The Detroit Lions will take the field Thursday without a number of players.
Among those who will sit Thursday are running back David Montgomery and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez. Both left last week's portion of practice open to media with injuries.
Third-year coach Dan Campbell didn't specify what each player was dealing with, but noted that their injuries weren't considered serious.
Montgomery and Rodriguez, along with around a dozen others, will sit Thursday for cautionary reasons.
Campbell is making this decision with training camp in mind. Looming just a month away, he wants his team at full strength when it comes around.
"Neither one of them are gonna practice (Thursday) but it's nothing serious," Campbell said. "I got a feeling somebody else may tweak something out there today and we do have a number of guys that we're gonna sit just to be smart. We're probably gonna have 10, 12 guys out. It's just preventative, let's just be smart. There again, it's not about the physical right now, it's more about the mental and making sure that we can get guys healthy for training camp in July."
Levi Onwuzurike was recently cleared to run after missing all of the 2022 season with a back injury. However, Campbell said there is no timetable on when he will return to action.
"Probably right on schedule for what we thought," the coach said. "He just got on the grass, really about a week ago, to where he can begin to run. So then, really, it's, okay, now that he's moving, he's out there on the grass, he's able to run, how fast can his body come back? We don't entirely have that answer, certainly we're hoping that we can get him in camp at some point, but I can't really give you a timeline on that."
A second round pick in 2021, the defensive tackle made 35 tackles in his rookie campaign before missing all of his second.
No comment on D'Andre Hopkins
When asked about possibly being intrigued about veteran wideout DeAndre Hopkins being available, Campbell declined to comment.
Detroit's third-year head coach did note, "I like our receiver room. I think we got a good mix of different types of guys."
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