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Tracking the latest news and notes from Detroit Lions training camp.
Following defensive end Jared DeVries' arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday, the word from his camp was that rehab would take some time, but he should be able to return this season. Well, even if he does rehab and get healthy before the end of the season, he won't be able to return, because the Lions placed DeVries on injured reserve today, ending his 2010 campaign.
DeVries' knee had been bothering him all training camp, and when the news broke that he had surgery, I was skeptical that the Lions would keep a spot on the roster for him. As it turns out, they didn't, but only because he is now on IR rather than straight up released. While it's disappointing that he has been placed on injured reserve before the regular season for the second straight year, at least the Lions didn't just flat out let him go.
In other roster news, the Lions signed safety John Wendling, a former Buffalo Bill, and defensive lineman Jaron Baston, an undrafted free agent who spent some time with the Broncos this offseason. Also, the Lions placed safety David Roach on the waived/injured list.
Louis Delmas' groin injury just won't seem to go away. While the severity of the injury remains a mystery, it's obvious that this is a nagging ailment, as Delmas will have one good day and then be forced to sit because of soreness.
Before today, Delmas had been unable to even practice two days in a row because of this injury. He would have to rest in order to not further aggravate the problem, leaving many to speculate about his long-term status if this issue doesn't go away.
While it remains to be seen what long-term effect this injury could have on Delmas, the Lions got good news today, as their star safety practiced for the second day in a row. This is the first time all training camp that Delmas has been on the field for two consecutive days, so it's a sign of progress. It won't be known if Delmas will be able to actually play on Saturday until later in the week, but for now he is taking steps in the direction of seeing the field against Cleveland.
Although Delmas did practice for a second straight day, the same can't be said for Jared DeVries. The defensive end returned to practice on Monday, but today he was sitting out. Calvin Johnson, Paul Pratt, Ko Simpson, Dan Gronkowski, Stephen Peterman, Lawrence Jackson, Jason Fox, Trevor Canfield, Aaron Berry and Jason Hanson also missed this morning's practice, although speculation suggests that some of those players will be on the field this afternoon.
Continuing to make adjustments to the roster, the Lions claimed offensive tackle Cliff Louis and released wide receiver Contrevious Parks.
Louis has been in the league since 2007 and has played for many different teams, including the Giants (he's been with them three different times), Cardinals, Jaguars and Browns. He has also played for a team in the UFL and the CFL.
Parks was added to the roster as an undrafted free agent from Stephen F. Austin. Because the Lions have quite a few players at wide receiver, he was expendable, which is why he was let go.
Last Saturday against the Steelers, Lions cornerback Jonathan Wade broke his finger and has been unable to practice ever since. Wade is one of the many cornerbacks that have been injured in recent days, but if it were up to him, he would be practicing through his injury.
"They took my helmet from me. I went out there to practice and they just took my helmet from me to stop me. I’ll figure it out. I feel like I can’t go out there and talk my stuff no more because I’m not out there practicing."
Wade has one of the best attitudes of anyone on the team, and this story only further backs that up. He has talked about how he wants to make the Pro Bowl, how the Lions have a shot at making the playoffs and now he wants to practice despite having an injury that is keeping him on the sidelines. You have to love his mindset.
It’s been an up-and-down training camp for Louis Delmas’ groin. Originally reported to need season-ending surgery, Delmas returned to the practice field, but has not strung together two straight practice sessions. He was on the sidelines on Thursday after practicing Wednesday and this could be the theme for the entire season:
“It’s a groin injury and the more you beat it up the most it’s going to affect you in the long run. So I take one day off, two days off, one day off, two days off that would be the best treatment for it,’’ Delmas said. […]
[…] “The groin injury is never going to heal if you keep aggravating it,’’ Delmas said. “I guess it will be something I’ll have to deal with.’’
Delmas is not expected to play in his second straight preseason game on Saturday against Denver.
The Lions had a busy Wednesday, making a total of seven changes to their roster. The most noteworthy move was obviously the trade for Lawrence Jackson, but three more moves were made last night.
Safety David Roach was claimed off waivers from the Rams. Roach played in a total of 15 games for St. Louis a year ago and was waived by the team on Tuesday. Roach is taking Marvin White's spot on the team, as he was released on Wednesday. Roach was on the practice field this morning, although he missed the first half of the session.
The third move was that fullback Matt Clapp was released. He was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma and was banged up earlier this week. With the fullback position already in good shape depth-wise, Clapp was expendable, especially since he was injured.
The Lions have had a busy week transactions-wise, having to put one player on injured reserve and signing/releasing a few others. Today is actually already the busiest day of the week so far, as the Lions have made a total of four moves and it's not even noon yet.
Jahi Word-Daniels, the cornerback who was just re-signed on Tuesday, was waived. The sole reason the Lions signed him was to improve depth in a banged up secondary, and he went and got hurt on Tuesday. As a result, the Lions replaced him with cornerback T.J. Rushing, a former Colts player.
The other moves involved kickers. Aaron Pettrey was waived and Steven Hauschka was claimed off waivers from the Falcons. Pettrey is likely being let go because he missed a field goal against the Steelers. I imagine the Lions figured they might as well kick the tires (no pun intended) on someone else with Jason Hanson still out.
