It’s what the Lions aren’t doing that screams urgency right now
The Lions are going all in on being dedicated to the plan and staying healthy, both physically and mentally
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Detroit Lions are doing things a lot differently this offseason.
It’s really the things Lions aren’t doing that say a lot.
The Lions changed a lot about how they do their draft prep. For starters, they played things incredibly close to the chest. For years, we’ve been able to find out about half or more of the top-30 meetings they had in one way or another. This year, they became Fort Knox. We only found out about six of them. They drafted three of those guys. (Moore, Rolder, and West.)
In addition to that, they canceled their local pro day. Something they’ve done every single year. Then, Lions GM Brad Holmes skipped the annual league meetings to stay back to work on the draft.
“I take every Draft serious. I just feel like it’s too critical and too important. I will say, it was probably a little bit more fire. Like you said, I know people like – you guys know about me not going to the (League) Meetings just to kind of work on some other things to make sure this – it was stuff like that. But when you miss the playoffs, that might be the kick in the rear that you need at times.” Holmes said. “That right there I had written up on my office wall and all that kind of stuff. Not saying that I don’t have fire in other Drafts, but it was just a little bit more – the urgency just needed to be pushed up on on everything. It was just a little bit more fire to the intensity on this one.”
Physical and mental health are paramount now
This year, the NFL mandated that all 32 teams employ mental health professionals going forward. The good thing is that the Lions have been doing something like this for years already. But it’s good to see that they’ll now have someone else on staff.
But that isn’t the only place where mental health is being thought of. The Lions won’t have a rookie minicamp this year. I cannot remember the last time this team did not have one, regardless of who the GM or head coach was.
It might seem weird how mental health can be linked to that, but consider that you’re not overloading these rookies when they already have a lot more to do than meets the eye at this time of year. There are many better ways to get acclimated to the team than coming in and working with a bunch of guys who are getting tryouts and none of the players they’ll actually play with.
It’s a physical lifesaver as well. Here’s another way to limit injuries. On top of that, the Lions won’t do joint practices this summer. These practices have been full-bore games essentially, and the Lions were doing them up to three sets a summer with practices twice a week.
The Lions are putting forth a big push towards having a healthy football team and a concentrated team. The goal is to never have what happened in 2025 happen again. Let’s see how it works out.
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