Just days before the August 30 NFL cutdown date, Dan Campbell was in no mood to reveal anything as far as Detroit Lions roster management. Here are some of his press conference quotes along with my read-between-the-lines analysis.
🔴Bad news or high concern
🟡Uncertain or moderately concerning
🟢Good news or low concern
🟡Brian Branch & Kerby Joseph - PUP Status?
Brad and I will discuss all that over the next 3-4 days. Both of those guys are doing well right now.
I’m sure that Campbell has a very good idea if Branch and Joseph will come off PUP or move to reserve/PUP at the cutdown date. There was no value to revealing anything right now though.
I believe Branch and Joseph will move to reserve/PUP. See yesterday’s story for the full reasoning…
🟡Cade Mays, C - Wrist injury update?
No.
Dan Campbell was hilariously as curt as possible when asked to clarify Mays’ timeline. It’s hard to read-between-the-lines of a one word, two letter answer.
As I wrote yesterday, I believe Mays will avoid IR, but Campbell certainly didn’t give any indication either way.
🔴Isiah Pacheco, RB - New back injury
I can’t give you anything definitive. He’s feeling better as of yesterday. It’s been a little bit touch and go.
He’s had a little bit of a back [in addition to the knee].
The knee is not the concern.
Pacheco had an MCL sprain earlier in camp with an expected recovery in time for Week 1. Now, Campbell reveals that Pacheco has a back injury with no other details. We don’t know when this injury happened and how long it’s been going on. Saying the knee is not the concern actually makes me more concerned about this back injury.
Best case is the back is just a soft tissue strain. Worst case would be something involving the spine.
Pacheco carried a 6/10 medical concern level upon signing due to a history of many significant injuries…
One of my major concerns with swapping David Montgomery for Pacheco was the large health discrepancy between them. So far, it’s already not looking good for Pacheco’s reliability.
The running back depth behind Jahmyr Gibbs is one of the biggest concerns for the 2026 season.
🟡Lions Starting Secondary - Chuck Clark, Avonte Maddox, DJ Reed, Rock Ya-Sin
Right now, you’d say those are the four best.
Dan Campbell basically announced the starting secondary today. What stands out is that none of the younger players was able to crack the lineup.
The loss of Branch, Joseph, and Terrion Arnold has strikingly elevated the age of the secondary. Here are the ages of the Lions starters for Week 1:
Chuck Clark: 31
Avonte Maddox: 30
DJ Reed: 29 (turns 30 in November)
Rock Ya-Sin: 30
If this group stays healthy, there’s no issue for this season. But with age comes wear-and-tear drop-off and reliability concerns. Moving forward, the secondary becomes a major need for the 2027 offseason.
🟡Derrick Moore, EDGE - Unspecified injury
Dan Campbell addressed this question as he was walking off stage, so it was not recorded on video.
Moore just recovered from a groin strain in time to play in preseason Game 2. Now, he has either an aggravation of the groin or some new injury. In the pre-draft process, he had a minor hamstring. There starts to be a concern for accumulation of injuries in this calendar year.
The good news is it sounds like the current injury is minor.
Fortunately, his medical report has been very favorable in the past…
🔴Payton Turner, EDGE - Goes on IR
Turner’s entire situation in training camp was curious. He basically never appeared in camp due to a “back” injury. Since he didn’t start camp on PUP, that means he hurt it pretty much immediately in camp. At the time, Dan Campbell described it as not “serious” and implied it was a minor issue. Now, he is on IR.
Turner’s history of missing a high number of games earned him a 10/10 medical concern level upon signing…
This signing was thought to be no-risk due to $0 guaranteed money in his contract. However, since he has been placed on IR, the Lions are potentially on the hook for part or even all of his $1.145M salary.
There is a lot of mystery here with Turner and plenty of room for conspiracy theories.