What We Learned From Detroit Lions 2026 Training Camp

Injury luck is still not on the side of the Lions

Unfortunately, a few free agent additions did not have good training camps. As always, the best ability is availability. Payton Turner landed on the injured reserve list due to a bad back.

Cade Mays unfortunately injured his wrist, forcing the coaching staff to shuffle the offensive line. Tate Ratledge and Mason Miller took snaps at center and the team was forced to sign Gus Hartwig after a poor performance by Seth McLaughlin and an injury to Michael Niese.

Running back Isiah Pacheco suffered an MCL injury, but now is also dealing with a back injury. Cornerback Christian Izien missed practice the final week of camp and may not be able to suit up against the New Orleans Saints.

Roger McCreary is likely to make the roster, but he did not acclimate well to playing nickel cornerback in Kelvin Sheppard's scheme. He looked better playing on the outside and may find increased opportunities for playing time opposite of D.J. Reed throughout the season.

Concerns going into camp are still concerns

Detroit's two biggest concerns heading into training camp, the offensive line and secondary, remain significant concerns heading into the start of the 2026 season.

The depth along the interior of the offensive line may need to be upgraded, and it may need to compe from outside of the organization.

Miles Frazier, Seth McLaughlin, Colby Sorsdal, Melvin Priestly did not do enough to quell fears that the offensive line would drastically fall off, if something happened to one of the starters.

Detroit's secondary has four reliable veterans in D.J. Reed, Rock Ya-Sin, Avonte Maddox and Chuck Clark.

Behind them are players that still have much more to prove at the NFL level, including third-year cornerback Ennis Rakestraw.

Dan Campbell asked what were his takeaways from training camp

Ahead of the final practice, Dan Campbell addressed what his takeaways were from the practices this summer.

“I mean, I love the competitiveness. We always get after it pretty good, but I think us getting back to it, it's just Detroit versus Detroit, the no joint practices. I just think we got a lot of good stuff done. We got through full installs, man," said Campbell. "We got to hit every situation multiple times. And so, when you're able to do that, then you can really get pretty advanced with each other and test each other pretty good. Special teams is flying around. I think the competitiveness has been really good, man. And I like the talent that we have."

"We have got a lot of football players right now on this roster and you can't help but get better. I was talking to Tate Ratledge this morning because I think he's had a really good camp, but you go against Alim McNeill every day, man, you can't help but get better," said Campbell. "And I think those two working each other and that's part of it.

"We talk about (Penei) Sewell and (Aidan Hutchinson) Hutch all the time or Hutch when he goes over to Blake Miller. I mean, you can't get better competition than that. And you're getting that every day of the week.”