{"id":23199,"date":"2025-05-16T15:22:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:22:39","slug":"breaking-lions-coach-sends-strong-message-to-5-players-in-position-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_3917,h_2203\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/196\/01jvap513dc09stqbb7h.jpg\" alt=\"Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell talks to defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko (76) during rookie mini camp at Meijer Performance Center in Allen Park on Friday, May 9, 2025.\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell talks to defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko (76) during rookie mini camp at Meijer Performance Center in Allen Park on Friday, May 9, 2025. | Junfu Han \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-0\">The Detroit Lions have risen to become an NFC power the past two seasons and a key reason is the competitive environment they\u2019ve fostered under head coach Dan Campbell. While Campbell probably doesn\u2019t want his players biting kneecaps during practice, he wants them to keep that mentality as they compete for their spot on the 53-man roster.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\">The first stage of competition will come during the team\u2019s offseason program. While the Lions have already started their initial preparations for the 2025 season, things will heat up in the coming months, leading one Lions coach to send a message to a group of players entering offseason team activities (OTAs).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lionswire.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2025\/05\/09\/SLIO\/83542874007-usatsi-26133896.jpg?crop=5307,2985,x0,y0&amp;width=3200&amp;height=1800&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Lions rookie minicamp notebook: 1st impressions on Detroit's rookies\" \/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"inline-text-2\">Lions Coach Wants Competing Safeties to \u2018Go Earn\u2019 Their Spot<\/h2>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\">Safeties coach Jim O\u2019Neil was discussing the state of his group when talking to reporters on Thursday afternoon. While Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph and free-agent signing Avonte Maddox are locked into spots entering camp, he mentioned that five young players will compete for the final spot.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\">\u201cThere\u2019s one spot,\u201d O\u2019Neil said via The Detroit News\u2019s Richard Silva. \u201cGo earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\">O\u2019Neil\u2019s message hits as hard as The Joker informing a pair of henchmen there would be tryouts in The Dark Knight. Erick Hallett II, Dan Jackson, Ian Kennelly, Morice Norris and Loren Strickland will be battling for the final spot. Jackson is considered the favorite after he was selected in the seventh-round of last month\u2019s draft but the rest of the group has a chance based on what\u2019s happened in the past.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.profootballnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/25224243\/lions-draft-isaac-teslaa-nfl-draft-2025-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"Lions WR Depth Chart: Who's in Detroit's Wide Receiver Room After Taking  Isaac TeSlaa in NFL Draft | PFSN\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\">When the Lions were featured on Hard Knocks at the beginning of the 2022 season, one of the most memorable moments was when then-linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard called out the effort of his veterans, who were being outplayed by a sixth-round rookie. That rookie was Malcom Rodriguez, who has been a staple of the Lions defense for the past three seasons.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\">With Sheppard in the defensive coordinator role, the theory of competition isn\u2019t going anywhere and it could create one of the most interesting position battles entering OTAs.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Detroit Lions have risen to become an NFC power the past two seasons and a key reason is the competitive environment they\u2019ve fostered under head coach Dan C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Detroit Lions have risen to become an NFC power the past two seasons and a key reason is the competitive environment they\u2019ve fostered under head coach Dan C\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News","og_description":"The Detroit Lions have risen to become an NFC power the past two seasons and a key reason is the competitive environment they\u2019ve fostered under head coach Dan C","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199","name":"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png","datePublished":"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-16T15:22:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FSAER232WFFG3.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=23199#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BREAKING: Lions Coach Sends Strong Message to 5 Players in Position Battle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23201,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23199\/revisions\/23201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}