The DLP Newsletter
The voluntary portion of the offseason is over. Detroit wrapped its ninth and final OTA practice on Thursday, and now only mandatory minicamp stands between this roster and a six-week break. The Lions report June 16-17, get their two days of real work, and then scatter until training camp opens in late July. Dan Campbell isn’t fussed about the compressed runway. With the league year starting later this cycle, everything has shifted, but he says the team will have logged its full share of the program before anyone heads out the door.
What that means for us: this is the last live football intel we get for a month and a half. Soak it in. The depth-chart tea leaves you read this week are the ones you’ll be staring at all summer.
The Gibbs Watch
Campbell calls him the bell cow. Gibbs says he’s just trying to hoop.
The biggest contract domino of the Detroit summer is sitting at running back, and it isn’t moving on Jahmyr Gibbs’ watch. Asked again this week whether he wants a deal done before the season, Gibbs handed it straight to the front office.
“Really, I’m just letting my agent, Brad and all them do that right now. I’m just worried about the team and ball. I’m just trying to hoop right now.”
The leverage, though, is piling up around him whether he talks or not. Campbell publicly anointed Gibbs the bell cow this season, the kind of quote agents frame and hang on the wall. With David Montgomery shipped to Houston, there’s no thunder-and-lightning hedge anymore. It’s Gibbs’ backfield. He’s under control through 2027 on the fifth-year option, so Detroit isn’t cornered, but the projections keep climbing: a deal starting with a “2” on the average annual value, north of $20 million, possibly the richest back contract in the league. The wrinkle is Atlanta. Bijan Robinson is up for his own extension, and whoever signs first sets the floor for the other. Holmes has a habit of paying his homegrown guys early. The clock is quiet, but it’s running.
Injury Report
Kerby Joseph’s knee remains the offseason’s open question.
The good news first: Sam LaPorta and Terrion Arnold were both back on the field during OTAs after working their way through the spring, which is exactly the trajectory you want from two pieces the defense and offense can’t replace.
The not-so-good news lives at safety. Kerby Joseph is still wrestling with the degenerative knee condition that wiped out big chunks of last season, and there’s real uncertainty about whether he’s ready for Week 1. That’s the kind of thing you don’t paper over in June, and it’s worth watching how Detroit hedges the back end if his timeline slips. One more bruise to log: rookie wideout Kendrick Law tore his ACL, and the team has already moved to add receiver depth in response.
Roster Battles
Rodriguez has the inside track at WILL. Keep an eye on the darkhorses.
Malcolm Rodriguez heads into camp as the favorite to lock down the starting WILL linebacker job, which is a nice story for a fifth-year guy who’s done nothing but earn his snaps. But the more interesting summer theater is at the back of the roster. OTA Week 3 surfaced a couple of darkhorse names worth filing away, the type of bodies who flash in June and force their way into August conversations. Reserve receiver is the other spot to watch, with the fan base already projecting who slots in behind the top of the room. None of it is settled. That’s the fun of it.
Around the NFC
The Rams just got scarier. Myles Garrett is in Los Angeles.
This is the one that should make every Lions fan sit up. Los Angeles swung an all-in blockbuster to pry Myles Garrett out of Cleveland, and the ripple hits Detroit directly. The road through the NFC was already going to run through the Rams, and now it runs through one of the best pass rushers alive lining up across from Penei Sewell twice a year if these teams keep crossing paths in January. Campbell and others in the building have already weighed in. The takeaway is simple: the conference didn’t get easier this offseason, and the team that beat you to the punch in the playoff hunt just added a wrecking ball.
Quick Hits
- Staff Kelvin Sheppard enters year two as defensive coordinator looking notably more comfortable in the chair. Continuity on that side of the ball is its own kind of upgrade.
- Off the field Kicker Jake Bates is fully locked in on the USMNT’s World Cup run. The man can split uprights and follow group-stage tables. Renaissance leg.
- Legacy The Frank Ragnow Hall of Fame debate is back in circulation a year after he walked away early for his health. A conversation worth having, even if the case is a long shot.
- Value PFF tagged two current Lions among the best value picks of the decade. Holmes keeps mining roster gold in the middle rounds.
This article was built by aggregating Detroit Lions News using Artificial Intelligence.
