On Tuesday morning, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell made his weekly radio appearance on 97.1 The Ticket’s “Costa & Jansen with Heather” show. During the interview, Campbell provided several personnel updates, given the mounting injuries.
He didn’t offer much of an update on Lions linebacker Jack Campbell, other than to say that he is “improving.”
Here are some other updates Campbell offered.
Kerby Joseph won’t play vs. Dolphins
Lions safety Kerby Joseph will be entering his second week of practice after the Lions started his evaluation
clock last week. This week, it sounds like Joseph will get more involved in team reps, but Campbell has already ruled him out from playing this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
“We’re going to try and give him some scout team reps. He’s not going to play this game,” Campbell said. “I know that (question) was coming. He’s not playing vs. Miami. He’s just going to get some reps in practice.”
Joseph continues to ramp up from a knee injury that has sidelined him for over a year. At this point, it’s unclear when the team will attempt his return to game action.
Lions preparing Juice Scruggs to start vs. Miami, but no center competition… yet
Lions starting center Cade Mays is reportedly dealing with a low-ankle sprain, and it sounds like Detroit is not expecting him to play against the Dolphins this week. Campbell indicated that they are preparing backup Juice Scruggs to play.
“As of right now, he’s our guy, because I don’t see Cade practicing Wednesday and he might not Thursday,” Campbell said. “So we’re going to get Juice ready to go here.”
And while the offense turned a corner seemingly the moment Scruggs replaced Mays on Sunday against the Vikings, Campbell rebuffed a question suggesting there is a starting center competition between Mays and Scruggs when both are healthy.
“Well, I can’t say that right now,” Campbell said.
That said, he did talk about how impressed he was by Scruggs’ ability to turn what was mostly a week of mental reps at center into the performance he had against a tough Vikings defense.
“What I would say is that Juice came in and played very well,” Campbell said. “That’s what I would definitely say. He took the mental reps this week, he got a couple live, but really it was more mental at center, and to get thrust back in there against that defense with everything that they were doing, to have that production, I mean, that was impressive. He was locked in. He was so ready to go.”
Still waiting on D.J. Reed, others
Campbell didn’t provide any real substantive updates on Reed (hip), D.J. Wonnum (concussion), Brian Branch (concussion), or Jacob Saylors (neck). He did note that he doesn’t believe Reed or Saylors will practice on Wednesday, and they won’t know more about Branch or Wonnum’s progress through the concussion protocol until later on Tuesday.
Here’s exactly what he said about Reed specifically:
“Reed’s got a hip. There again, it doesn’t look good for him on Wednesday for sure. So until I can get more on that, I don’t see where he’s at,” Campbell said.
With how well Reed has been playing as of late, his loss—even for one week—could be costly, as Detroit continues to navigate a lot of turbulence in the secondary.
