Lions 2026 Training Camp Day 17 Recap
- The Grey Manes Staff
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Day 16 of training camp was a padded practice that saw lots of situational ad 11 on 11 work. There are three training camp practices left after today.
Injury Updates
Updates from those in attendance along with Dan Campbell presser from the morning. Below is the list of existing and new situations since last practice of players not participating.
The list of those not practicing, limited or exiting early
S Brian Branch, S Kerby Joseph, RB Isiah Pacheco, OC Cade Mays, LB Jimmy Rolder, OL Michael Niese, S Dan Jackson, CB Christian Izien, S Thomas Harper, DB Nick Whiteside (Left), LB Trevor Nowaske (Left)
New/Updates:
Kerby Joseph (PUP) - Still away from team after leaving to handle personal matter. Cambell said he is doing well, but last true update on knee is that it will linger into the season on same timeline as Branch.
Damone Clark - Campbell said that Clark is done indefinitely with his undisclosed injury.
Thomas Harper - Dealing with Ankle injury, likely missing another week
LB Damone Clark - Placed on Reserve/Injured
RB Raheem Blackshear - Placed on Reserve/Injured and potentially waived with an injury settlement
OG Ben Bartch - Back at practice coming off concussion protocol
TE Sam LaPorta - Back at practice coming off hip issue
RB Jabari Small - Concussion protocol
OL Michael Niese - Lower body injury
OL Miles Frazier - Undisclosed
S Dan Jackson - Undisclosed
DB Christian Izien - Undisclosed
Existing (No Changes)
S Brian Branch (PUP)
Both are targeted for return around September
Branch for second practice in a row was running and cutting
OT Giovani Manu (NFI/Injury)
Campbell said that Manu had a previous injury over the summer that wasn't disclosed. He came off practice field not feeling good and after checking it out, put him on the list. It's a 12–14-week timeline, putting it between Week 7-9 of the NFL season if he is still on the team.
EDGE/DE Peyton Turner
Per Dan Campbell, Turner has a stiff back and was not supposed to be serious
Has missed all of training camp, likely putting his roster spot in jeopardy
OC Cade Mays
Mays is sidelined for 8-10 weeks with fractured Wrist (Target Week 5)
DT Mekhi Wingo
In Concussion protocol, no return date
RB Isiah Pacheco
MCL Strain - Target Week 1 return
Left Practice
DB Nick Whiteside
Left with what appears to be cramps
LB Trevor Nowaske
Left with knee injury, walked off field on his own
Transactions
Placed RB Raheem Blackshear and WR Cedrick Wilson on Reserve/Injured and signed DB Jason Taylor and RB Roydell Williams.
Lions signed OL Gus Hartwig and placed Damone Clark on Reserve/Injured.
Had RB Kareem Hunt in for a visit
Tryouts with DBs Shaun Jolly and Eric Scott and released RB Raheem Blackshear with an injury Settlement
Training Camp Day 17 Observations from the Lions Media
General Observations
Day 17 was a padded practice with contact
Lions came into practice a beat-up group, with multiple players sitting out, including five safeties.
Nick Whiteside was moved inside to S/Nickel, but appeared to get cramps and didn't finish the practice. Trevor Nowaske also left early with what appeared to be a knee injury, but walked into the facility on his own
Ben Bartch and Sam LaPorta returned to practice, with Bartch running with the 2nd teamers at LG and LaPorta appearing to get most of a normal workload coming off the hip issue
Mason Miller was at Center but swapped out for Necomer Hartwig after a bad exchange with Dobbs
Bulk of practice was 11-on-11 work, with another strong showing for the defense
Skyler Gill-Howard saw a lot of 1st team reps
Josh Dobbs continues to get third team snaps and didn't get a single snap in situational drills
Ben Bartch just leveled Devin White ona screen play, showing why he was brought to Detroit
One-on-ones were a toss-up with the defensive guys holding a slight edge
With Izien not practicing, rookie Keith Abney received almost all of the 1st team nickel reps today
Bates was observed being 7 of 9 on FGs with two misses around 49 yards
Situational work to close out practice
Situation 1 - Tie Game, starting at own 40 with :51 on the clock and all three timeouts
1st Team: Incomplete pass, short gain to Gibbs and a a screen to St Brown moved the chains. Gibs gained five, then incomplete passes (PBU) and Bates nailed a 60-yarder with distance to spare
2nd Team: Altmyer to Martin on an out route gained 21 and they were in Bates range after two snaps. Vaki rushed for seven and the clock was milked to :03 left, then Bates drilled a 47-yarder
Situation 2 - Ball at opponents 19, 3:31 on the clock and trailing by none (needing two scores)
1st Team: Offense eventually scored a TD after nine snaps, which included some St Brown not at his best and Gibbs laying out for 16-yard completion to the two while working out of the slot. After a few more snaps, Goff snuck it in behind Scruggs and Mahogany. The offense was given the ball back at their own 16 with 1:42 on the clock and one timeout. Hutch and the defense destroyed the last series, with two sacks and a Gibbs deflection that ended the day and practices with a DJ Reed INT.
