OTA observations: Early offseason participation, 'meaningless' rotations and a Campbell punchout
Allen Park — Here are notes and observations from Friday’s OTA practice, the first offseason session of 2026 open to local media.
● As usual, let’s start with attendance, which was strong for the end-of-the-week voluntary practice.
Most of the absences were related to known injury situations lingering from the previous season. Not practicing were safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch, cornerback Terrion Arnold, offensive lineman Ben Bartch and tight ends Sam LaPorta and Zach Horton,
Joseph (knee), Branch (Achilles), LaPorta (back), Arnold (shoulder) and Bartch (foot) all ended last season on injured reserve.
Joseph did attend practice in street clothes, assisted running a defensive back drill, and caught some soft toss throws at the end of the day. For what little it’s worth, he didn’t have a brace or sleeve on his injured leg or walk with a noticeable limp.
Lions coach Dan Campbell pre-emptively acknowledged some of those players wouldn’t be participating ahead of practice, and also noted there wasn’t an urgency to get any of them on the field.
“That's not the priority and it's not worth all that anyway,” Campbell said. “Now LaPorta has taken some walkthrough, jog-through. He's done some of that. He's not going to be out there today. Listen, the most important thing is continue to let them improve, rehab, all that. That'll take precedence right now. So, they're in meetings, they're getting the mental side of this and just take it day-to-day.”
● The roster was divided between two fields to start the day, with most of the first and second stringers working on the left side and the deeper depth to our right.