Sitting in a team meeting, Chase Lucas braced for a tongue-lashing.
The second-year Detroit Lions cornerback had no idea what he’d done, but when he heard Lions coach Dan Campbell sternly calling out his name, Lucas worried he’d done something to tick off his coach.
“I was just like, ‘Oh shit,’” Lucas recalled. “Like, I don’t know what he’s about to say.”
Campbell proceeded to play a clip of Lucas making a key block on Maurice Alexander’s punt return touchdown against the New York Giants and another on Chase Cota’s long return against the Jacksonville Jaguars, then dropped the remote at the front of the room.
“He was like, ‘I love you, dude,’” Lucas said. “He was like, ‘You’re never up, you’re never down, you just stay like this every day.’ He said, ‘I love you, brother.’ And I took that home, called my mom … All good things.”
A seventh-round pick out of Arizona State in 2022, Lucas is one of more than a dozen bubble players fighting for a handful of spots at the back of the Lions’ 53-man roster. He was in a similar boat last year and was one of the players heavily featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
He’s a versatile defensive back, though he has played primarily as a backup slot cornerback in camp. He fills several roles on special teams, including jammer on the No. 1 punt return unit last week. And his future could be decided by what happens in Friday’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers.
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“Honestly, I feel like (that game is) very important,” Lucas said. “Dan even said it after we lost the last game, he was like, ‘The evaluation period is almost over.’ He was like, ‘This was some of your guys’ last chance and it sucks to say that, but man, that’s what we got to do. We got to move forward, we got to go to Kansas City.’ I mean, I think that they got the people that they want. They got an idea who they want, so just got to go finish.”
Campbell said Tuesday he and general manager Brad Holmes are “pretty aligned” on who will make up the Lions’ initial 53-man roster, though several spots remain “in flux right now.” NFL teams have until 4 p.m. Tuesday to set their rosters.
Under Campbell, the Lions have typically carried 10 or 11 defensive backs, and eight spots in the secondary currently appear accounted for: Cam Sutton, Jerry Jacobs, Kerby Joseph, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Brian Branch have all but locked up starting jobs, and Starling Thomas V, Tracy Walker and Will Harris appear safe as backups.
Veteran cornerback Emmanuel Moseley could take a ninth spot if the Lions choose to activate him off the physically unable to perform list, while Lucas is vying for one of the final spots with players like Khalil Dorsey, Steven Gilmore and Ifeatu Melifonwu.
“He’s done some nice things,” Campbell said. “I feel like he’s gotten better, but he is, he’s fighting for a spot. And what I love about Lukey is, I told him this, he’s the same guy every day. The way he comes into work, he’s not up and down, he’s got the same attitude, he puts in the same amount of work. I mean, nothing changes. He’s consistent, so he’s giving everything he’s got right now, that’s all you can ask.”
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Lucas said he is “10 times better” now than he was at this time last year, and he has used the tough lessons he learned as a rookie to get there.
Lucas made the Lions’ initial 53-man roster last summer but played in only six games and primarily on special teams. He made three tackles, received six defensive snaps all season and finished on injured reserve with an ankle injury.
“I feel like I didn’t do what I was wanting to do (last season), so that’s why I took my health and the money into my body a whole different level this offseason,” Lucas said. “I tried to do everything I possibly could, got with some of the top trainers in Arizona and it’s worked a lot so far. But last year, I definitely feel like despite some injuries and some things I wasn’t taken care of off the field, it just spiraled down from there. I feel like I’m on a great climb up, and I don’t feel like I’m going to plateau anytime soon, just keep going up.”
Last year, Lucas said, he was so consumed with learning the intricacies of the Lions playbook that he didn’t grasp the things he needed to do to grow as a player until it was too late.
He showed up a half hour early for 8:30 a.m. meetings, while many of his veteran counterparts would start their workday before 7.
This year, Lucas said he’s been at the facility by 6:30 most mornings and follows a strict weight room and cold tub routine before practice.
On the field, Lucas had three tackles while playing heavy minutes on defense against the Jaguars and has shined on special teams, both as a blocker on punt return and as one of the first players down covering kicks and punts. If he makes the 53-man roster, it will likely be because of his play in the kicking game.
“Last year I was so heavy, I’m counting numbers and trying to see my spot,” Lucas said. “But at the end of the day, man, like (against the Jaguars), I was playing for all 32 teams, I wasn’t just playing for the Detroit Lions. And they made that perfectly clear with all of us, like if we don’t want you here, somebody else might like the taste of whatever flavor you have.”
Ultimately, Lucas said, he hopes the Lions like his flavor. He wants to stay with the team that drafted him and helped him grow, and he knows a good showing Friday could help make that happen.
“I put everything into it,” Lucas said. “If it wasn’t good enough, hey, man, I’m thankful I got to be here for the last year and a half and go somewhere else.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.