Dan Campbell notes that the Detroit Lions rookies—even the early-drafted players—may get some playing time in the preseason.
In less than a week, the Detroit Lions will open up the 2025 NFL preseason with the Hall of Fame Game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night. While the game result is completely meaningless, it will be both team’s first opportunity to get their rosters some valuable game reps.
As always, though, the question is which players will actually be on the field. If tradition follows, neither team will play any of their big-time starters, but Lions coach Dan Campbell did give some insight into how he’ll treat their young players. When asked if he expects the team’s rookie class to play this preseason, Campbell stressed that it will be important for them to at least get a few games in.
“I think all of those guys need to play in a game, or games,” Campbell said. “So, I think our young guys are going to—I see them playing in this game. Now, am I going to say that it’s written in stone right now? No, I’m not. But I think I’d like to play those guys. That’s the good news. We got four games here starting with the Hall of Fame to get them some reps, so that’ll be the plan.”
While it wasn’t expressed outright, it certainly seems like Campbell is referring to Detroit’s top two picks: defensive tackle Tyleik Williams and offensive lineman Tate Ratledge. Both of those players are currently lined up to be Week 1 starters at their respective positions, so it would be a small risk to put them out there in the preseason. However, given their important roles, it’s also imperative that they are prepared for their first bit of NFL action.
That experience may be particularly valueable to Ratledge, who saw action at center for his first three training camp practices before kicking back to his college spot at right guard for the last three days.
“We’re putting a lot on him,” Campbell said earlier this week. “He’s drinking out of a fire hose right now. But there are things that we saw with him in college at Georgia that we felt like, ‘You know what? We think this guy can play center.’ We knew it was going to take some time. When that’s something you haven’t done in games, it’s going to take a minute.”
It’s unclear if we’ll see Ratledge at center or guard in the preseason—or whether he’ll eventually kick back inside to guard when the Lions return to training camp on Monday. Either way, it certainly looks like he—and the rest of Detroit’s rookie class—will get some extensive work during this year’s preseason.