CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes met Saturday afternoon to begin the process of whittling the Detroit Lions’ 91-man roster down to 53 players in what Campbell said Friday is a “much harder” exercise than it used to be.
“I mean, we’re going to have to let go of some really good players, and that’s tough,” Campbell said after the Lions’ 26-17 preseason win over the Carolina Panthers. “That’s tough to do. But it also means that there’s growth and the talent level has gone up, and that’s a good thing for your football team. As long as it’s the right guys you’re keeping, we feel pretty good about everybody on this team that’s in this crop. But it’s always tough this time of year.”
The Lions got strong play from several bubble players Friday that Campbell said both “makes (things) clearer and in other regards it makes it very cloudy.”
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Here’s what he had to say about five of the Lions’ most prominent bubble players:
CB Khalil Dorsey
Dorsey forced a fumble just before halftime, tied for the team lead with five tackles, and had a 62-yard kick return while starting at right cornerback.
Campbell: “Dorsey, that was a heck of a kickoff return. It was a big turnover he created, takeaway that we had right before halftime, that he was responsible for, good in coverage.”
CB Chase Lucas
Lucas intercepted a pass in the end zone to set up the go-ahead touchdown, had two other pass breakups and finished with four tackles, including an assist on special teams.
Campbell: “You’re in one of these dogfights, we’re going back and forth and you just, you know if you can get one it can change the game and sure enough, man, that was a heck of a play by Lukey. And it did, it really flipped the tide. You could argue that was a 13-point swing, between that and the other turnover that we got (on Dorsey’s forced fumble). So to be able to score 10 points with about 50 seconds left at the end of the half, that’s huge. That gives you some momentum going into halftime. But I did feel like man, that kind of changed the game for us. It was big.”
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RB Craig Reynolds
Reynolds had 11 carries for a team-leading 41 yards, all in the first half, before giving way to Devine Ozigbo and Benny Snell the final two quarters. He averaged 3.7 yards per carry and scored the Lions’ first touchdown on a 5-yard run.
Campbell: “Craig has not changed one bit. He’s just steady. And he just handles his business and he knows what he’s doing. We have a lot of trust in him and he’s just, he’s a reliable player. He’s a reliable player.”
WRs Dylan Drummond and Antoine Green
Drummond had five mostly contested catches on six targets for 46 yards, and Green had three catches for 90 yards and a 70-yard touchdown.
Campbell: “The receiver position, what was most encouraging was, man, those contested catches we weren’t coming down with (last week), or defenders around (us), we’re getting these drops. This week, boy, we made plays. I thought Drummond made some critical catches and I thought Green really showed up. And that catch he had where he ran through the dagger for a touchdown, that was big. And that was a hell of a throw by Teddy (Bridgewater). But it was good to see. It was encouraging. That’s what we needed to see.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.