Lions Injury Updates: Rolder, Moore, McNeill, Gibbs, Bartch & more
Plus latest on Christian Izien, Miles Kitselman, Payton Turner, & Christian Mahogany
The Detroit Lions wrapped up their first 2026 Sunday training camp practice with a couple new injuries to Derrick Moore and Miles Kitselman. Here are the latest updates on the active health issues for the Lions.
🟢Good news
🟡Uncertain or moderately concerning
🔴Bad news
Let’s start with the 2 new injuries officially reported by the Lions on August 2, 2026. (Practice participation info via Jeremy Reisman’s article.)
🟡Derrick Moore
August 2, 2026: Groin
A groin strain can be anything from a few days to a few weeks. In some cases, a “groin” can actually be a hip injury or a core muscle injury. There are no details yet.
🟡Miles Kitselman, TE
August 2, 2026: Leg
No details here. Hopefully, Kitselman’s leg injury ends up being less severe than Jimmy Rolders’…
🟡Jimmy Rolder, LB
July 31, 2026: Unspecified leg injury
The first report from Jordan Schultz painted a favorable picture stating “he will miss some time, but not major”.
However, Jeff Risdon reported in his Detroit Lions Podcast that Rolder isn’t expected back for Week 1, which is still 6 weeks away. That would mean a multi-month injury and moves Rolder closer to the higher concern range.
If he isn’t going to be ready for Week 1, he becomes a candidate for 1 of the 2 IR-designated-to-return spots at the cutdown date that don’t count against the 53-man roster. If he goes on IR, he must sit out 4 games. Since Rolder already started practicing, he can’t go on PUP to save an IR-return slot.
🟢Jahmyr Gibbs, RB
Gibbs has yet to practice at camp, but was seen milling about on the fields today. Earlier this week when asked about a back issue during Gibb’s conditioning test, Dan Campbell stated: “No, I don’t think it’s severe.”
Ian Rapoport today reported that Gibbs has a “minor injury”. It’s strongly suspected that Gibbs’ minor back injury is related to his wallet...
Nothing a $20M per year contract extension won’t cure.
🟢Alim McNeill, DT
July 31, 2026: Kicked in the head. Listed officially as a neck.
McNeill was back at practice today without issue after saying he was kicked in the head. That’s good news as this would be far from the first time that McNeill has been hit in the head causing injuries.
Here is my video compilation of hits to his head from 2023 to 2024 creating suspicion for a jaw injury…
He also had an diagnosed concussion from his December 5, 2024 hit.
As far as McNeill’s recovery from his December 2024 ACL injury, Dan Campbell had this to say earlier in the week:
He does look better. He looks like he’s back to what he was.
When we went back and watched clip after clip, back to back to back to back to back to back of all the season when you start going through all of these, he was favoring the leg a little bit. I mean, I don’t think he even realized it. And so it’s just good to have him back, man. He looks great.
This is further evidence that McNeill is poised for a big season in his 2nd year back from the ACL.
🟡Ben Bartch, OG
Bartch was not at practice today for unknown reasons. He missed the entire Lions offseason in recovery from a December 2025 Lisfranc surgery. A Lisfranc can have an unreliable recovery, which was the reason for my 9/10 medical concern level for Bartch as a free agent signing...
If this current absence is related to his Lisfranc, that would be highly concerning 8 months post surgery.
🟡Payton Turner, EDGE
A back issue that may have occurred on the first day of camp on July 28 was not serious according to Dan Campbell. However, Turner is still not back to practice.
His NFL medical history does not inspire confidence in his reliability…
🟢Christian Izien, CB/S
Came off NFI today and returned to practice after a minor “flu”. No issues here.
🟢Christian Mahogany, OG
Mahogany returned to practice on July 31 after just a couple days on NFI. The injury details are still unknown, but residuals seems unlikely.
For the earlier analysis of Giovanni Manu when he curiously went on NFI…
Dan Campbell Day 2 Camp Update: Manu NFI & Turner Injury
While not as blockbuster of a press conference as Dan Campbell’s training camp opener, there was a big revelation on Day 2 involving Giovanni Manu. Here is the read-between-the-lines analysis of Campbell’s words.