The Detroit Lions have been making a lot of changes to how they do things this offseason. No rookie mini-camp, and no joint practices standout. But one thing the Lions will not be changing is how they operate at training camp.

The Lions are still going to go hard at training camp despite injury history

“We’re going to push it.” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Wednesday. “We’re going to push, that’s what we do, but we’ll do it smart. We have got to get these guys ready for a season, there’s a chance we play some of these guys in the preseason without the joint practices, and so I’m going to do what I think is best to prepare these guys for 17 weeks, but also understand that we have got to be smart about it and we can’t break them in training camp, and so the approach will stay the same, it will, and you have got to get ready, and you can’t let fear of injury scare you away from what you believe in.”

If you were hoping the Lions would go into training camp this year and take it easy as a way to maybe try to prevent injuries, that’s not happening. The Lions are going to hit as soon as the pads come on, and they’re going to practice hard like they always do.

Why the Lions doing it this way might actually be the right way

I was with Lions fans on this idea. Surely it’s because they go super hard at training camp that the bodies are just getting worn down early. That’s why it was a surprise when I talked to the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee’s Director of Rehabilitation Services and former NFL offensive lineman Dave Kempfert, and he told me it’s quite the opposite.

“There’s a pretty viral video of coach (Dan Campbell) up there talking to his players about this, saying, ‘Guys, if I knew a better way to do it, I would do it.’ You’re talking to kind of an old-school guy here, and so I do think that it has changed a lot,” Kempfert said. “We just talked about these tools that the NFL has now, about all these things that are measurable regarding how much volume you’re putting in. Is there a benefit to that?

“Sure. Do I think back in the day was a little overdone, with regard to contact and things, I would agree it probably was, but I still think there’s so much value to putting yourself in those situations. And I always use the term, callous, but there is something to putting in the contact and putting yourself in those situations to get yourself ready for that.

“I think back in the day, we used to do more two-a-day full-contact practices in two-a-days than they do in a whole season now,” Kempfert added. “I’m not saying that was ideal, right? When the season came through, it was almost a break. Sometimes, when things would get going, and because it’s a long season, you have to back off and prepare for a long season.

“If you’re not used to all that bruising, sudden starts/stops, and cutting, taking on collisions, learning how to get up at full speed, it makes a difference in how you perform. There are limits to how often you want to do it, but I think you have to prepare your body for those things. But again, you have to monitor each person and everybody individually. You can’t just assess everyone as a collective group.”

Campbell and Kempfert are essentially saying the same thing here. You have to be smart about the contact and everything you’re throwing out there early, and that every player is different.

Kempfert went on to speculate that some of the teams that take it a little too easy are potentially more susceptible to early-season injuries than the teams that go hard right away.

So we’ve possibly been thinking about this wrong the whole time. As long as the Lions are smart, going hard is probably good for them.