ALLEN PARK, MICHIGAN – JULY 29: Jared Goff #16 of the Detroit Lions and head coach Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions chuckle throughout Detroit Lions Coaching Camp at Detroit Lions Meijer Efficiency Middle on July 29, 2026 in Allen Park, Michigan. (Photograph by Nic Antaya/Getty Photos) | Getty Photos
Because the Detroit Lions transitioned from particular person drills to staff drills on Monday—the primary coaching camp observe with full pads—a well-recognized scene arrived. On the far discipline, the gamers amassed in a semicircle round coach Dan Campbell.
Coaching camp veterans and keen-eyed witnesses knew what was coming subsequent. It’s the exact same factor that has kicked off the primary padded observe yearly beneath Campbell: one-on-one tackling.
Reporters scrambled to the tip zone of the far discipline to make sure they didn’t miss a single one in all these extremely entertaining reps. Nonetheless, what they noticed was one thing completely different than in earlier years.
Campbell has beforehand set the tone of padded practices by going full reside tackling throughout these drills, which means the defenders would try official tackles all the way in which to the bottom. Not each staff likes to do that, however in Campbell’s passionate speech on “Hard Knocks” in 2022, he defined why he thought it was essential.
“I had a couple of you look at me like ‘What the (expletive)? Why are we going live (tackling)?’ I got it. Here’s what I need, man. I need you to trust me. I swear to god I’m not a lunatic. I swear to you. If I absolutely knew we could get to where we need to get without ever putting pads on, I would do it. I swear to you. But also for us as a team to get better defensively, what is the essence of what we do? What are the two things? Pursuit and tackle. Pursuit and tackle. Man, if you don’t work on tackling, if we don’t work on run after the catch, making a move, man, what are we doing? Then we finally get to Week 8 and we come to life because we’ve got enough reps? That’s why I’m doing it. I swear, man, I don’t want to put anybody in jeopardy, but we have to do it, man. I believe it.”
However on Monday, the Lions didn’t do reside tackling. As a substitute, they opted to do two-hand contact to start out padded practices, a fairly vital shift in technique. On Tuesday, I requested him why the change.
“Let’s just do it to where these guys get a feel,” Campbell mentioned. “It’s crazy how you saw that drill under control and all this.”
His argument, primarily, was that while you go reside tackling—significantly that early in camp—the shape is sloppy and harmful. Gamers excited by the promise of contact attempt to run over one another—which is forbidden on this drill, even when it’s reside. However by easing them in, the shape will get settled earlier than the precise tackling will get completed.
“Let’s just fundamentally, let’s go through it a couple times,” Campbell mentioned.
Campbell discovered one other advantage of two-hand contact drills. In earlier years, he had held some gamers out of that drill to guard them. However now these gamers can take part and showcase the one-cut abilities they’ve, which additionally helps the defender.
“There were some guys I held out of that drill last year. And that are—they have got some juice, and they got some cuts, and they got some—,” Campbell mentioned. “So, by not doing it live, you get them and keep them in the drill, which works the tackler a little bit.”
This is only one of many adjustments the Lions have made to their strategy this offseason. They switched round their spring OTA and minicamp schedule, opted to not do joint practices, and it feels like they intend to play some starters within the preseason, as nicely.
However don’t mistake Monday’s observe as a scrapping of reside tackling fully.
“We will get to that drill and do it live for you, Jeremy,” Campbell mentioned. “It is coming, my friend. I’m telling you.”
