Playing starters in the preseason is not the fix for the Lions constant Week 1 woes
Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers was not a good game for the Lions. It was one of the worst games we’ve seen during the Dan Campbell era, and it was something of a continuation of what we’ve been seeing from the Lions in Week 1 of every season. This team consistently has slow […]
Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers was not a good game for the Lions. It was one of the worst games we’ve seen during the Dan Campbell era, and it was something of a continuation of what we’ve been seeing from the Lions in Week 1 of every season. This team consistently has slow starts, and a lot of fans attribute that to the team not playing their starters in the preseason.
To a degree, I understand the thought process there. The Lions can get everyone dressed and bring them out on the field and face an actual defense, and run live reps.
But it’s just not the answer to the problem. The reality is that just about every team has a rough go in Week 1. Take a look around the league, there wasn’t exactly a bunch of high-scoring shootouts. There were a lot of low-scoring games, and the Lions certainly weren’t the only playoff team that had trouble getting things going in the first game of the year.
The other thing is that, let’s say the Lions do play their starters in the preseason. They’re going to bring everyone out for one drive? Maybe two? Maybe they play a quarter. In joint practices, what they prefer, they get two plus hours of live work with another team, and they get to work on real scenarios during that time.
They also get to do it for two days most of the time. That’s invaluable. The guys who don’t get a lot of work during that us the young players. That’s why the preseason is much more important for them.
The Lions aren’t the only team doing things this way. Lots of teams are starting to lean towards joint practices to the point where there’s a feeling that the NFL might either do away with preseason games altogether or drop it down to two games.
I get everyone wanting to find a fix, but playing not a lot of snaps in meaningless games isn’t the one.
Detroit Lions News
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