart the Lions’ high-powered offense, especially now with star tight end Sam LaPorta out for the season.
But this year’s Lions showed why the franchise is resilient. Winning consistently in the NFL requires more than just a plan or even a core of talent. You need to get your churn rate under control.
You must constantly find new talent, incorporate new schematic concepts, and adapt to your personnel, all while maintaining the identity that helped you win in the first place.
That’s how tricky it can be. Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone, a tremendous multidimensional player, is the heart of the defense. Anzalone was a Saint when Campbell was an assistant in New Orleans, and when Campbell took the Lions job, Detroit immediately signed Anzalone. If you list the players who established the Lions culture, Anzalone might be No. 1.
This summer, Anzalone was hoping for a contract extension. He didn’t have any. Anzalone spoke publicly. The Lions held on. Anzalone turns 32 next September, and smart franchises don’t pay 32-year-old linebackers until they have to pay them.
The Lions added $250,000 to Anzalone’s salary in 2025, bringing it to $6.25 million, according to various reports. They signed almost all of their extension-eligible core members for far more money than Anzalone made as a Lion: Aidan Hutchinson, Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jared Goff and Kerby Joseph.
You and I understand that age must be a factor in these decisions. But we are not Alex Anzalone. The Lions actually showed Anzalone that they might not need him next year, but they need him now. These are the situations an NFL team must resolve, not only by making smart decisions, but by managing the fallout. Every team that wins a championship has key players unhappy with their contracts.
Mastering churn requires constant, relentless evaluation and reevaluation. Leos continue to excel because they know what they want and how to identify it, and don’t get distracted by anything else.
In the 2023 draft, the Lions used the No. 12 pick on running back Jahmyr Gibbs and the 18th pick on linebacker Jack Campbell, and critics said they didn’t understand the value of the position. At 2024 draft night, Lions general manager Brad Holmes wore a “Positional Villain” sweatshirt. This year he wore one with HWS crossed out. The H, W and S stand for Size, Weight and Speed.
The message from the start: The Lions select guys who know how to play football and live for it.
“The way we understand and treat the game of football here is a lot different than most teams,” defensive tackle Alim McNeill said. “There’s no secret. We understand it at a different pace than most people. We all understand football, and football has meaning to us. So I think that’s really what it is. Football has meaning to everyone here.”
Raymond says the Lions locker room is full of guys who “care about understanding the why. We have all kinds of schemes and stuff going on. You want to study another night? You want to take another elevator?” This means coaches can adapt their program from week to week and be confident that players will execute it. One of the reasons the Patriots won so much under Bill Belichick is because Belichick appreciated football intelligence.
McNeill also makes another point: College players spend most of their time on campus, but “you get better here on your own in the offseason. If you practice and you don’t love the game, you’re not going to get better.”
“Playing hard, giving 100%, being attentive and detail-oriented, that’s universal,” McNeill says. “You go into any building and everyone has the same type of standards. When you come here and your coach enforces them like that, it’s really nothing, because that’s already how you are, that’s already how you’re set up as a person.”
Getting a handle on churn means that when both of your coordinators leave for head coaching jobs, as Campbell’s did last winter, you need to replace them. And continue to evaluate. Campbell hired John Morton as his new offensive coordinator, then stripped Morton of his play-calling duties after nine games and began calling the plays himself. It takes courageand locker room confidence, and Campbell has both, but more importantly, it requires a head coach who is good at calling plays.
Campbell has received ample credit for his emotional intelligence, but he is also a brilliant football mind.
“He sees everything, man,” Raymond says. “He monitors everything, every rep, every practice rep, on every exercise. Everything he does has been thought through 100 times. He doesn’t do anything on a whim. He’s probably thought about rights and wrongs more times than you can imagine in your head.”
Campbell also tells the truth. He did it with Morton, and he did it immediately after Brian Branch hit Kansas City’s Juju Smith-Schuster in September: “I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable, and it will not be accepted here.” Last week, a reporter asked Campbell why the Lions don’t call many pass interference penalties. He could have lobbied for more. Instead, he said St. Brown is “so strong he can get out of a good hold. A few other guys, a tug, and you really notice it.”
Many football coaches don’t tell the truth. Many of them are decent and honest people in their everyday lives. But professionally, they are so closely connected that they avoid anything they cannot control. Campbell tells the truth, day after day, week after week. McNeill says even in the weight room, “We lift hard, we lift well. We don’t just do things that don’t make sense.”
If you watch the Lions on Thanksgiving, you’ll see St. Brown blocking like he’s in danger of being cut. You’ll see Sewell mauling defenders like he’s playing for a contract extension, even though he already signed one. You’ll see Anzalone play like he signed a contract extension, even though he didn’t.
You will also see a punt returner who rarely calls for a good catch. Raymond is like the others: he constantly thinks he can do a little more.
More NFL on Sports Illustrated
