Dan Campbell responds to the possibility that the Lions could face contract holdouts for the first time ever, with an early camp coming
The Detroit Lions' offseason is different in 2025. It's going to be a little bit shorter. Right now, the Lions are in OTAs, and usually, you have a mandatory mini-camp right after that. Detroit is skipping that this year because they'll start training camp early due to the Hall of Fame game in late July. […]
The Detroit Lions' offseason is different in 2025. It's going to be a little bit shorter. Right now, the Lions are in OTAs, and usually, you have a mandatory mini-camp right after that. Detroit is skipping that this year because they'll start training camp early due to the Hall of Fame game in late July.
This has some Lions fans concerned about a few things because there are rumors that some players want a new contract. One of those guys is Alex Anzalone. While he has not come out and said he wants a new deal, he has no more guarantees left on his contract and is going into the final year of his deal.
Second round pick Tate Ratledge is in the same boat as the res tof the second round of this year's draft. Only two of the 32 players drafted have signed their rookie deal. So the Lions are waiting on him, too.
The Lions haven't signed Aidan Hutchinson to that extension yet, and Amik Robertson is probably due to get one too.
With all this in mind, are there any fears of any of this contract stuff bleeding over into the summer and affecting training camp? If so, Lions head coach Dan Campbell doesn't seem to be too fearful of that.
"No, I think what's great is that any player that I talk to, like, I have a relationship with, and there's an open line of communication. And so, you know, whatever I say to those players, I'm not going to say to you guys, I never will. But then, there's communication has been great. So I'm not worried about anything. I know this. We're in late May. Is it even June? Yet, we're not even in June, so Life's good, man, we're gonna be going to be just fine."
There you go. If Campbell isn't concerned, you probably shouldn't be either. Sounds like there's a good dialogue going on and the Lions should be able to get some of this stuff done sooner rather than later.
With all this in mind, you're likely to hear about players not being at OTAs. This is a voluntary thing. It's ok that players don't show up. Campbell actually said there were two guys who weren't there. He didn't name those two guys, but said he knows where they're at and they've been in contact and everything is good.
Why Tate Ratledge still hasn’t signed his rookie deal with the Lions despite the rest of the class signing theirs
The 2025 NFL Draft was more than a month ago. The rookie mini-camp has passed, and the Detroit Lions are reporting to OTAs this week before the team takes a break and heads to training camp early this year, since the Lions play in the Hall of Fame game at the end of July. Tyleik […]
