ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Dan Campbell isn’t going to spend much time worrying about addition or subtraction problems when it comes to the Detroit Lions’ roster right now.

He’ll leave most of that to general manager Brad Holmes, who’ll be even busier than usual in the next week, what with the Lions’ overall health improving and the NFL trade deadline fast approaching next Tuesday.

Campbell remains focused instead on a different equation, as the two-time reigning NFC North champs exit their bye week and unofficially enter the stretch run in pursuit of an elusive Super Bowl title.

“The bottom line is, find a way to win your division,” Campbell said Tuesday afternoon, shortly before his team hit the field in Allen Park for a rare padded practice.

And with a home game on tap Sunday against Minnesota — last year’s runner-up in the race for the division title and the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed — Campbell’s big-picture presentation to his players this week focused on a much narrower window.

“I just kind of put up where everything is stacking in the NFC right now,” he said. “It’s very competitive, especially at this point in the season for one conference. But all I stated was, ‘Hey, this is where we’re at, this is where these teams are at, and this thing’s about to shake out in the month of November.’

“I mentioned this to you guys last week: You’re gonna start seeing some risers and fallers. And a lot of these teams are playing each other. We’re one of them. So, it really is just, ‘Handle your business, man.’”

The Vikings (3-4) are the business at hand, though admittedly they’re on the fringes of the playoff picture at this point, turning back to rookie J.J. McCarthy at quarterback after losing two games in a five-day span, including a 37-10 thrashing by the Chargers last week in Los Angeles.

Detroit has won its last five meetings with Minnesota, and the Vikings’ last win at Ford Field came at the end of the 2020 season, a few weeks before Campbell was hired. Still, after the Lions’ coach rattled off some of the reasons to be wary of his matchup — from the talented receiving corps led by Justin Jefferson to the aggressive defense orchestrated by Brian Flores — he reiterated, “This’ll be a big test for us at our place.”

From there, though, the tests only get bigger as the Lions face the NFL’s second-toughest remaining schedule, with four division leaders in the next seven weeks. In the next month alone, there are back-to-back road dates at Washington and Philadelphia and a Thanksgiving showdown at home against Green Bay, which thumped the Lions in the season opener at Lambeau Field.

If the playoffs started this week, Detroit would be the No. 5 seed in the NFC, starting the postseason on the road at Seattle. But to Campbell’s point, there’s very little separation among the top contenders in the conference right now. The Packers (5-1-1) are the current top seed, but only sit a game up on the Lions, thanks to that Week 1 win as well as a tie in Dallas a month ago. Green Bay will host Philadelphia (6-2) for a Monday night game on Nov. 10, six days before the Lions head to Philly for a Sunday night clash with the defending Super Bowl champs.

“Yeah, we're right in the middle of it, sure,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “You know, we’ve got some games to win and some tough competition coming up, starting this week with Minnesota. But, yeah, we're in that stretch now. You come back from the bye and it's ‘go’ time. There's no time to really fix things or make up for lost time. You know, we've done that already at this point, and it's time to go.”

That sense of urgency is particularly keen on the offensive side of the ball, too.

Goff is off to another strong start, ranked third in the league in passer rating (116.4) and on pace for another 4,000-yard season. He has thrown just three interceptions in seven games, and the Lions are third in the league in scoring, averaging 30.7 points per game.

But while Detroit’s run game remains productive — fifth in the NFL at 133.7 yards per game — it hasn’t been as efficient as it was a year ago. And neither has the third-down operation, where the Lions have dropped from the fourth-best conversion rate (47.6%) last season to 22nd (37.6) this year.

Not surprisingly, that was one of the main points of emphasis for Campbell and offensive coordinator John Morton as they tackled the self-scout over the bye week.

“Third down is the most glaring thing right now,” Campbell said. “We have to be better.”

The reasons are varied, and whether it’s a matter of getting used to a new play-caller in Morton or two new guards in a revamped interior line or the shoulder issue that has hampered left tackle Taylor Decker, Goff knows it’s his responsibility — as much as anyone’s — to fix it.

“I think it's got all to do with us,” he said. “Sure, there's been some defenses that have given us issues, but if we execute properly on some of these downs, it's a different story.”

He pointed to the win over Tampa Bay a week ago as an example, and particularly a third-down incompletion he threw at Jameson Williams’ shins during a 2-minute drill just before halftime.

“I put it on his chest, he's making that catch and that's another completion,” Goff said. “There's a handful of those I could think of. But, yeah, it's just pure execution.”

Defensively, there’s little doubt this Lions team is in better shape than it was a year ago. Kelvin Sheppard has a top-10 unit humming along in spite of the injuries that had decimated the Lions’ secondary over the last month.

Alim McNeill’s season debut a week ago was a sign of things to come as well, with cornerbacks Terrion Arnold and Avonte Maddox returning to practice this week and safety Brian Branch back from suspension. Another starter, cornerback D.J. Reed, is eligible to come off injured reserve next week, Malcolm Rodriguez should be back in time for the Eagles game, and Campbell said Tuesday he’s “very confident” the Lions will have Marcus Davenport — out since Week 2 with a pectoral injury — in the lineup again this fall.

And with additions like those, the math certainly does get easier, even if the schedule won’t.

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