Lions' Aidan Hutchinson, Jared Goff respond to Dan Campbell warning

Young pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson and quarterback Jared Goff understand why head coach Dan Campbell is trying to keep everyone associated with the Detroit Lions grounded this summer. 

"It's kind of hard not to see it," Hutchinson said about the hype hovering over the Lions ahead of preseason play, per Mike O'Hara of the club's website. "You see it. I think it's smart ... a lot of our guys stay off it. It can get to your head a little bit. We keep that underdog mentality. We haven't won anything yet. There are a lot of expectations. We still feel like the underdog."

The Lions went 8-2 after Halloween last season to finish at 9-8 and notch a winning record for the first time since the 2017 campaign. Schedule makers later chose Detroit to play in the upcoming season's opener against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 7, and Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs said earlier this month that "we are trying to prove everyone wrong and we are going to show the world, the NFL, and anybody else in the way that you know we are here." 

More recently, Campbell mentioned over the weekend he thinks the "hype train" regarding his Lions has "taken off and gotten out of control." As of Monday afternoon, OddsChecker listed the Lions as the betting favorites at +155 odds to win the NFC North title this coming season. The Minnesota Vikings were second behind Detroit at +300 odds at that time. 

Goff insisted Campbell has thus far done well to keep everybody's eyes on the prize. 

"Just keeping us where we need to be and the so-called 'hype train' is — I don’t know, I think it’s funny to me that like you go 9-8, you don’t make the playoffs and now you’re all of a sudden a favorite and it’s — of course, we’ve got good players, we’ve got good coaches, we’ve got a good team," Goff explained, as shared by Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. "But we haven’t done anything and we have a lot of work to do." 

That work begins against other clubs when Detroit opens the preseason versus the New York Giants on Aug. 11.