What is going on? The 5 most disappointing Lions players at training camp so far originally appeared on A to Z Sports.
The Detroit Lions are in the third week of training camp and are gearing up to play in their second preseason game on Friday. We’ve already gone over five players who have surprised the most in a good way, now it’s time to talk about the five guys who have disappointed the most at training camp so far:
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DT Brodric Martin
The hope this summer was that Martin would finally put it all together, and the former third-round pick whom Brad Holmes moved Heaven and Earth to trade up for would live up to that. It just hasn’t happened. Half the time, I don’t even realize he’s on the field, and I don’t say that to be mean. I say that because he’s been outshone a bit by guys like Myles Adams and Pat O’Connor. The Hall of Fame game was not a good sign for him. He played 12 snaps the entire night
CB Ennis Rakestraw
Rakestraw was super motivated to come out and make his rookie year a distant memory, but sadly, the problems that held that rookie year down crept back up. He had a chest contusion in the first week of camp and then a shoulder injury earlier this week. The bad news is that shoulder injury is expected to keep him out for a bit.
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OT Giovanni Manu
Don’t get me wrong, nobody expected to show up at camp and see Manu become a starting-caliber left tackle this summer. But the hope was that there would be some drastic improvement to the point where you could at least count on him in a big pinch if the Lions lost Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper for any amount of time. That’s not the case. Manu is still struggling, and earlier this week, Dan Campbell talked about how there have been more downs than ups with him this summer. The good news is that he also said the Hall of Fame game was a good win for him and that he hopes he builds on it. So that’s some good news.
Edge Isaac Ukwu
It’s not that Ukwu has been bad or anything; it’s that he hasn’t built upon what was a really good summer last year. Because of that, he’s finding himself falling down the depth chart to the point where I don’t know if he makes the practice squad again this year. It doesn’t help that Nate Lynn and Keith Cooper Jr. are consistently getting better.
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QB Kyle Allen
It is not too late for him to get himself off this list. The first two weeks of camp, he looked so good, then he had a rough night in the Hall of Fame game, and that seems to have now started affecting him at camp. He went from making no mistakes to throwing picks and fumbling snaps. The mental side of this game can affect you, and you have to hope that Thursday night’s game is not doing that to Allen. Here’s hoping he has a big bounce-back game on Friday.
This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Aug 7, 2025, where it first appeared.