The Lions ditched joint practices and that is exactly the right call
The Lions are stripping things down this offseason and I am here for it. Brad Holmes skipped the league meetings to grind on the draft. The team ran one of the quietest pre-draft processes in recent memory. They ditched the cute schedule release video for a 30-second clip. They skipped rookie minicamp. And now the big one: no joint practices.
That last one is the move everyone wants to talk about. Dan Campbell has been vocal about how much he values joint practices, how they give you starter-on-starter reps that preseason games just do not provide. The logic has always been solid. In joint practices your first team goes against another team’s first team. In preseason games your starters are facing backups who might not be on an NFL roster by September.
But here is the thing. I do not think this changes a damn thing about how the Lions should handle the preseason itself.
Only four teams are skipping joint practices and the Lions are one of them
The Lions are one of just four teams not doing joint practices this summer. The Chiefs, Steelers, and Broncos are the others. Meanwhile 28 teams are scheduling them. Some teams like the Saints and Titans are doing three sets of joint practices. So when Detroit opts out you have to wonder why.
The easy answer is injuries and sure, that is part of it. But if the Lions were worried about protecting guys they would dial down the intensity at their own camp. They are not doing that. So this is not about fear.
I think this is about confidence.
This roster does not need joint practices to figure itself out
Look at the depth chart. How many real camp battles are there for starting jobs? Left guard is one. Cornerback maybe, but that feels like Rocky Sin’s job unless someone else gets brought in. Beyond that you are talking about tight end 3, running back 3, tackle 3. Lower level stuff.
Amon-Ra St. Brown does not have anything to prove. Jahmyr Gibbs does not have anything to prove. Jared Goff is going into Year 11. Aidan Hutchinson has the job. Penei Sewell has the job. Sam LaPorta is the tight end 1. Isaiah Pacheco is locked in as the running back 2. Jameson Williams is the wide receiver 2. The offensive line is pretty much set.
When your roster is this settled what exactly are you gaining from joint practices that you cannot get at Allen Park?
The starters should not play in the preseason and that has not changed
The natural follow-up question is whether the Lions now need to play their starters in preseason games to make up for the lost joint practice reps. I do not think they do and I do not think they will.
There is this idea that if you do not give your starters preseason game action they lose momentum or forget how to play football. That is absurd. Goff is an 11-year veteran. St. Brown does not need a ramp-up period. Gibbs does not need one either. If these guys are at training camp tackling, hitting, going live, and doing everything they need to do in practice they do not need to go out in a preseason game against guys who will be playing in the UFL next spring.
Putting your starting quarterback in a meaningless preseason game where one play could end his season is just not worth the risk. Period.
I am calling it now. The Lions are not going to change anything about how they handle starters in the preseason. They are going to keep it in-house, good on good, back to basics.
The preseason belongs to the guys fighting for roster spots
The preseason should be for the guys who need the reps. Young players who need film. Rookies you want to test in live settings. You could throw someone like Isaac de Slaad out there and that is fine. Let the young guys prove themselves.
You could dress the starters, put them on the sideline, have them help the young players, have them looking over the playbook. That is as far as I would go if I were Dan Campbell. The last thing I would do is put Goff, Gibbs, St. Brown, LaPorta, Sewell, Williams, and any of the starting offensive linemen on that field in a game that means nothing.
It is just not worth it.
Do you think the Lions should play their starters in the preseason or are we past pretending those games matter? Tell me I am wrong in the comments.
