Lions' Dan Campbell to retain Detroit challenge flag duties

Dan Campbell said on Sunday that he intends to keep Detroit’s challenge flag with him during the 2026 NFL season.

The NFL announced a rule change last week where NFL head coaches can designate an assistant to handle the task of throwing the red challenge flag to initiate instant replay reviews. But, Campbell said he intends to retain that duty for Detroit.

“No, I’m not giving that flag up to anybody. No way,” Campbell said. “The buck stops with me anyway. I’m answering the questions, so why would I give it to somebody else for me to answer for somebody else? It all comes to me anyway. So, yeah, that’s it.”

The Lions used seven challenges last season, with four of those plays overturned and three upheld. In his five seasons in Detroit, Campbell has challenged 24 plays, with 10 overturned and 14 of those upheld.

Campbell joins New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel among the league’s coaches that have said they won’t delegate challenge flag duties.

“I don’t think that that’s new because I think that there are other people,” Vrabel said. “I don’t know where this is getting so much traction. I think maybe it’s on a form now that it’s a designated person. The officials will normally ask us 90 minutes prior to the game. You have a meeting, and you go through who has the challenge flag, who’s the ‘get back’ coach, who’s the captains, who has a cast, running any trick plays, anything that we want to look for. They’ve always asked me who has the challenge flag, and I know that there’s been other players, or other people other than coaches. So I was kind of surprised that this got talked about. But, no, I’ll keep the challenge flag.”

For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Josh on X, @JoshOnLions

This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions’ Dan Campbell to retain Detroit challenge flag duties