With depth in the secondary a huge concern with injuries continuing to mount, the Lions decided to bring back cornerback Jahi Word-Daniels.
Word-Daniels was a member of the Lions last season and played in two games. He was on the roster until June, at which point he was released. The fact that he knows the system is likely a big reason why he was brought back, as the Lions just need extra bodies at cornerback right now so they can run through drills and actually practice. This morning that was an issue, so Word-Daniels was signed right before the afternoon session.
Because the Lions only had 79 players on their roster, nobody had to be released to make room for Word-Daniels.
UPDATE: Word-Daniels was brought in to replace some injured players, but he actually got hurt during his first practice. That's just wonderful.
The Detroit Lions made two moves this morning:
Starting middle linebacker DeAndre Levy finally returned to practice today after being out since Aug. 1 with a back injury. Levy had been growing more and more frustrated with being confined to the sidelines, so this is great news for him and even greater news for the Lions.
With Jordon Dizon going down with an injury, depth was getting too thin at middle linebacker. Dizon started in Levy's place on Saturday, and although Vinny Ciurciu did a good job of filling in for Dizon after he left the game, it's good that Levy is back.
In other news, cornerback Jonathan Wade sat out practice today because of a left hand injury.
And then there was one.
When training camp began, six players were on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list: Brandon Pettigrew, Will Heller, Jared DeVries, Jack Williams, Ko Simpson and Louis Delmas. Since then, slowly but surely the list has been shrinking, and by last week only Simpson and Williams were left on it.
Now, only Williams is on the PUP list, as Simpson was removed today, meaning he will be able to hit the practice field.
In addition to activating Simpson, the Lions also decided to release defensive end Jason Hunter. This move came as a bit of a surprise because it was believed that Hunter would be in the mix for the starting job opposite Kyle Vanden Bosch at defensive end. Cliff Avril definitely staked his claim for the starting job on Saturday, but it was certainly surprising to see that Hunter was released.
Since so many players have been banged up lately, I felt like it would be worthwhile to do a rundown of the injured players and where they stand health-wise right now.
Last week, PFT started a rumor that Louis Delmas would need surgery to right a bad groin. Despite the Lions and Delmas debunking the rumor, Lions’ fans had to be a bit concerned about their star safety’s health status. Well, those concerns can be put to rest (for now). Via Killer Kowalski:
Lions Louis Delmas is off PUP and is practicing this morning
Damon Hack of CNNSI.com writes that Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is looking like a different player than the rookie who took the field last year.
Matthew Stafford looks ready to take a big step in his second year in the NFL. Last summer, as a rookie, he split training camp repetitions with Daunte Culpepper and rode the usual highs and lows of a first-year pro. This summer, he is an undisputed starter, comfortable in his role as team leader. (Shaun Hill is his backup).
“Matt’s in a completely different place this year,” Schwartz said. “Last year, he was splitting reps, our top three receivers weren’t practicing with him [due to injury], he was trying to earn a starting position, he was trying to learn the offense, he was going through his very first NFL training camp, and all of the things that go with that. Now, he’s been through it. We’ve cleared his plate. Now, he’s concentrating on football and not looking over his shoulder.”
Stafford and top receiver Calvin Johnson have been working long hours since March, running extra routes and occasionally spending time together away from the facility.
For everything Detroit Lions training camp, head over to SB Nation’s Pride of Detroit.
Lions fans were sent into a bit of a panic this morning when Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk passed along a rumor that Louis Delmas' groin injury might be more severe than originally anticipated. Specifically, the rumor suggested that Delmas may need surgery on his injured groin, which would end his season before it even gets started.
Although this news was very concerning, Louis Delmas and Jim Schwartz both debunked the rumor after practice today.
Delmas admitted surgery has been discussed. "But it’s not a possibility right now. The best thing for me right now is taking time off and doing a lot of ice and (stimulation),’’ Delmas said.
Schwartz categorized the injury as a short-term thing, and according to Tom Kowalski, surgery was discussed when Delmas visited a specialist, but that was not recommended as a course of action.
We are on day five of training camp and the Lions have made their first real roster shakeup, if you want to call it that. In addition to agreeing to a deal with Ndamukong Suh, the Lions made the following moves this morning:
Douzable was let go to make room on the roster for Suh. Since Douzable just joined the team recently and plays the same position as Suh, he was simply the odd man out.
As for Manuel, he is being let go to make room for an undrafted free agent. It's not often that a rookie who wasn't even drafted takes the spot of a veteran this early in camp, but it's obvious that the Lions knew what they had in Manuel and wanted to kick the tires on a young guy.
Phillips was actually supposed to join the team right after the draft, but he wasn't healthy enough and had to spend time rehabbing a shoulder injury. He finally got on the field with the Lions on a tryout basis during their June minicamp, and then he was in town for a physical last week. Now he is finally an official member of the team, so it will be interesting to see how he performs.
