Dan Campbell Camp Day 2 Press Event
- The Grey Manes Staff
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Day 1 is in the books and Dan Campbell just completed his Day 2 press event, dropping plenty of info for those craving more news about the Lions. This includes some details on Tyleik Willaims Instagram post about losing 50plbs and the mystery around Gio Manu ending up on the NFI/Injury list after practice yesterday.
Injury Summary
New:
Peyton Turner - Stiff back, nothing serious
Giovani Manu - Added to NFI/Injury List due to previously undisclosed injury form offseason
No Changes:
Branch - Potentially Early September
Kerby - Likely will linger into the season on same timeline as Branch
Conklin - Calf in Spring, Two Weeks
Izien - Flu bug likely back Friday
Mahogany - Couple of Days
Quick Hitters
No changes on injuries from yesterday, two new items in Manu and Turner came up
Campbell loves Gibbs and was thinking the Gibbs contract situation would have already been done, but he will coach who is present and understands the situation as both a player and coach in the league. says he isn't sweating it, and Gibbs did his conditioning test.
Campbell said the silver lining is that all the other backs will get extended work including with the first team
Really likes that Nick Whiteside has seized the opportunity and continues to improve. Made more plays than anyone yesterday per Campbell.
Manu injury was not disclosed, happened in offseason ad has a 12–14-week timetable, so he went on NFI. Didn't offer any praise or other feedback on Manu in his answer.
Campbell said they are super proud of Tyleik determining that he was too heavy and that he put in tons of work including coming in early, to get himself in shape and down to 325. Which is right where they want him at. Reduced weight means he may be out there more on third down and the line in general will be lighter, with Lopez ad Reader no longer with the team. Will likely change a bit how the DL front works.
Campbell touched on the concern around LaPorta getting his back to where it needs to be for his heath.
Dan Campbell Press Event Transcript
Opening Statement: How's it going? Very good. All right. Uh, day two, nothing has changed. Um, really, I think Payton Turner is probably going to sit out today. He's got a little bit of a stiff back, so just got that, but we don't think that'll be anything serious. Um, other than that, it's day two. Can't wait to get going. Questions?
Uh, can you just I think some of us were maybe caught a little bit off guard that Jahmyr wasn't on the practice field yesterday. That Jahmyr was not on the practice field yesterday. Can you just explain what he's doing, I guess, behind closed doors, right? Going to meetings or whatever still. And at what point does it become a distraction or a detriment to the team that he's Listen I I'll just leave it at this. You guys know how I feel, how we feel about Gibbs and how what the team feels about him. Um, and I'll leave it at that. Listen, all the other stuff, my job is to coach who's out there right now. And uh and I love the kid and uh but I man I got I got I got a team to coach right now. And listen, whatever all this at some point here, it'll get done. It's going to get done. I'm not even I'm not even sweating it. So,
Is it your understanding that he won't be out there until he gets a new deal? Um I don't know. I don't know. Look, I I know this thing. He before yesterday, he did a conditioning test. He had a little bit of a back and we'll see, you know, but look, I'm not sweating.
What sort of opportunity is it for like a Vaki? We saw him getting a lot of reps yesterday and obviously he's a guy who needs it. So That's crazy. Do you have one on music coming from? I feel amplified. Or is it this? Um it's a great opportunity and look it's one of the reasons we got Pacheco man. This is extra reps for pop uh with us just in our system man. So that's awesome. Vaki gets these reps uh Saylors, Small, Robichaux. I mean uh but yes to answer your question it's great. It's a great opportunity for him. It gives him more reps. So um yeah it's good. There's always a silver lining.
You uh brought him up yesterday. Uh Nick Whiteside kind of popped in here last year and just immediately started breaking up passes. He had three I think yesterday on first day of camp. Um where is he at compared to when he kind of arrived mid-stream last year? He's improved. He's improved. Um and what you like about Whiteside is that when we brought him in, gave him an opportunity, he fought, made some plays, man. earned the right to stay. Pulled him up, right? Needed him. Uh did some good things for us. Uh we get him back with us here and uh and look, he's all about business. You know, that's what you love. It's not too big for him. He's all about business and he's going to maximize everything he's got. And uh he looks like he looks like he wants a spot and he wants a job. That that's what he looks like. I mean, I know it's day one, but he made more plays than anybody out there. And uh so that's encouraging. It's good to see.
Uh saw Manu pop up on non-OT injury yesterday after practice. Just curious for an update there. We're Yeah, we, you know, obviously put him on NFI. And um he had a injury, a previous injury over the summer um that was not disclosed. And so um you know, came off the practice field, didn't feel good, got it checked, sure enough, that's what it was. So he will be out uh for a period of time. Who you know, I don't know how long that's going to be. Call it 12 weeks. 14 weeks. I don't know. We'll figure it out all down the road, but he is NFI.
