The Lions are trying to sort out who they are, and Dan Campbell isn’t pretending otherwise.
After Detroit’s 41-31 loss to the Bills, Campbell said the team is still searching for its identity and wants to avoid letting that uncertainty spill into another defeat against the Jets.
“We don’t even know what we are yet, entirely. We don’t know what we are,” Campbell said, via Pro Football Talk.
“The 2026 Detroit Lions’ offense, defense, special teams, what do we really hang our hat on? We’ve got an idea on some of our go-to guys, our heavy hitters, but what do we really do well with those guys?
And we won’t, and I hate saying it, we’re not gonna know until probably around the bye [Week 6]. Until we get a good four or five games, and you really start to figure out, this is what we can do and where we can really grow.”
Campbell said the early struggles aren’t enough to send the season into a panic.
“As bad as it was, it’s not as bad as it appears to be,” Campbell added. “And you clean a couple things up, you get guys right, you put guys in the right positions, one guy does what he’s supposed to do, that leads to trust the other guy, now we can start cutting it loose and we get our confidence back, and the offense starts playing better, we start converting more, now all of a sudden you begin to get a little bit better, the floor begins to rise on where you’re at. I’m not discouraged.”
There was also some encouraging injury news on the offensive line. Campbell said there’s a good chance OT Blake Miller would have played had last week’s game been on Sunday, and he expects Miller to be trending toward availability this week.
“I think there’s a good chance had it been Sunday (last week) he would’ve played. I feel pretty good that he’s trending the right way to be in there (this week).”
Campbell also said OL Christian Mahogany will practice tomorrow, and the team will evaluate where he stands after that.
In Minnesota, Kevin O’Connell gave a few injury updates of his own. He said DT Ty Ingram-Dawkins is day-to-day with a hip injury, while P Brett Thorson showed up Monday with hamstring soreness and is being evaluated.
O’Connell also said RB Aaron Jones was sore but okay after handling an expanded workload in Week 3.
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