The Detroit Lions have been mostly on the forefront of handling the preseason in a new way. That’s holding the majority of starters out of preseason games. In 2023, the Lions basically played no starters at all outside of the few rookies who played and couple other guys like Jameson Williams.
The big reason why the Lions held guys out wasn’t so much about injuries, it was more so about the joint practices that the Lions held. The idea was that the starters were getting that time in those practices so they didn’t need to play in the preseason games.
Another reason we do these (joint practices) is that I feel like you’ve got two great days of work, banked a lot of reps, and so I don’t see us playing these starters this week. I don’t’ see it,” Campbell told Stoney and Jansen on 97.1 The Ticket last August. “We’re going to sit that core group again, and let some of these young guys go. There may be a few select rookies we don’t play. We’ll see where we’re at there as well. But I think that’s the benefit of having this (joint practice session). We have over 40 reps yesterday.”
The Lions had two sets of joint practices last year and that allowed them to bank those reps as Campbell said. As it stands this year, that may not be the case again because the Lions are unlikely to have multiple joint practices in 2024.
Right now the Lions are hoping to have joint practices with the Giants and there’s a good shot that happens since they have frequently taken part in that, but as for the Chiefs and Steelers, they’re less likely to take part in joint practices.
Steelers GM Omar Khan said the Steelers were done with joint practices on the Pat McAfee show last August, so that’s likely out. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said in an interview in last year that he is not a fan of joint practices. So that’s likely out too.
So with the Lions possibly holding joint practices with the Giants ahead of their preseason game in Week 1 and none after that, will they then play their starters in Week 2 against the Chiefs to get guys some time to play ahead of the regular season, or will they look to continue doing what they’re doing and hold those guys out?
There’s also the chance that they talk one of their other opponents can be talked into joint practices ahead of the preseason. That seems unlikely though. We’ll soon see what happens.