DETROIT LIONS DAILY UPDATE

TODAY'S NEWS The Lions held a full-squad workout today in shells (helmets, shoulder pads and shorts) on the indoor field at the team's headquarters and

TODAY'S NEWS

• The Lions held a full-squad workout today in shells (helmets, shoulder pads and shorts) on the indoor field at the team's headquarters and practice facility in Allen Park.
• Tickets for Thursday's game vs. Buffalo are still available. Tickets can be purchased via detrotilions.com, TicketMaster.com, TicketMaster outlets and over the phone at 248.645.6666.
• The Lions announced today that they have placed DE Bill Swancutt on the Reserve/Injured list, WR Scottie Vines on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list and released T Tom Kalieta. The team also announced that they have signed DE Clifford Dukes. Detroit currently has 75 players on their active roster and will be required to meet the limit of 53 at 4 p.m. September 2.
• CB Fernando Bryant, S Idrees Bashir, TE Casey FitzSimmons, DE Cory Redding, DT Shaun Rogers, RT Rex Tucker, LG Ross Verba and WR Roy Williams were held out of practice today.
• LB Teddy Lehman remains on the Active/PUP list and also did not practice today.
• The Detroit Lions will finish their 2006 preseason slate at Ford Field Thursday when they play the Buffalo Bills at 7:30 p.m. This will be the fifth consecutive preseason the two teams have closed out each other's exhibition schedule since 2002. Detroit enters the game looking to end the preseason on a high note after a 21-3 loss at Oakland while Buffalo will look to rebound from a 20-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
• Thursday's game will be televised live in Metro Detroit on WKBD-TV UPN Channel 50 with Frank Beckmann handling play-by-play, former Lions DT Kelvin Pritchett adding color commentary and local sportscaster Steve Courtney reporting from the sideline. The games can also be viewed throughout the state of Michigan and portions of northwest Ohio on: WFQX-TV FOX Ch. 33 (Cadillac/Traverse City); WJMN-TV CBS Ch. 3 (Escanaba); WXMI-TV FOX Ch. 17 (Grand Rapids); WSYM-TV FOX Ch. 47 (Lansing); WNEM-TV CBS Ch. 5 (Saginaw/Flint/Bay City) and WNWO NBC Ch. 24 (Toledo, Ohio).

LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI
Opening statement: "We (held out) Roy Williams, he's fine - just a groin. He should be okay. (Ross) Verba, it's the same as yesterday; it's more precautionary than anything. Fernando Bryant, we kept him out again today with the hamstring (injury). Scottie Vines is on (reserve) PUP. (Bill) Swancutt will go on IR and then we let the offensive tackle, (Tom) Kalieta go and signed Cliff Dukes, a defensive end that we brought in today to look at for this week. Other than that, it was just another day of good football work and fundamentals and getting ourselves ready to go. We're competing against ourselves as much as anything because there's some mirror in terms of offense and defense. We'll get a good tempo (in practice) tomorrow and get ready to go."

On what he hopes to accomplish in the last preseason game: "I still think there are some things schematically that we can still look at, even though some of the guys may not be doing it that are doing it. This is a tough one for a lot of guys now; some guys are right on the edge right now. So you have the evaluation of the men who can make this team - that's as big as anything. We're encouraging them to keep getting better and then there are guys who have a chance to get better that are going to be in the game. That's a tough one here. It's coming down to one bone and three dogs - they're going after it. It's the truth."

On how many players are fighting for their football livelihood: "Quite a few, really. I couldn't give you a (number). It's close. We've got guys at every position right now (competing) and we've tried to keep it open as long as we can. When it's open like that, you're getting quality work from those men and they're improving themselves. The biggest thing is if they're improving in practice they've got a chance to put out a good resume for the rest of the league too - which I want. I want each guy to put out as good a resume as they can and hopefully they all get picked up - the ones we can't keep."

On whether any players have been ruled out for Thursday night: "We need to visit (as a staff) and see how much we got (done with guys) the last two days - we tried to get them some work. It's between rust and not rust; health and no health. You've got to work through that whole thing. I can get you more on that tomorrow, on who we won't play for sure. We're going to be smart; the reps are going to be cut down, especially on the first defense."

On whether the mindset for the last preseason game is getting in and out of the game healthy: "I don't like to put it that way because then guys think: 'don't get hurt.' You can't do that - if you go in thinking that, you've got a chance to get hurt. The goal is: there's guys competing for spots; let's go get it. If you're in there and you're not competing for a spot but you need to (play), just get better. I try to set that type of mindset. The other mindset is not good; that's how you get hurt."

On how much they can expect to see WR Charles Rogers and WR Mike Williams: "Oh, a pretty good dose."

On the backup quarterback spot: "They're both going to get real good looks this week; it will be fun. We'll get out there and let these guys compete. The pressure is still there; that's what I like, the heat and the pressure is still on everybody."

On whether the backup quarterback spot is still an open competition: "I would think so; just let them keep working. That's exciting."

On which quarterback will come in first: "As we have talked, I think (Dan) Orlovsky will start it off first. We're going to probably rotate them as we go through the game."

On whether they'll rotate Orlovsky and McCown by series: "Something like that; maybe by plays or something - so we make sure each guy is getting enough snaps. It could be 10 (plays) or two series or something like that. It's just to get each guy in the fold."

On when he determined that WR Charles Rogers was healthy enough to play: "When the trainers tell us. We put him back in practice yesterday, so we had a chance to get him going and it looks like he's going to be healthy and ready to go."

On what he would like to see out of Charles Rogers on Thursday: "Like I see everybody else, I want to see his best. Whatever he has, let's see it on tape."

On how you approach a season opener with extra time to prepare: "What you do is, get to this game first and make sure we're doing a good job (for this game). What happens is: if you get too much of this first opponent, then they get boring - if you over-prepare for so long. So what you do is you hit this game, then we'll get a little bit of time off; make sure we're running and then we'll get back into game-planning for them and we pick up a bonus day next Monday. We've got a good feel of them; we've touched (on) them a little bit and we'll start to grind on them (next week)."

On whether it's natural to start thinking about the season-opener immediately after the final preseason game: "Oh yeah, no question. They're in your mind; you sit down at night before going home and maybe watch a tape on them and you're just getting a feel and getting used to them and then it's: the (preseason) is over, lets go and it's locked - you're locked in."

COURTESY OF THE LIONS