Defensive end Jared DeVries was taken off the PUP list yesterday. Just like Brandon Pettigrew, who was removed from the list on Sunday, DeVries was able to make his training camp debut during the Lions' morning practice on Monday.
Here are some other tidbits from training camp:
"Berry gets his hand on the football just about every single period. You know, he’s small but he has a lot of confidence. He goes out, he plays all the coverage’s, he competes, and he has a short memory. He’s been beat a couple times but that doesn’t force him to play less aggressive. He’s had a good start to camp – he’s in the same place a lot of rookies are – but he’s had a good start to camp."With the cornerback position riddled with question marks, Berry has a legitimate chance to make the team.
Since we have given Zack Follett the chance to compete for a starting spot, he has not disappointed us. We released him after a poor camp last year, but a light came on when we brought him back onto the practice squad. It got to the point where we wanted him on special teams, then we wanted to get him involved in def schemes & packages. It was all him. He's done a good job in the offseason program and he's continuing to improve.That's really good to hear.
Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew spent all of one day on the PUP list before being taken off it today and making his 2010 training camp debut.
Pettigrew took part in all the drills, from individuals to seven-on-seven, but didn't participate in the team drills. During those periods, he did some conditioning on the side.
"I did everything today up until the team period. For the most part, I feel good,'' Pettigrew said, adding he won't rush back from the knee injury he suffered last season during the Thanksgiving Day game. "I'm not going to kill myself to get back, I'm going to ease myself back in.''
Jim Schwartz has said that those coming off of ACL injuries will practice only once when the Lions hold two-a-days. Since they have another practice scheduled for this afternoon, Pettigrew is expected to miss it. As he continues to ease himself back in, he will also apparently get a day off once a week.
Aside from Pettigrew, there were no changes to the PUP list, although it is expected that one or two players could come off of it in the coming days.
The Detroit Lions held their first practice of training camp earlier today, but seven players did not participate. As has been well documented, Ndamukong Suh was one of those players, as he isn't under contract. The other six, however, didn't participate in practice because they are on the Active Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. What that means is that they are not healthy enough or aren't quite ready to practice yet, so they are stuck on the PUP list for now. Here are the six players currently on it:
TE Brandon Pettigrew
TE Will Heller
DE Jared DeVries
CB Jack Williams
S Ko Simpson
S Louis Delmas
A couple of those guys are coming off of ACL injuries or injuries from last year, so they still need more time to recover before practicing.
One of the guys coming off of an ACL injury that isn't on the list is Kevin Smith. I knew there was a chance he would be ready to go based on how he was seemingly ahead of schedule with his recovery, but I'm a bit surprised it actually happened. That's for sure the best news of the day, as there has been plenty of negative stuff with Suh and the fact that three potential starters are on the PUP list.
The issue of hazing was brought up earlier this week thanks to the situation between Cowboys receivers Dez Bryant and Roy Williams (yes, the former Lions receiver). Basically, Williams asked Bryant to carry his pads, which is a common thing veterans have rookies do early on in training camp. It's basically a welcome to the league, but Bryant apparently didn't get the memo, because he refused Williams' request. Personally I think the whole story was blown out of proportion, but it did bring hazing to the forefront.
When Jim Schwartz and the Lions kicked off camp a year ago, he made it clear that hazing would not be tolerable. This year, he once again made it clear that hazing isn't allowed, although his definition of hazing doesn't necessarily include small things like carrying a veteran's pads.
"We're not a college fraternity house," Schwartz said Thursday on the eve of players reporting for camp. "Hazing is not something that we accept or condone at all. To me there's a line between things that are physically demanding, demeaning of a player, embarrass a player."
Schwartz was asked about stuff like making rookies pay the dinner bills, and he had this to say:
"That's a lot different than stocking the position room with Gatorade or carrying somebody's helmet in or getting chicken on the way to the airport for the veteran players," Schwartz said. "Everybody's gone through that. And that's what I tell those guys. I actually use all three of those as, 'Hey, look. If you want your rookies to get snacks for your rooms, that's fine. Don't stick them with a big bill at a restaurant.' "
That sounds like a nice compromise to me. Tying rookies to the goalpost or sticking them with huge dinner bills is just childish. That's not to say that having them carry your pads or grab you a snack isn't, but it's not on quite the same level as some of the big-time hazing that goes on in the NFL.
July 30 - Players report to Allen Park
July 31 - Conditioning test in the morning; first practice in the afternoon
Aug. 4 - First practice open to the public
Aug. 7 - "Lions Uncaged!" at Ford Field
Aug. 14 - First preseason game (at Pittsburgh)
Aug. 31 - Roster cutdown to 75 players
Sept. 2 - Last preseason game (vs. Buffalo)
Sept. 4 - Roster cutdown to 53 players
(For more information on open practices, click here.)
For the latest Lions training camp news, check in with this StoryStream and Pride of Detroit, SB Nation's Lions blog.
Some Final Notes As Lions Break Camp
The Lions broke training camp on Wednesday, meaning players were able to check out of the team hotel. The practice schedule will now start to look more like the one they will have during the regular season.
Here are some other notes from the last few days:
Aug 28 12:23p by Sean Yuille - 0 comments