Lions won't do joint practices this year, could play starters more in preseason
The Lions have held at least one set of joint practices every training camp since 2022, but won't do so this year.
PHOENIX - For the first time since 2021, the Detroit Lions will not have joint practices this summer. Lions coach Dan Campbell said he decided against holding joint workouts with another team during training camp this year after finding the practices disadvantageous in recent seasons. "I felt like we got two really good years of it, man, like, we’re really getting something out of this," Campbell said.
"And then as it kind of went on, we got into that third year, whatever that was, or ’24, I don’t know, it just felt counterproductive, man. It didn’t feel like we were getting what I thought we would get out of it and part of me was like, I think we would have gotten more – we’d have gotten an extra practice and we’d have gotten more done had we just gone against ourselves. " The Lions have held at least one set of joint practices each of the past four seasons, including with the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans last year.
In 2024, they practiced against the New York Giants. In 2023, they worked against the Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars. And in 2022 they practiced against the Indianapolis Colts.
MORE BIRKETT: Lions president Rod Wood: 'Just went along with it' on COVID-19 rules Campbell said the Lions could play their starters more in preseason games this summer to account for the reps they'll miss by not having joint practices, something they've gotten away from in recent years. And coming off a disappointing 9-8 season when they missed the playoffs for the first time in three years, he said he prefers to keep the focus on his own team this summer. "Let’s just keep it about us, let’s go to work, set the schedule up and we can hit everything, we don’t have to get ready for the next opponent in a joint practice, we go right through it," he said.