3 Lessons Lions Can Learn from Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Read more on the three lessons the Detroit Lions can take away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

When you're an NFL franchise like the Detroit Lions -- known for much more losing than winning over the years -- you need to be willing to take as many lessons as possible from the league's winning organizations. 

With Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers having been crowned Super Bowl champs at the end of the 2020 season, Detroit should first take a deep dive at what the Buccaneers organization did right this past year. 

We're going to do that now for the Lions here at SI All Lions, and specifically give you three lessons Detroit should take away from Tampa Bay's Super Bowl-winning campaign. 

Need a balanced offensive attack 

As much of a difference as Brady made and as nice as it was to have a myriad of weapons in the passing game, the Buccaneers were at their finest, remember, when their ground game was its most productive. 

During their eight-game win streak to end the season, which included their Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bucs rushed for at least 94 yards in six of the eight games, including for 145 in the Super Bowl. 

It was good for an average of 106.6 rushing yards per contest, which made a huge difference for the now reigning Super Bowl champion Buccaneers. 

Yet another reason for the Lions to place an emphasis on their ground attack -- led by second-year back D'Andre Swift -- in 2021. 

Need to be able to stop the run 

As much as the Lions need to produce a much more balanced offensive attack, they also need to place a much higher emphasis on stopping the run -- another lesson that was hopefully taken from Tampa Bay's run to the Super Bowl. 

The Buccaneers' defense -- led by defensive coordinator Todd Bowles -- led the league in rushing defense all season long. 

© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

It finished No. 1 in both rushing touchdowns (10) and rushing yards allowed (1,289) in 2020. 

Detroit, meanwhile, led by former defensive play-caller Cory Undlin, permitted the most rushing TDs (27) and the 28th-most yards on the ground (2,158) a season ago. 

There is clear room for improvement for the Lions in stopping the run, and new Detroit general manager Brad Holmes should make upgrading the team's rush defense a top priority of his this offseason. 

Dan Campbell needs to get out of the way and let his coordinators coach

It seems like the best thing that Tampa Bay head man Bruce Arians did this past season was let his coordinators call the plays on their respective sides of the ball. 

Sure, he offered input on both sides of the ball -- especially on the offensive side as a former offensive coordinator -- as any head coach would. 

However, from all accounts, he mostly stayed out of the way of Bowles and Bucs offensive play-caller Byron Leftwich. 

It's definitely easier to do when you have a seven-time Super Bowl champion as your quarterback. 

However, I believe it's still worth giving Arians some credit for doing so, as it paid huge dividends for the organization in its Super Bowl journey. 

Hopefully, new Lions head man Dan Campbell, especially since he's never been a play-caller on either side of the ball, gets out of the way of his coordinators and lets them do the coaching on their respective sides of the ball -- Aaron Glenn on defense and Anthony Lynn on offense. 

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