August 14, 2023
Opening Statement: “I meant to say this the other night, but I do – I have to hit this. Our fans were unbelievable the other night. I mean for a preseason game – you saw when your young players and rookies out, ‘Hey man, it’s the first one, NFL game, and it has to be a pretty good atmosphere, but my God, I didn’t expect that. I don’t think any of them did. That’s unbelievable. That’s a packed house for a preseason, so it was awesome. I mean they were using silent count on offense, in a preseason game. So, certainly helps. So, that was awesome. Other than that, like I said the other day, we did some good, did some bad, lot to clean up, but all in all, I was encouraged with a lot of players.”
On how important Lions WR Kalif Raymond is to the team: “Yeah, Leaf’s a self-made man. I mean he’s – it’s a credit to him. He’s the one who gave himself the opportunity and he just proves himself since he’s been here. He just continues to prove himself, so like we say, he’s somebody that embodies everything we’re about. He’s overcome a lot. He works every day, he’s smart, he’s productive, he’s versatile and he’s one of our guys.”
On Lions LB Jack Campbell’s performance in the game: “Yeah, no I thought he did some really good things. I thought he was physical, I thought he saw it. There’s things as he goes, just cutting it loose. His – like he sees it, but now pull the trigger just a little bit faster. He’s a smart player and every time that he goes and gets that environment, he’ll just be better and better, but his physicality certainly showed up.”
On if the linebacker depth is tracking towards needing to find playing time for all of them: “I think that’s always an option. I mean – I think that’s a good problem to have when you have a room full of guys you believe can play at the position and whether it’s by personnel group or whether it’s special teams, this play, and now this player needs a blow here, I think to have the depth and trust in all of those guys – because I’m with you, (Lions LB Derrick) Barnes showed up again, (Lions LB Malcolm Rodriguez) Rodrigo showed up, (Lions LB Jack) Campbell’s coming, we know what (Lions LB) Alex (Anzalone) is so, and look (Lions LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin) Germ, I mean Germ just goes in there and makes plays. I mean that’s what he does. So, we have a room full of guys that we have a lot of trust in and they’re making each other better.”
On if Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater will be at practice today and what he expects from him: “He may not have a number today, just so you know. He may be in red, but we’re working through that. But yeah, the plan is, and TB knows this, let’s just get him, we’re going to get him some reps today. He’s been grinding on the playbook, and let him go through some individual, get him a few reps. Then Jacksonville, let’s get him worked in a little bit. I’m just going to gauge where he’s at, where he feels, what it looks like and then we’ll make a determination at the end of the week, but our plan is to get him going in practice this week.”
On how the plan for starters in joint practices this week will be different than last week: “It’ll be very similar, I think you’re going to see more reps, there’s going to be more reps with ones. Just overall, but ones versus ones there’s – we’ll have more than we had against the Giants last week on both days.”
On the benefit of having two different types of teams to get a look at in joint practices: “Yeah, it’s just – it’s very beneficial. There again, it’s fresh talent, it’s something different, it’s – I know defensively I mentioned this last week, these guys as a whole have more length, particularly in the front, they can run pretty good in the backend and the skillset on offense of these receivers is pretty good. The receivers, the tight ends, they create some issues. It’s explosive, this halfback they’ve got, and then obviously the quarterback to be able to get it to him, his ability to run and throw. And so just that alone, the front as well, the O-line, but I think just the overall skill position really will be a test on both sides of the ball for us.”
On how much of a challenge it will be for Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater to catch up in a short amount of time: “Yeah, I think – look there is a challenge to it, but I think that’s – Teddy’s a pro and I go back to this, he’s been in every system you can be in. It’s all about flipping terminology for him. I mean he’s – there won’t be one thing that he’s done – we’ll be doing with us that he hasn’t done with somebody else. It’s just the nature of what are we calling it, where do you want the snap point. Little things like that. And he’ll know the progressions and reads by coverage, I mean he’s a smart football player. So, there’s a challenge to it, but I have a lot faith in Teddy picking it up. I just, I know him and he’s – the mental part of it, he’s going to be on top of pretty fast.”
On if he plans to trim down the playbook for Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater before the game against the Jaguars: “I think we’ll just, there again, I think it’s more gauging where we’re at. I want him to know what he’s walking into today and then the next couple of days, I want him to go in there blind, you just learned the whole playbook, now anything can come your way. We’ll script it out, he’ll kind of know what’s coming and then we’ll make that determination he plays, we may crop it down a little bit just to make sure – because what I don’t want to do, I don’t want to put him a situation where he’s – you don’t feel good about him having an opportunity to have success, it makes no sense. But, I just know Teddy, he’s been grinding on it, he’s going to continue, he’s picking it up fast, so I have a lot of faith that he’ll be ready.”
