The Lions went to Indiana this week to have joint practices with the Colts.
Dan Campbell came away from them feeling better about his team.
“I think you want to know you don’t look out of place and I didn’t feel that way,” Campbell said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I didn’t feel that way. And I think ultimately that’s what you want to know is like, ‘Man, do — is this something where we feel like we’re outmatched?’ And I didn’t feel that way.”
Detroit fared better in Thursday’s practice than on Wednesday. But even in the first of the two joint sessions, Detroit’s offense was better in 11-on-11 drills with the offensive line than in 7-on-7 without it.
“It was good to see those guys go eat in the middle,” Campbell said. “I thought some of our combination blocks in the middle there, in the run game, but the pass protection as well, was our play-pass stuff was as good as I’ve seen in a while, which is encouraging. So that fired me up. They got our tempo going when the big boys came over. So that was good to see.”
Campbell’s positive feelings about the sessions stem from being able to compete with a team that nearly made the playoffs last season and has the potential to win the AFC South in 2022.
“It gives you a confidence,” Campbell said. “It gives us a confidence, but you can feel it in our players. Our players have a confidence, like, OK, they feel we’re getting better, and to know that they feel like we stack up against these guys, that we’re not out of place and that we are getting better, and that we can do some things in all three phases. It gives our team confidence.”