Lions TE Sam LaPorta said the uncertainty surrounding his back injury and nerve recovery made him fear he might not play again.
“If you’ve ever had a nervous system injury just waiting for the nerve strength to come back, being told it might not come back, all those feelings of maybe not being able to play again, it sucks,” LaPorta said, via the team’s website.
Lions HC Dan Campbell added the roster has a new feel entering training camp, with younger players taking on larger roles around the team’s established core.
“This feels like there’s a little bit of a transition like there is a newness to it,” Campbell said. “And there’s a reset on – it’s a little bit like, ‘OK,’ we still have our core crew, the guys that you guys know that have been here since ’21. And then we’ve stacked on top of that. But then we made some moves here, particularly this year, this offseason. And so, there’s a newness to it. There’s a little bit of a youth movement that’s up to us to get these guys developed and that’s pretty exciting, but also knowing, man, I want to get back to what we did in ’22 a little bit … just get back to the basics of what we are.”
LaPorta said Detroit’s fall from a 15-win division champion in 2024 to missing the playoffs in 2025 has created a motivated and hungry team.
“Going 15-2 the year prior and winning the division and getting the No. 1 seed (in 2024) and then fourth place in the division, 9-8 and missed the playoffs (in 2025),” LaPorta said. “The drastic drop-off in production and the wins I think it’s definitely a motivating factor for us and I think you can see it today, honestly. We’re flying around. The conditioning test was crushed yesterday. I think guys are in incredible shape right now, we’re all motivated, and this group is hungry.”
Campbell said the Lions moved TE Jackson Meeks from wide receiver to tight end to determine whether he can develop into a versatile hybrid weapon.
“We want to find out if there’s something in there that he could be kind of this hybrid H-back tight end, big slot, big skill,” Campbell said. “Felt like his skillset can be showcased better at this role, at this position.”
Packers
Packers S Evan Williams thinks the versatility between him and S Xavier McKinney allows them to be multiple in their personnel groupings and alignments.
“I feel like me and X are kind of [interchangeable] in terms of going down to the boundary and being a box safety, going back in the post and playing with range,” Williams said, via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “JG has really just given us the freedom to play around with our alignments.”