On how much Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater will play in this week’s game: “We haven’t even discussed it yet, so I want to talk with (Lions Offensive Coordinator) Ben (Johnson) and (Lions Quarterbacks Coach Mark Brunell) Bru on that. We’ll figure all that out as we go.”
On how he has seen Lions LB Trevor Nowaske develop: “He’s developing, he’s getting better. I thought he showed up the other day too. I thought he showed up in the game. Look at all those kickoff reps, he’s the first one down the field. I mean – and it just over and over and over, and so he’s – I felt like you could feel him the other day, and that’s encouraging. He’s a guy that’s intriguing on special teams, is a core player, and then in the meantime he continues to grow at linebacker so he’s doing good. By the way, I met his dad about two weeks ago, this man is a mammoth. He’s huge. That’s a big man. Good people. But yeah, he’s doing a good job and you can feel him coming on. He was another one we felt like man, he was really spiking and then it kind of leveled out and now he’s beginning to grow and climb again, and that’s kind of what you expect out of these young guys, or what you want. That’s kind of the nature of their development, the way it should go, the arc.”
On how he would describe Lions QB Jared Goff’s training camp performance compared to last year: “Honestly, I feel like it’s very similar to last year and I mean that in a good way. I mean I feel the consistency, I feel the confidence. I think what I was most encouraged with was man, I wanted to see once again, the urgency, the intensity as it pertained to last week against the Giants for two practices, and I felt like he was locked in, and made some throws, was efficient with the play calls. And so that’s – shoot, that’s what I’m looking for, so I’m like, ‘OK, I feel like he’s right on track.’”
On what he is looking for out of Lions RB Benny Snell and the No. 3 running back position battle: “Yeah, special teams. Special teams. That’s where it’s all going to start with those backs, and every one of them has an opportunity. I mean just because – they know this, you just walked in the door, (Lions RB) Benny (Snell Jr.), (Lions RB Devine) Ozigbo, hopefully we get (Lions RB) Craig (Reynolds) back in a couple of days, (Lions RB Jermar) Jefferson hopefully we get him back by the end of the week, but man it’s a fight for the third back – (Lions RB Mohamed) Ibrahim who might be down for a little longer, but I mean we’re – our eyes are opening. We’re looking for a third back and it all starts with special teams, man. If they can help us there, then we’re figure out the offensive side of it.”
On Lions RB Devine Ozigbo’s game performance: “Yeah, I – man, he did some good things. It is interesting to see these guys and you’re like, ‘Man, he just walked in the door,’ and now all of a sudden you’re just, ‘Get in there.’ But he did, he competed. I thought he was middle, he was good, there’s – there like anybody else, there’s a few things to clean up, but certainly it wasn’t too much for him. He wasn’t frazzled. I thought both those guys – and we kept them off of special teams for this game because of where we were kind of at with the running backs. We didn’t want to put too much of a strain, but they’re going to be doing more special teams this week.”
On if injuries have opened the door for guys to claim the third running back spot: “Yeah, I mean, there again, nothing is solidified in that third role or fourth for that matter. I mean there’s – we’re going to take the best players and so, our eyes are open. We – (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I were discussing it, I mean we’re – you want a job, go get it.”
On if there are any players that will not be at practice today: “For certain, today? Well, we have a bug going around, so there’s a chance (Lions S) Brady Breeze isn’t out there. You want me to just go through all of them? I mean I think (Lions CB) Cam Sutton may not be out there he has a bug, who else. (Lions RB Mohamed) Ibrahim wasn’t going to be out there anyway, he has something going on. (Lions DL Aidan Hutchinson) Hutch got a little ankle the other day, I don’t think he practices today. There’ll be some guys doing individual today, (Lions RB) Craig (Reynolds). Craig will do some individuals. (Lions TE Darrell) Daniels, the tight end will do some individual but no team. (Lions WR Denzel) Mims, I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get out there. Who else? (Lions WR Trinity Benson) TB, no, probably not.”
On the status of Lions WR Denzel Mims’ injury from last week: “Yeah, we’ll see, structurally, he’s good. We’ll see how it feels.”
On how close Lions CB Emmanuel Moseley is to returning from injury: “Emmanuel, obviously he’s on track, but it’s going to be a while, it’ll be a while. Kind of like what I said when we started camp, everything is really going to get pushed back probably four or five weeks from what we originally thought, but we – he was really already four or five weeks ahead at that point so, we’ll see. He’s been good though. He’s been great.”
On the severity of Lions RB Jermar Jefferson’s injury: “Yeah, I would say it’s not – I mean certainly there is a little something in there, but it’s not – I wouldn’t say it’s significant, now the problem is when you’re in training camp, every day is significant, so we’re hoping we could get him back this week, but I don’t – it’s hard to say that right now.”
On if it is still possible for Lions CB Emmanuel Moseley to return for the start of the season: “I don’t know, we’ll see, we’ll see. He’s doing good. He’s doing good.” |
