August 17, 2023
Opening Statement: “Morning, so everybody has at different times a job to do, and what we do, and when we set these up. We had the Giants, and then we have Jacksonville coming in, both at home. You’re going to have 180 guys out there running around, or close to. And so (Lions Head Groundskeeper) Eric Bryan our head grounds crew is going to be the guy put under fire. And he was a little nervous about it back in March, but I’ll tell you what, he’s delivered. Those fields are unbelievable. And he’s gotten them back, so that’s credit to him and his crew. It’s a lot of guys out there running around, cleats and everything. Seven studs for four days of hard work. So anyways, great job by him.”
On the seriousness of the injuries to Lions WRs Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams: “I would anticipate Jamo out for the first six games. Saint, I would say, we’ll get him back anywhere from probably, Monday to Carolina. It’ll be anywhere in that window.”
On how much of a loss missing the rest of the preseason would be for Lions WR Jameson Williams: “Yeah, I mean as long as he stays on top of the mental portion of it, you can get a lot out of the mental work. He grinds on that, takes care of the hamstring, and we’ll take it as it comes.”
On if Lions WR Jameson Williams will play on Saturday against Jacksonville: “No, I don’t – I don’t feel that way. I don’t feel that way. I think it will – there’s a good chance that it could probably go through the preseason.”
On what Lions WR Jameson Williams is missing from not getting live game reps this preseason: “Yeah, I mean – he misses the reps. You kind of alluded to it, but that’s the —a chance to get full-speed, full-tilt reps. The timing in the pass game, lining up, all of it. The moving versus press, through the zones. It’s just time on task. And so yeah, there’ll be a setback with it. But it’s also – listen, you take it as it comes. I’m not going to sweat it. As long as he’s willing to continue to grind on the playbook and get it right, we’ll take it as it goes.”
On if Lions WR Jameson Williams can get treatment from the team during his suspension: “That’s a good question. Technically no, but we’re looking into that.”
On if Lions WR Jameson Williams will be able to play in the last preseason game against Carolina: “It’s hard to say right now. I’ll know more today. I would say it’s probably unlikely, but we’ll see. I’ll know more today.”
On if they will need to add another receiver to add depth in the room: “Yeah, we’re kind of in that a little bit. We potentially may need to add somebody after today. We’re looking into that. (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I have talked about that. That’s another one – we’ll feel a lot better after today’s practice. Because yes, you do, but to do that you have to move on from somebody, and that’s a hard move too with other areas, other spots. So, but we’re thinking about it.”
On where Lions WR Denzel Mims stands in the wide receiver room: “He’s in there, he’s in the room.”
On if Lions WR Denzel Mims is close to returning: “We’ll see, we’ll see. I wish I could give you more.”
On if Lions WR Jameson Williams’ hamstring injury is the same leg as his previous injury: “No, it’s the other.”
On if Lions WR Jameson Williams’ injuries are preventative with proactive training measures: “I mean – that’s hard to say. I’m not going to pin that on our training staff. I think they’ve done a phenomenal job. We’ve been really good with soft tissues. But sometimes things happen. This kid can run now, and sometimes it’s just, if you’re not completely recovered potentially, from the last day. And you just – there’s a number of factors. Maybe he wasn’t totally hydrated. But I don’t – I think it’s just hard to just like, ‘Hey, we’re just going to put blame on these people, or this person or the player himself.’ I think it happened and it’s unfortunate.”
On how he manages the increased national media attention and expectations: “I would say, for me, the only time I addressed anything was day one. I think I told everybody in here was the very first night of training camp I addressed that, the elephant in the room. And I haven’t spoken one word about any of it anymore, not one word. Because the message, was exactly about putting the work in. Putting the work in, and we’ve got to go earn everything. And that’s all, that’s all I said. And those guys have done that. I mean they’ve been working. They’ve been grinding. So, I haven’t felt the need to talk about it.”
