Pressers and scrums: Lions still waiting for WR3 emerge; Barry looking slim after health scare

Allen Park — The Lions held a night practice Monday, and things are running much later than normal, so we’re going to try and be a bit more concise with today’s edition of P’s and S’s. See what I did there?

Let’s kick things off with a WR3 discussion, the mystery de jour all camp. Three weeks into this thing and the Lions are still waiting for someone, anyone to grab the brass ring.

“We’re dying for somebody to step up and say, ‘Hey man, I’m the guy. I’m the guy you can depend on. I’ll be the same consistent player every day and find a way to make the plays that come my way,’” Lions coach Dan Campbell said.

With fringe contender Antoine Green out of the mix after being waived/injured Monday, the top remaining contenders are Daurice Fountain and Donovan Peoples-Jones, with some others hanging around the outer edges, like Kaden Davis and Tre’Quan Smith.

Fountain just can’t seem to get out of his own way. He’ll make a series of quality plays, including a deep crosser into the red zone that looked like Josh Reynolds reincarnated within the scheme, only to derail that momentum with a self-inflicted mistake. Today, it was a dropped touchdown in the end zone.

Peoples-Jones also didn’t do much on Monday, but Campbell praised the veteran’s recent improvement before the practice.

“DPJ I felt like has been, since the game, much better,” Campbell said. “He’s playing faster and I notice it, we all notice it. So that’s encouraging.”

● The Lions have added a couple linebackers to the roster the past two days. I asked Campbell the reason and he noted a number of injury issues at the position. Obviously, rookie Nate Lynn suffered a season-ender in the preseason opener, but Malcolm Rodriguez, Malik Jefferson and DaRon Gilbert are also banged up.

● Campbell noted he and special teams coordinator Dave Fipp recently watched tape of every kickoff from the first batch of preseason games trying to extract every morsel of information they could from the new-look play.

“Every time you see one, you learn something new,” Campbell said. “…A team’s doing this, they’re not doing this, and you learn it on both sides of the ball. I think what it’s going to come down to is what you feel like you’re figuring out a little bit is what is the risk-reward. If you’re a kickoff team and, ultimately, feel like you want to have this advantage, that’s why you’re kicking it into play. Well, if we’re out there battling just so they get it back to the 30 or the 29 (yard line) repetitively, what are we really gaining? You want to feel like, if we’re doing this, we can get them (down) inside the 25 at least.”

Campbell’s comments highlight the biggest fear with the redesign — teams ultimately deciding there’s no value in kicking off and reverting to sending the majority of kicks into the end zone for touchbacks. With the ball coming out to the 30-yard line now, that would still accomplish one of the league’s goals, to increase starting field position, but the play would continue to be boring and borderline unnecessary.

● Loren Strickland is an under-the-radar UDFA safety who has gotten some looks with the second-team defense throughout camp. Campbell was asked what the team has seen so far and the coach offered some strong praise.

“He’s a football player and he’s one of those guys that he just won’t go away,” Campbell said. “He just won’t go away. It’s like, ‘This guy?’ One more time, ‘Can he make this play?’ Well, he made the play. ‘Can he really get over there?’ Well, he got over there. ‘Well, can he make this tackle?’ Well, he made the tackle. So, he just keeps making plays and that’s a great thing. He’s one of those players that I say it’s hard to ignore him.”

The Lions have an absolute logjam at safety, with Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Brandon Joseph, special teams standout C.J. Moore and another impressive UDFA, Morice Norris. So it’s difficult to see a roster path for Strickland, but practice squad seems likely after that hefty heaping of praise from the coach.

● Barry Sanders was at practice and held a little press conference for reporters in attendance. He didn’t want to answer questions about his health after a heart scare this offseason, but let me say this, the man looks fantastic. I don’t know how much weight he’s lost, but it’s the best I’ve seen the Hall of Fame running back look in years.

If you watched my ice bath interview with Dan Skipper, you’ll understand why I’m extra inspired by Sanders’ slimming.