It appears the Detroit Lions will host a second set of joint practices at the team’s facility in Allen Park during training camp later this summer. In addition to the previously reportedly sessions with the New York Giants, Detroit’s first opponent of the preseason, the Lions will also get some extra work with the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to the team’s coach Doug Pederson.
“Detroit, Week 2, we’ll go up there,” Pederson responded to a local reporter during a Friday news conference, when asked if the team would hold any joint practices.
Lions blog Pride of Detroit confirmed with the team that the practices, while not finalized, are in the works.
Neither Detroit’s first or second preseason games currently have dates or times, but the way joint practices typically work is the two teams will conduct two sessions prior to the actual game, sometimes with an off day between. Because of the reps the sides get on the practice field, the majority of starters are then held out of the preseason matchup.
The Lions are Jaguars are one similar arcs with their rebuilds, with the visitors claiming the AFC South championship last year with an identical 9-8 record as Detroit. Jacksonville earned their division the final week of the season, besting the Tennessee Titans at home in a win-and-in scenario for both teams.
The Lions and Jaguars met in the regular season in 2022 with the Lions steamrolling the visitors at Ford Field in Week 13, 40-14. That proved to be a turning point for the Jaguars, who won their final five games of the season to make the playoffs, before pulling off an improbable 27-point rally to top the Chargers in the Wild Card round.
“It’s very much a mirror image of us as far as they’re starting back over a little bit (with a) new coach,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said ahead of last year’s matchup with the Jaguars. “…It’s a hungry team, and they’ve got a ton of talent on top of that.”
Jacksonville was ultimately eliminated by the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs the following week, 27-20.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers