Lions Seeking Boost in Intensity with Practice Changes

Amon-Ra St. Brown explains how a change in practice intensity can aid the Detroit Lions.

For Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, the bye week was all about getting healthy.

After suffering an ankle injury early in the season, the second-year wide receiver was sidelined for Detroit’s Week 4 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. He returned to action in Week 5 against the Patriots, but was limited to just four catches for 18 yards while playing 21 snaps.

The bye week offered the young wideout and his teammates a chance to heal before taking on the Dallas Cowboys in Week 7. St. Brown told reporters Monday that he’s in better shape health-wise than he was a week ago.

“It was good,” St. Brown said of his week off. “Get that week off, get some rest, get some treatment back home. It feels better, better than it did last week. So, we’ll see what happens.”

While he didn’t outwardly state that he was 100 percent, St. Brown did note that his health was trending in the right direction. He admitted that it’s difficult to get to full health over a long NFL season.

“I hate to not be at my best, but in this league sometimes, 85 percent or whatever it is is all you’ve got,” St. Brown said. “You’ve got to make the best of it, you’ve got to make it work. So, you know, can’t make no excuses for myself or for this team. Just got to continue to work, be better and give it everything I have.”

The USC product has been a standout since being drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Last season, he set the Lions’ rookie receiving yards record. In his first three games of the 2022 campaign, prior to his injury, he was pacing the team with 23 catches for 253 yards and three scores.

Changes in practice, positive mindset

As a team, the Lions are disappointed by their 1-4 start. Head coach Dan Campbell has pledged to make practices more competitive coming out of the bye week, which St. Brown believes will benefit everybody.

“I think it’s gonna help us as a team,” St. Brown said. “On Sundays, it’s all about winning your matchups when you’re 1-on-1. So, you know, when you’re out there on the practice field, sometimes, if you feel like you’re going against a scout team, you don’t always get that intensity that you always want, that you do during camp or when things are going tough. So, to get that intensity back, I think, is gonna be huge for us as a team. I think that’s the type of team we are, you know, we’re gritty, we compete.”

Campbell revealed to reporters Monday why the team modified its practice habits the last five weeks, after a tougher, physical training camp prior to the start of the season. 

"A lot of it was just with where we were at. We had a number of injuries, and so you dial back a number of things to feel like so you can get through what you need to get through in practice, but yet still prepare them," Campbell said. "And, I think when I really look back on it, it’s well maybe at the expense of us losing some reps. We’re a young team, you may put a strain on other groups, because you’re light in that area. But, man, the rest of your team needs that work. 

"I just felt like we’ve got to get back to those things we were doing in camp. We’re not talking about going out there for two-and-a-half hours. But, man, we’ve got to get back to some of this, the competitiveness, the good-on-good, and just good one-on-one work, we have to. So, that was one area I looked at myself and said, ‘We’ve got to get back to those things.’ It’s really who we’ve been and what we are.”

When St. Brown and the rest of the Lions’ offense have been at full strength, they’ve been tough to stop. Before being shut out by New England in Week 5, the unit was leading the league in scoring.

Unfortunately for Detroit, the defense has exceeded the scoring production; hence, Detroit’s 1-4 start. The matchup with the Patriots was equally bad on both sides, something the Lions are hoping to flush away before hitting the field against Dallas.

“For the first few days after the game, that was definitely, as an offense, we felt like that wasn’t us,” St. Brown said. “But, you look at the first four weeks, we know what we’re capable of. So, a game like that doesn’t affect us too much, because we know what we can do and what we have done the first four weeks. So, it is what it is, the game is behind us. All we can do is look forward and keep getting better.”