DETROIT (AP) \u2014 With training camp wrapping up on Thursday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said he loves the versatility of the secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we have some guys who can swing between nickel, safety, corner. There are some candidates there,\u2019\u2019 Campbell said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“The more you feel like you can do with that room, the different skill sets, it gives you more options and it helps you on game day because now, OK, this player can play nickel, he can play safety, or he can play corner. Now we can take one less DB and bring an extra rusher or bring another receiver or whatever.”<\/p>\n
Injuries to safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph, who remain on the physically unable to perform list, opened up the competition. Neither is expected back to start the season.<\/p>\n
Campbell said Avonte Maddox and Chuck Clark have earned starts at safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve proven that, they\u2019ve earned that. Just like (D.J.) Reed and Rock (Ya-Sin) are our two most consistent corners on the outside,\u2019\u2019 Campbell said. “But it\u2019s not like our eyes have not been opened. All of those guys have gotten opportunities to go against good-on-good, the other ones. That\u2019s where we sit right now.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Thomas Harper, who is in the mix at safety, has been out this week but his ankle injury is not long term.<\/p>\n
Ya-Sin\u2019s strong camp has earned him the starting role opposite Reed, while the inconsistency of Ennis Rakestraw has likely put him in a backup role.<\/p>\n
Reed, who has been on four teams in eight years, said this year nine is the hardest he\u2019s worked to get ready for a season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys could attest to that, feeling the same way,\u2019\u2019 Reed said. \u201cAnd Coach Campbell is challenging us to come in and you know get better every single day and I feel like that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Campbell said this week he may not announce one starting slot corner, but instead could plug and play depending on down and distance. He mentioned cornerback Nick Whiteside as a possibility for that role. Cornerback Roger McCreary\u2019s strong camp suggests he may get a chance there too along with Christian Izien.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019re trying to figure out some of this is how do we build this roster? What can they do? Where? Can we get them to the game? That\u2019s kind of part of the trick with all this,\u2019\u2019 Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Izien was injured in the second preseason game \u2014 Campbell was not specific on the type of injury \u2014 but said he could be out for \u201ca little bit\u201d and could possibly miss the season opener. Izien also provides depth at safety.<\/p>\n
Training camp wrapped on Thursday with the third and final preseason game set for Saturday at the Indianapolis Colts. The roster cut deadline is Sunday.<\/p>\n
“I think communication and chemistry is much better than when we started,\u2019\u2019 Ya-Sin said of the secondary. \u201cWe\u2019re still a work in progress, still getting better everyday, guys coming out competing, going against a great offense, a great quarterback, great skilled players and we\u2019re just jelling together competing against one another and continuing to get better, elevate.”<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT (AP) \u2014 With training camp wrapping up on Thursday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said he loves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":985334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[14450,1524,4624,9036,6214,146,113,2506,7,3220,147,6,44353,27878,27876,122564,9090,7040],"class_list":["post-985333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-avonte-maddox","tag-brian-branch","tag-christian-izien","tag-chuck-clark","tag-dan-campbell","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-kerby-joseph","tag-lions","tag-nfl","tag-nick-whiteside","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40792-ap-michigan-sports-only","tag-roger-mccreary","tag-thomas-harper"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117172237969162737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}