Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell has made it clear that the team doesn’t intend to play many starters in the upcoming preseason bout with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We may get a couple of (starting) d-linemen going here against the Chiefs that didn’t play last week. Offense is probably pretty set here,” Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket on Wednesday. “The long and short of it, maybe a couple of guys. That’s about it.”
That is going to be in pretty stark contrast of their opponents. Chiefs coach Andy Reid revealed on Thursday that he plans on playing their starters for about a half during Saturday’s exhibition game.
“As far as the play time goes, the ones will take a half and then we’ll kind of fill in after that and just kind of see how the rest of that goes for the third and fourth quarters,” Reid said in his morning press conference.
That means the Lions’ defense—which is already pretty banged up from injuries—is going to have their hands full with Patrick Mahomes and company. Kansas City also revamped their receiver room drafting Xavier Worthy with their first-round pick and adding Marquise Brown in free agency—although Brown is currently out with an injury. It’ll be a tough but important test for Detroit’s secondary depth.
On the other side of the ball, the Lions offense—presumably headed up by both Hendon Hooker and Nate Sudfeld—will look to rebound after a disheartening performance against the Giants, resulting in just three points. Hooker only played two series in that game after suffering a concussion, but he is trending towards playing this Saturday. If he does start, it’ll be a valuable test against Kansas City’s first-string defense, which finished second in points against last year—but lost some key players this offseason (CB L’Jarius Sneed, LB Willie Gay).