Tyleik put something out on social media. He'd lost a bunch of weight. Um I'm just curious like how much of that was player initiative, intrinsic motivation or um you know, something you kind of asked him to do in terms of taking the next step just being better about his conditioning during the offseason. No, really proud of him. Really proud of him. He uh he's a man of his word. You know, before we drafted him, you know, we set up there, Brad and I did say, "Is there going to be an issue with your weight ever?" No. He came in, he noticed that he was a little bit heavy in the spring. Came in two weeks before our program even started and uh was pretty heavy and said, "Hey, man. I want to get this right." And he put in the work. Uh Scott did a hell of a job with him, nutritionist, all that. got him got him right. Uh and then he's just put the work in. He's put the work in and I'll tell you what, man. He's a man of his word. Came in 325, made his weight, uh crushed the conditioning test, and like I told him, told the team, and so now he's in put some money in the bank of trust. It's awesome and respect. So, um really fired up, man. That's a credit to him. That's where we want him at is right around that 325 range.
Dan, do those physical changes hint at any kind of different role for him this year? Like, our eyes are open. Yeah. To answer your Question, our eyes are open and uh you know, we're willing to give him an opportunity if there's if there's a little bit more that shows. Maybe he's out there a little bit more on third down. But certainly we're open to that. You know, uh we like Tyleik. We know, we absolutely know there's a role for him and there's something that he can do for us that that we feel like really helps us, but can it be even more than that? Yeah, our eyes are open.
Sticking with that uh room, you guys lost a lot of mass with uh Reer and Lopez leaving. Like, does that change how you guys can play up front, how you want to play up front? Like, what do you have to be mindful of when you just lose that much size? Yeah, I mean, look, it does. it it's not we're not the same as we were with those two guys and uh man I got a ton of respect for both of those players you talking about doing some dirty work for us. I mean they did the dirty work and uh and they're good players both of them. So, you know, we look certainly we're going to miss those guys, but you guys know we got we got, you know, on this roster getting Mack back and we just talked about Ty Leak and some of these other young guys, DT tackles, Levis's back. So, we'll we're going to play it as it comes and we if that means we move a little bit more, maybe we move a little bit more. Um, but we're going to give our guys the best opportunity to make plays up front, but also just defensively, what's going to help us? what's going to help the back end. Look, our backers will play off of it. You know, uh Jack is uh crafty, nifty, smart, smart enough to make it right. Um if that's where we go, but we'll see. We'll see.
What has to happen over the next few weeks for you to be comfortable going into week one? What has to be comfortable going into week one? Um, yeah. Well, I think everything, you know, just you want I think you want to feel like, you know, it's a good question. All right. Probably the most I want to know that we can run the football. I want to know we can stop the run. Um, and I want to know that we're ready for situational football. Probably those three things that if you want me to feel comfortable, the other stuff will come. you know, ah man, we're a little off on red zone, third down, you know, those are always a work in progress, game plan specific, but man, you better be able to run the football, stop the run, uh, and situational football, end of half, end of game that you feel comfortable and that you can you can function at a high level. So, those which is why we'll do a bunch of that, especially when we get in pads.
Going back to Gibbs, I mean, how much were you prepared for the possibility given that you guys moved on from David and then um you know uh basically assigned him you know the bell cow back role. I mean that this was probably something that was going to factor into, you know, the potential with the contract extension also, you know, coming up, you know. Are you saying that as it relates to um the contract per se or his use? Just Yeah. I mean, you know, the Yeah. the negotiations potentially. I mean I shouldn't have said bell cow, I guess, right? That's what Hey, well, co said bell cow. Um, honestly, I I didn't think twice about it. I didn't think it would be a I really didn't, you know, I didn't I I thought I thought we'd have been done by now, but I'm also I know how this goes, man. I've been in this league a long time, player and a coach, so I know how it goes. So, I'm not even sweating it. I'm not sweating it.
Yesterday, Sam LaPorta laid out this the steps and the kind of scare of gaining muscle feel back and the strength of it all back and there's nothing there's no given and guarantee that he was going to be back healthy this early. How closely were you monitoring and was your staff monitoring each step as he said kind of things were firing up and coming back throughout the last few months? Oh yeah, I mean we we've you know we kept close tabs on him. Um I mean look we do that with every player but I'm with you. you come off a back and you want to make sure you that you're, you know, you're doing everything right by him and he's doing everything right. Sometimes you got to protect the player from himself. You know, he'd be one of those guys, too. But, um, but yeah, we have and so even yesterday, man, just watching him finally really go full I know we're not in pads, but it this is much this is full speed compared to what we were doing in the spring. And so, now he's ready to go. And you know, we got him just gave him a few reps. He'll get a couple more today, a little bit more. Um, we'll back him back down tomorrow, but yeah, it's pretty exciting. He feels pretty good and um so man, it'll be great to get him back. He's a big piece. He's a big piece for our offense. He's a weapon. Thanks, guys.