Detroit Lions Hutchinson, Abney, Williams, Reed and Miller Photos - Jeff Nguyen - Detroit Lions
Dan Campbell Day 17 Press Conference
Dan Campbell was at the podium to start Day 17 and offered up some injury updates, talked about position battles that are still unsettled, had high praise for a couple of players and waded briefly into the nonsense fo NFL guys getting cut and going back to college. You can check out the full transcript here and the quick hitters and video below:
Quick Hitters
Updated injuries of Harper, Clark and Kerby Joseph
Talked through the balance needed to get the team ready for New Orleans while still identifying the last of the roster guys and competition on the back end of position groups.
Likes the new jerseys, saw them a couple years ago and hasn't seen them since Campbell is a big black and grey guy...
The O-Line and D-Line are the most up in the air right now with identifying the final roster spots. Campbell was lamenting the amount of talent they have on DLine and some of those guys won't be here
Campbell also casually said that there may be Lions backups not on the roster currently.
Was asked about Ben Stille and mentioned what a great job he has been doing and how versatile he was, also saying that versatility is key and there was a comparison to former Lion DLineman John Comminsky and how versatile he was.
Campbell said he gave Gill-Howard the "Sun Bleach" nickname on day one when he saw his frosted tips.
There was some back and forth about potentially drafting smaller D-Lineman due to moving to more of a nickel-based system, but Campbell didn't really give a straightforward answer other than to say they draft and play the best players.
Nickel role is still a competition between Izien, McCreary and Abney, and will not neccesarrily be a single-player role but be based on the needs of the defense who is out there. Campbell also tossed out Whiteside if he makes the team as an option.
Campbell didn't want to wade into the NFL cut back to College issue that is going on other than say that he hates to see guys who are invested in and likely will continue to get invested in go back and start over. But understands where they are coming from. His response indicated that he is surprised that is where we are at today.
Media Scrums with Players
The Lions had media availability with DB Roger McCreary
DB Roger McCReary
Opening Statement: You know, have guys like DJ who already been here, Tay, a vet guy, and just add on veteran guys like Chuck and everybody. I feel like that's a great addition. Guys who have experience and once they finally come together to come out and play, I feel like that's a complete package right there. What does this final week of camp and the final preseason game mean to you? Um, it's same. I would say the same as the first second game. Just showing what I got. I mean, still got to go out there and compete. Like I said, the position is still open. So, ain't nothing solid or nothing. No starters out there yet. They just want to see who the best man out there and go get the starting spot for real.
I mean, how much uh you know, again, from a from a just even understanding what they want schematically, I mean, just like the how much how much growth has there been for you, I guess, from just even the mental standpoint this week? Yeah, I would say um yeah, I mean, I would say it was a little bit different, you know, had to adjust to the coaching style in the practice. You know, like I said, they practice hard and this is one of the tough practice. I'm not gonna lie. So it was just me by adjusting to that and just the type of coach Shep is, you know, he's a guy who played the game. So he going to give you that tough love. He going to argue, gonna cuss you out, do all that. But he just want to see you be great. That's why I see on the back end. So it's just all about me being coachable, but just going out there and just play.
It really raises the bar to prepare for the regular season, does it not? Oh, most definitely. This already feel like a season. I'm not going to lie. Like how they practice and just the coaches and everything. That's just how they practice though. Basically telling you like what you what you practice, that's how you going to be in the game. So I truly understand that and I truly see why we present like this.
The Lions third preseason game is at Lucas Oil Field against the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday Aug 22nd at 12pm.
Transcripts are created with an assist from AI
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