Joint Practices 'Critical' for Lions' Development

The Lions and New York Giants will practice together twice next week.

The Detroit Lions will finally get to square off against an opponent during the upcoming weeks. 

After going against each other throughout the early stages of camp, the Lions will welcome the New York Giants for nearly a week of competition. 

The following week, Detroit will host the Jacksonville Jaguars for a similar style of practice sessions. 

Before the two teams square off in their preseason opener on Friday, they will host two joint practice sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The joint practices allow for both teams to battle in a controlled setting, while the preseason games will be more free flowing and unpredictable. 

"They're valuable in just the level of competition and it's something different, which I think is great for our guys," Campbell stated. "It's no different than, I mean, you get unbelievable work with, for example, Sewell and Hutch going back to back, over and over. You start figuring each other out a little bit, which is awesome because you have to keep tinkering with it. To be able to, now, get a different opponent. It's a totally different look and now I've got to adjust quickly, quickly, to get my job done. Those are invaluable." 

The coach clarified that some of the team's players will likely use the joint practices as their game reps, meaning they could sit out when the two teams clash at Ford Field. 

"First of all, it's what you think it's gonna be as far as the intensity goes up. The level of competition, it's different, it's a fresh look at somebody else and I love that. Because camp, you've got to be careful. If you get into the same routine, the run, the mundane and you don't ever really go," the coach stated. "You're just spinning your wheels, so this will be good for us. So it validated that but also I love what we did but there was a couple things, maybe a couple more team periods here and there, maybe we come together more." 

Last season, the Lions and Colts practiced on two fields that were spread out. As Campbell explained, he wants to bring the squads together to play on the same field at the end of the sessions. 

"That was one of the things, I would love to, at the very where we're all on one field and so our offense is watching our defense and then we switch it. So we'll do some of that at the very end of both days, which I like. I think it's important that your teammates see what's going on on the other side of the ball. ... Making sure everything is set up perfectly. I'm all about chaos but not like that. We're organized, player safety, we've got people back. We've done really good work, keep them healthy, keep them up." 

Adapting to schedule

The Lions have littered schedule changes throughout their training camp. After beginning with 8:30 a.m. practices, the team has shifted to later starts for the remainder of camp. 

This is intentional, according to Campbell. With the Lions set to play multiple games in primetime slots and outside of the traditional 1 p.m. window, their coach has made an emphasis on being able to adapt. 

He's also structured practices in a way where the team can exert maximum effort and energy before easing up to recuperate. 

"What we do here, we've done, to me it's all about pulling the most you can out of these guys and getting real good, high intensity or volume work, and then back them down and then let's ramp it back up again. I've always had that philosophy.  But it's also, that's part of it, but knowing what's coming in here."