On how much of an opportunity joint practices and the preseason games are for the wide receivers trying to make the team: “Great opportunity. Great opportunity, it’s another spot honestly, like this room is wide open right now. I mean we’ve got a pretty good feel of some of these guys, but we have a spot, potentially two, wide open. Wide open. (Lions WR Chase) Cota, you want it? Go get it. (Lions WR Dylan) Drummond, you want it? Go get it. Who knows. (Lions WR) Trinity Benson, we’re going to get him back out there a little bit today running around, so our eyes are wide open, and we’re looking for guys and we have a track record in the three-year period here. It doesn’t matter where you been drafted, who you are, what it is, you got an opportunity. If you want to go earn it, go get it.”
On Lions DL Romeo Okwara seeing a lot of reps in the preseason and where he is working his way back from injury: “Yeah, I think it was – a lot of it is he’s coming off the injury from last year and it never truly felt like he got back from it at the end of last year. Which history would say most of those guys, it’s going to take close to a year to get back to where you feel like or move like you were before, so I think that was some of it and it was also just a placement of where we were at, we can’t sit everybody. Look he’s having a good camp, but so is (Lions DL Josh) Paschal, and so is (Lions DL John Cominsky) Commish, and you’ve got (Lions DL Aidan Hutchinson) Hutch and (Lions DL) Charles (Harris) and you can’t sit everybody and so I think that’s where it is. Now he’s – Romeo, is doing some really good things and it feels like he’s very much back to what he was and so he’s somebody we’ll talk about this week, how much does he play, all those things we’ll talk more about tonight. But listen he’s doing a good job, but I think it also speaks to the depth we have in that room and the players we have on the perimeter, on the edge so it’s a good thing.”
On his early impressions of Lions QB Hendon Hooker and if they have decided what to do with him at the start of the regular season: “Yeah, honestly, we have not even talked about Hooker in those regards, it’s been more about let’s get him back. I know this, he’s putting in the work in the classroom, (Lions Quarterbacks Coach Mark Brunell) Bru and (Lions Assistant Quarterbacks Coach) J.T. (Barrett) have done a great job with him, and I know that he’s studying on it, he’s getting it, he’s learning it, and he’s got some really good guys to learn from in there. And then everything else, his rehab, he just continues to come along and get better, but honestly (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and I haven’t even discussed him at this point. Once we start hearing from (Lions Director of Player Health & Performance Brett Fischer) Fisch and those guys like, ‘Hey, this guy’s coming on,’ we get the, ‘OK, you guys may have a decision to make sooner than later,’ then we’re not even going to worry about it right now.”
On his confidence in Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs and Lions TE Sam LaPorta to contribute early in the season: “Well, they’re going to have to be a part of it, but it’s not only them but (Lions RB David Montgomery) D-Mo is going to have to come through for us big too. That O-line is going to have to do what they do, (Lions QB Jared) Goff’s going to have to – he’s going to have to be on point, (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf’s going to have to be big for us, (Lions WR Josh) Reynolds is going to have to be, (Lions WR) Marvin (Jones)’s going to – so I think this is very much all hands-on deck, more than just hey LaPorta and Gibbs. But this is going to be all hands-on deck and honestly, we’ve got to play good defense, and we got to play special teams, and that’s where we relieve any burden we have offensively by a lack of a player not being there or whatever.”
On if he believes the rookies are getting a larger workload than expected: “I would say the workload is about what we expected or hoped for at this point. There’s a reason we drafted them, we thought they would get it sooner than later and they’ve done a good job. There’s things every day that you see growth and them getting better, and (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs is playing faster everyday which is encouraging but yet there’s also these, ‘Ah,’ and that comes with being a rookie, and the faster we can get through these growing pains with these guys, which that’s another reason why these joint practices are huge. They’re getting challenged early by different looks that maybe our defense doesn’t always do, they’re getting them from two other teams. And so, these are big and the faster we get through it the better we’ll be, they’ll be and then we’ll be because of that.”
On his biggest takeaways from the first day of joint practice with Jacksonville: “Yeah, I was pleased with the way our guys showed up. I thought we competed. I thought it wasn’t perfect, it never is. They did some really good things over there, but I thought we really showed up and we competed, and I thought everything that I was looking for from our guys I saw yesterday. That’s the best way to say it.” |
