The Narrative Needs an Update
The Cade Mays news hit hard. There is no sugarcoating it. The Lions lost their top free agent signing at center, a position where they desperately needed someone to step in and anchor the line, and the immediate fan reaction was completely predictable: why can’t this team stay healthy?
I get it. Hell, I feel it too.
But a lot of what is happening here is a frequency illusion. You notice it more than ever because it has happened a lot over the last two years. You start thinking it is only happening to the Lions. That was the overwhelming takeaway from fans after the Mays injury dropped. Why does this only happen to us?
Except it does not.
The Saints just lost their starting center for the season. The Commanders just lost their starting left tackle. Both done. Other teams are losing key players at a rapid rate. This is just part of the game. It sucks. It always sucks. But it is not unique to Detroit.
The Violence Myth Has Run Its Course
For years now, Lions fans have been circling back to the same explanation every time someone gets hurt: Dan Campbell runs the most violent training camp in the NFL, and that is why everyone is injured all the time. It is a weird evolution because if you go back to 2021 and 2022 when we started to learn this is how the Lions practice, fans absolutely loved the intensity. They could not get enough of it. Remember that Hard Knocks speech? Fans ate it up like it was the gospel according to Honolulu Blue.
Then the injuries started piling up.
49ers linebacker Fred Warner went on Amon-Ra St. Brown’s podcast and said the Lions need to dial it back. Fans latched onto that and never let go. Now the narrative is set in stone: all the injuries come from training camp because Campbell is pushing too hard.
Maybe there is some truth to that. Maybe not. Last year, the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee’s director of rehabilitation services, Dave Kempfert, who also used to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, disputed the idea entirely. He said if you do not prepare your body for bruising, sudden starts and stops, cutting, and collisions, you are not going to perform when it matters. There are limits to how often you want to do it, sure. But you cannot just take it easy and expect to be ready.
That changed my entire outlook on this thing.
This Is Not the Same Training Camp
Here is the part most fans are missing because they are not at the Meijer Performance Center every day watching practice: this is the least violent Lions training camp of the Dan Campbell era. Not even close.
It used to be hit, hit, and more hit in 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021. Hitting in individual drills. Hit and take to the ground during team drills. Hit and take to the ground everywhere. Nonstop contact.
That is not what is happening anymore.
There is still some hitting in team drills, but it is minimal. Very little actual take-to-the-ground tackling. You still see flashes of it. Devin White laid a crazy hit on Brock Wright on Monday, sent him flying out of bounds. That stuff still happens. But it is happening in isolated sections now. There is not much hitting in the 7-on-7s. There is not much hitting in the 1-on-1s. There is not much hitting in individual drills. It is just not what it was.
So when injuries come out of camp this summer and fans go back to the same well about the violence at training camp, that is just not what is happening. Injuries happen. Period. It is impossible to have a completely uninjured team. There is no such thing as a team that goes through an entire training camp, regular season, or playoffs without a single injury. It cannot be done.
Detroit Is Better Prepared This Time
The good news is the Lions are significantly more prepared this season for something like this than they were last season when Frank Ragnow abruptly retired. Last year the Lions had no plan. It was Graham Glasgow and hope for the best.
Now they have Juice Scruggs, who has actually played well at center, and they have Seth McLaughlin, the Rimington Award winner at Ohio State in 2024. That is the best center in college football. The only reason he went undrafted is because he had a ruptured Achilles, which he seems to have recovered from. Detroit is in a much better spot than before.
I know some fans want to be mad. They want to know which defensive lineman chopped Mays. But it does not matter because the defensive lineman was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing, trying to get to the quarterback. If he had chopped some center during a game, you would be cheering him on. He made a move, and it was a freak injury. There is no way to avoid them. This is just where it is right now.
Are we still mad about injuries or are we finally ready to admit this is just football? Drop your take below.
