Allen Park — The Lions arguably didn’t need additional depth at running back, but that didn’t stop them from re-signing Justin Jackson just before the start of training camp.
Coach Dan Campbell said a re-evaluation of the position during the team’s offseason break fueled the addition.
“Look, we’re fired up to have him back,” Campbell said Monday. “We’ve kind of always kept in contact with him from afar. But, once the dust clears and you kind of step back, it just made sense. He did a number of things for us last year. He’s a good special teams player, he’s a reliable third back for us, in the run and pass game.
“It got to the point where he was doing one or two critical things a game to help us, so it just made sense for both parties, his and ours. That’s what he brings. He brings competition back and he brings what we feel like is he’s at least a No. 3 back. … We’ve talked about just making it more competitive in every room, if we can, and it does that.”
The Lions initially added Jackson to the roster last training camp. He wound up appearing in 16 games and contributing 271 yards from scrimmage. He also served as the team’s primary return man, with his 26.7-yard average ranking fourth among players with 20 or more returns.
Prior to Detroit, Jackson was a productive backup for the Chargers, averaging 5 yards per carry across four seasons, while contributing another 508 yards on 65 receptions.
Injury update
A back issue is what landed wide receiver Marvin Jones on the non-football injury list to open training camp.
“It’s nothing major, but we knew we weren’t going to start him out at practice, so we just NFI’d him,” Campbell said. “He’s improving and we’re not in any hurry right now to try to get him back. We’ve got three more (practices) and then a day off and then we’ll kind of assess it here as it goes. But we’re not worried about it.”
Detroit’s other injured veteran, cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, is expected to be back in the building next week to continue his ACL rehab.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers