Notebook: Dan Campbell Rooting For Tigers, Robinson Signed

Lions sign veteran wide receiver to active roster.

Detroit Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows (22) celebrates his homer with Detroit Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter (30). / Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions have filled the vacant spot on their active roster by signing another receiver from their practice squad.

Days after signing Tim Patrick to the active roster, the Lions have signed Allen Robinson after he made his Lions debut as a practice squad call-up in Week 3 against Arizona. Robinson played one snap against the Cardinals.

Robinson, 31, is in his 11th NFL season after entering the league as a second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014. He played collegiately at Penn State and is a Detroit native who attended St. Mary's Prep.

In his career, Robinson has 562 receptions for 7,028 receiving yards and 43 touchdowns. He was a Pro Bowl selection in 2015 and has played for the Jaguars, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers over the course of his career.

The signings of Robinson and Patrick are corresponding moves for Derrick Barnes and Marcus Davenport being placed on injured reserve.

Linebacker Abraham Beauplan, who was with Detroit during the preseason, has returned to the roster on the practice squad.

Campbell rooting for Tigers

Coach Dan Campbell knows a thing or two about a team heating up at the right time in a season. Two years ago, the Lions finished the season on an 8-2 tear to ignite their rise from afterthought to contender.

Now, the city is enjoying a similar rise from the Detroit Tigers, who have been the hottest team in MLB over the last month.

"It's awesome, dude. Tigers were written off right? In July," Campbell said. "Yeah, I heard it. It was like, 'Dude, these guys are done.' Now look at them. It's awesome."

While Campbell has not been able to experience the Tigers' run, as would be expected of an NFL head coach, he has been supporting the team from afar.

“I don’t get to watch a lot of it obviously, with where I’m at," Campbell explained. "I keep up just knowing what’s going on, and hearing, ‘Hey man, they won again, they won again.’ For that, man, I’m rooting for those guys. I do, I love it because I think when you sit in these seats and you do what they’re doing at a professional level, it doesn’t matter where you’re at, you’ve just got to keep improving. And you just improve, improve, improve, work, work, work. And that’s what they’ve done."

It has also been relatable from a business perspective from Campbell, who has emphasized staying true to the process and developing since taking over as head coach. For the Tigers, who have been fueled by the debuts of several rookies over the course of the season, it has been a similar path of growth.

Improbably, manager A.J. Hinch and his team have found a groove that has put them in a position to clinch a playoff berth as soon as Friday.

"You just don’t know how many kinks you’re working through, that you’re trying to work out," Campbell stated. "Find the best rotation and figure this out and work on this and work with this and what about this and the lineup. Pretty soon you find it and you just get better and better and better. That’s what they’ve done, they’re playing really good right now. So I’m fired up for them.” 

Sam LaPorta's slow start

After a historic rookie season, LaPorta has experienced a quieter start than some expected in 2024. Through three games, he has eight catches for 94 yards. He did have two catches early before suffering a low-ankle sprain against Arizona.

Despite the lower-than-expected numbers from the second-year Iowa product, there's little in the way of concern for what the talented pass-catcher brings to the offense.

“Really, no response. I don’t think me and him have to talk about that at all," said tight ends coach Steve Heiden. "He knows he’s always involved. It’s just a matter of, sometimes the ball’s going to Saint, sometimes it’s going to him, sometimes it’s going to Jamo. We’ll get our touches, not concerned. The good thing about Sam is he’s had some of his best games, since I’ve been here, and not caught a lot of balls. We do a lot at our position. It’s not just catching the ball, it’s the blocking, pass protection and all the other stuff, too.” 

Plan without Frank Ragnow

The Lions will be without center Frank Ragnow in Monday's game, as he was officially ruled out by Campbell on Thursday. While his physical presence will be missed, running backs coach Scottie Montgomery added that his ability to mentally process and be ahead of the defense.

“No doubt. We love Frank. The biggest thing about Frank, or one of the biggest things about Frank is his mind," Montgomery said. "He is two steps, three steps ahead. I’ll be working on pressure packages and everything, and he’s already calling out the pressure packages before I can even try to. So that’s the main point. The one thing that we’ve been able to do here with Brad and with Dan is they’ve built this thing with some depth."

Though Ragnow will leave a big absence, Detroit has several players in its offensive line rotation capable of stepping up. Among them are Graham Glasgow, Kayode Awosika and Michael Niese as potential candidates to either step in at center or take over a guard position if Glasgow were to slide over from left guard.

"So now we’ve got guys that are going in. And we can shuffle and move from different positions that have actually had real game time and that are working in these protection meetings, have been working in these protection meetings now for two, some even three years in some of those situations," Montgomery explained. "It does present a challenge but this is one of those situations where you know at some point in time throughout a year someone’s gonna be missing, so Dan and Brad have done a good job in making sure that we’re built to be able to handle this thing for the long haul.”