The Detroit Lions have completed two weeks of 2023 offseason training activities (OTAs), and this week, the team will implement their three-day minicamp. For the most part, practices in Allen Park will be nearly identical to OTAs (no pads, lots of individual drills, etc.) with a few minor tweaks. Most notable are that these practices…
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The Detroit Lions are in no rush to add more competition to their quarterback room, even if Hendon Hooker is forced to take a redshirt season this fall. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said last week he likes where the team is at with the quarterback position. Nate Sudfeld is currently ticketed for backup duties
Thus far, we’ve been to three different Detroit Lions practices this offseason: one rookie minicamp practice and two OTA sessions. While we’ve provided observations for all three practices, it’s nearly impossible to cover everything happening. Not only are there a lot of things going on at once, but with around 90 players out there for…
The NFL has insisted that its gambling policy has been communicated properly and clearly to its players, but a small survey from The Athletic suggests otherwise. Back in April, the NFL suspended four Detroit Lions players for violating the league’s gambling policy. C.J. Moore and Quintez Cephus were suspended indefinitely—and promptly released—for betting on NFL…
The Detroit Lions are being hyped in a way many of us have never seen before. They’re not only division favorites for the first time in decades, but they’re even being mentioned in Super Bowl conversations. So, naturally, as a Lions fan conditioned to expect the worst, my immediate reaction is, “Okay, what is going…
The Detroit Lions offense exploded onto the scene in 2022. From DVOA and PFF rankings (fifth and seventh, respectively) to traditional counting stats (third in total yards, fifth in points for), the Lions were among the upper echelon of the NFL. Yet with such an impressive showing, is there room for improvement—or regression—in 2023?
The Detroit Lions are closing in on the end of their formal offseason program. The Lions host three days of mandatory minicamp Tuesday-Thursday, and if tradition holds, this will be the last time most of the team’s veterans will be in Allen Park until summer. The Lions have their final four organized team activities next
About a week ago, The Athletic Football Show with Mike Tice and Robert Mays got a question about preseason hype from caller Patrick in Houston: Are the Lions this year’s offseason darling or are they actually good? Robert Mays (the host on the left side of the video clips) pointed out two things. First, he…
There’s a temptation in sports to tinker, often out of fear, because the status quo is an enemy of improvement. This is especially true in football, where 95% of the work done during the season comes via practice, meetings and the film room every week. For coaches then, the offseason is damn near nirvana: A
After trading for kicker Riley Patterson last week, the Detroit Lions now have three kickers fighting for the starting job in Patterson, Parker Romo and Michael Badgley. It’s hard to say who has had the edge so far, but with Organized Team Activities (OTAs) kicking off, it’s the first chance for any of those guys…
The Detroit Lions surprised a lot of people when they traded up back into the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft to take Western Kentucky defensive tackle Brodric Martin. In fact, Martin was caught off guard, too. While setting up for a Day 3 draft party—when he was expecting to get drafted—he received the…
This is Part 1 of the Free Press’ “Five most important players” series, in which we’ll take a look at the x-factors for the six major beats. Freep Lions beat writer Dave Birkett consulted on this list. Starting this series with a look at the Detroit Lions is an interesting challenge. That’s because there are
He’s not this year’s first-round pick or last year’s star of “Hard Knocks,” and that’s why it was a surprise to see Derrick Barnes taking first-team reps at linebacker when the Detroit Lions opened organized team activities last week. Barnes, a fourth-round pick out of Purdue in 2021, has been the most overlooked member of
Allen Park — One of the first times I noticed that Penei Sewell’s voice really was starting to carry for the Lions came in a quiet moment last October. It was at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., in the aftermath of an embarrassing 29-0 loss to the Patriots that head coach Dan Campbell called “rock