Starting on Tuesday, the Lions will have their mandatory minicamp. This three day camp gives players and coaches to get familiar with one another. As we know, the Lions have new players from free agency to the 2023 NFL Draft. Meanwhile, they’ve got two coordinators (Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson) that could be head coaches waiting in the wings. Time will tell on both coaches. As of now, here are four things that I’m going to be watching for during the Lions minicamp.
Battle at Right Guard
The Lions are going to have an interesting and intense battle at the right guard position. This battle will and should be between Graham Glasgow and Halapoulivaati Vaitai. With Glasgow, he’s a bit more versatile and can play either guard or center. However, both he and Vaitai have struggled to stay healthy in recent years.
As we know, Vaitai missed the entire 2022 season with a back injury. For Glasgow, he had an ankle injury in 2021. When he came back in 2022 for the Broncos, he struggled from giving up a league-high (tied) five sacks to committing 10 penalties (3rd-most).
No doubt, both players have the most experience of any guard or center on the roster. However, the Lions will need to figure out which one is the starter and which one isn’t. Meanwhile, the Lions could be put into a position where one of these players ends up being cut if one of the players doesn’t perform at the standard that’s expected from him.
Versatility in the Secondary
During the three-day minicamp this week, I’ll be very interested to see how the Lions secondary looks. Certainly, all eyes will be on how they perform but I’ll be more interested to see what different packages are put together in the secondary. There’s a lot more versatility in the Lions secondary than in the past.
Also, how healthy is safety Tracy Walker? He’s returning from a torn achilles and he did practice a few weeks ago during the voluntary OTA’s. However, there still could be some limitations for him. If so, what are they and ultimately, will he be out there with the first team defense?
In addition to getting Walker back from injury, the Lions have a lot of new faces in the secondary. For starters, we’ll see C.J. Gardner-Johnson all over the field. He can play as a safety, nickel, or we could even see him play more frequently in the box. The same could be said about Brian Branch, who the Lions drafted in the 2nd Round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Branch played a similar role for the Crimson Tide as Gardner-Johnson did for the Philadelphia Eagles last season.
Lastly, can Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley be the starters at cornerback like they’re projected? I think they can be, but it’ll be interesting to see how in sync this unit looks with so many new faces.
Jack Campbell’s Role
No doubt the Lions are going to rely on some important contributions from a handful of rookies this season. With that, I’m very intrigued with what we see from linebacker Jack Campbell. I do believe Campbell is better than given credit for. His tape and athletic profile justify that. However, the Lions saw good enough contributions from Malcolm Rodriguez and Alex Anzalone last season that Campbell might be eased into the NFL rather than rushed.
But Campbell is a hard worker and a smart player that gets praised for his leadership and ability to communicate on the field. It wouldn’t be shocking if he earned a role much sooner than expected in Detroit. He’s the type of player that eventually wears the green-dotted helmet.
Regardless, he’ll enter his first minicamp, and while he could be a sponge to the veteran players and coaches, he could also emerge as the leader of the pack. Watch for Campbell’s role and performance this week during the three-day minicamp.
Kicker Competition
It’s rare for me to talk about kickers or punters. However, there will be an interesting battle between the three kickers the Lions have on the roster. This off-season, the Lions did re-sign Michael Badgley but since then, they’ve brought in John Parker Romo and recently traded for Riley Patterson.
Starting with Badgley, he signed a one-year deal in March. This is after he went 20-for-24 on field goal attempts and a perfect 33-for-33 on extra points. But whenever Badgley stepped onto the field, there was always a lot of uncertainty on if he would actually put it through the uprights.
While the Lions gave up an undisclosed draft pick for Patterson, he’s a familiar face within the organization. In 2021, he played 7 games for Detroit and went 13-for-14 on field goal attempts and was a perfect 16-for-16 on extra points. He was waived in August of 2022 and was claimed by the Jaguars. He went on to play in 17 games last season and was 30-for-35 on field goal attempts and 36-for-37 on extra points.
One area where Patterson might get the nod over Badgley and Romo is that he kicked off for the Jaguars 88 times last season. With that, he was able to boot 44 of those kickoffs for touchbacks. Badgley only kicked off five times last season and has only kicked off a total of 24 times in his career.
As for John Parker Romo, he could just be a camp body that helps boost the competitive spirit between Badgley and Patterson. However, he had an impressive tryout and it was good enough to get signed by Detroit. Last season, he was part of the Saints organization after going undrafted out of Virginia Tech. For the 2023 XFL Season, he signed with the San Antonio Brahmas and he performed well. He went 17-for-19 on field goals and at one point, he led the XFL with the longest field goal of 57 yards. That record has since been broken.
