Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell wants the NFL to change its sideline rules after the team’s preseason 14-16 loss against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday. His ask stems from an incident in the second quarter of the game, when Lions cornerback Ennis Rakestraw got hurt after accidentally colliding with linebacker Devin White. That threw Campbell off because he had no idea what happened.

“You get a better view than I do,” Campbell told a reporter, per Pro Football Talk. “I don’t get to see all that stuff. I wish they’d just give us a monitor we can walk around with so we actually watch the game with you guys while we’re watching that game because you can’t see all the little things.”

The teammate collision had already left Rakestraw in some pain, and a couple of plays later, his misery amplified. Rakestraw was taken to the locker room after a tackle on Bengals RB Tahj Brooks injured him. He walked back under his own power, but his left arm was stiff. However, the X-ray showed no serious damage. Even Campbell said it was only a minor arm contusion, but he couldn’t see what exactly happened.

Dan Campbell’s view on an additional sideline monitor makes sense. Coaches have a problem during games because they cannot see everything clearly from the sideline. Fans can watch replays on TV, and reporters can see the action from the press box. But coaches on the field may miss what happened during a play, especially when a player gets hurt.

Get The Huddle Newsletter. The day's biggest NFL stories — rivalries, matchups, expert analysis, power rankings, and insider draft news.

If the NFL had sideline monitors for coaches, it would have helped Campbell notice Rakestraw’s injury in real time and prevent further harm.

Right now, the NFL limits what coaches can use on the sideline because teams could use technology to gain an unfair advantage. But it’s not like they have not taken any steps to better the technology. 

In 2014, the league partnered with Microsoft, which helped it move past the old black-and-white printout system for analysis to having the Microsoft
Surface Sideline Viewing System (SVS) to aid them with near real-time, high-resolution images of plays. Moreover, in 2025, Microsoft went one step ahead by upgrading the SVS with Microsoft Copilot, Azure AI services, and a refreshed fleet of Surface Copilot+ devices.

These AI-first upgrades can quickly find important plays, such as touchdowns, turnovers, and penalties, and help coaches review the game faster. However, this does not mean coaches can watch everything fans see on TV. They still control what video and information coaches can access during games to keep things fair.

Besides this, the NFL also made a supplementary rule change for 2026 that takes some pressure off head coaches. Teams can now choose an assistant coach or another sideline staff member to throw the red challenge flag for them. The head coach still decides whether to challenge a play, but the assistant can handle throwing the flag. This lets coaches share one small responsibility during the game and focus more on other important decisions.

But turns out Dan Campbell doesn’t want to rely on anyone else. 

Dan Campbell’s firm stance on the challenge flag

Dan Campbell wants to keep throwing the challenge flag himself. He does not want an assistant coach to do it for him even though the NFL now allows him to delegate that responsibility.

“I’m not giving that flag up to anybody,” Campbell told the media on Sunday, as quoted by The Detroit News. “No way, look, 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?” 

Campbell does not make challenge decisions completely by himself. He usually talks with an assistant coach before deciding whether to challenge a play. However, he wants to make the final decision and throw the red flag himself. Since he became the Lions’ head coach in 2021, Detroit has won 10 of its 24 challenges, according to Pro Football Reference.

Irrespective of his hit rate, Dan Campbell knows the buck stops with him. He also challenged a play during Detroit’s 14-16 preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, but the challenge was unsuccessful. So, even with the rule change, he doesn’t want to share responsibility, and that just shows why Campbell is asking for a sideline monitor to have a better view of the game.