Allen Park — Since the schedule was announced back in May, the Detroit Lions have had well over a hundred days to prepare for the defending Super Bowl champs in the NFL’s season opener at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
But after months of preparing for the season at large, focus on the Chiefs is only just getting underway. Lions head coach Dan Campbell said his team would likely start honing in on the Week 1 primetime matchup this week.
“We may do a little bit of that (Wednesday), is where the beginning of that would be,” Campbell said Tuesday. “But we’re still focusing on good-on-good and rounding out the roster. We’ve got some work done on (the Chiefs) and we’re still thinking about (them) — just like they do on us. … But, I still think the focus is on us right now.”
That trend even continued through the beginning of this week, when the team ran a full “good-on-good” intrasquad scrimmage to help the starters simulate the game reps they missed from not playing in preseason games. Campbell said the participants in Friday night’s preseason finale at Carolina will look “very much like the first two games.”
Compared to past seasons under Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, the roster construction throughout camp looks a little different. There are far fewer questions about who will be starting where — the second linebacker spot may be the only unknown at this point — or whether the team’s personnel are capable of accomplishing what the coordinators want to do, and more questions about which players can be counted on to uphold a playoff push if a starter goes down.
There is ample need to choose the bottom of the roster carefully, and with teams needing to get their roster to 53 by Aug. 29, the clock is ticking for players hoping to make an impression. By the same token, there is still plenty of evaluation left — even after Tuesday’s scrimmage came and went.
“You string a couple of — two or three — really good showings back-to-back … couple practices here — like, today’s a big day. We’re going to be able to evaluate the heck out of today’s practice and then tomorrow, and then the game, that can certainly catch our eye,” Campbell said. “Especially if we feel like it’s been just trending the right way.”
Campbell has ensured that stocking the roster with depth is not coming at the expense of preparing his starters.
In lieu of preseason game reps for Jared Goff and Co., Campbell has opted for more controlled environments to simulate the action. The Lions were able to get some good work in without ever having to leave home, having hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants for joint practices in Allen Park during recent weeks. Tuesday’s intrasquad scrimmage featured full tackling, simulated crowd noise — the whole nine.
“I think that’s what we’re trying to (do). Whatever we feel like you could potentially lose, which is the ultimate intensity that you get from full-tackle, go to the ground, whistle blows, the blocks through the whistle, all of that — that’s what we’re trying to duplicate here, and we’ll do some of it (Tuesday),” Campbell said.
“We’re trying to put a certain amount of reps on these guys that they wouldn’t have gotten in the game anyway. I mean, nobody’s going to play your starters for a full game in preseason, but you are trying to build them to that point. Today will be a little bit about that; we’re trying to put a load on our guys. It’s going to be intense. It’ll be pretty physical, so I think, yeah, potentially that’s what you could lose in some of that.
“But, I feel like we can mimic that in practice, and we can do it in a controlled environment.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi