Why NFL Did Not Take Too Kindly to Detroit Lions Rookie Minicamp

The Detroit Lions shook up their offseason with a big decision.

Heading into his sixth year as the Lions' head coach, Dan Campbell and his staff elected to cancel rookie minicamp this year. Teams utilize rookie minicamp as a first opportunity to indoctrinate their young players on life in the NFL, and also give veterans or undrafted free agents opportunities to try out for their team.

This has had value for Detroit over the years, as they've wound up signing some tryout players from rookie minicamp in the past. However, Campbell made the decision to not conduct this in 2026 for a variety of reasons.

Campbell expanded on the decision Friday during his media availability. He noted that the young players spend plenty of time training for the Combine as opposed to preparing to play, and as a result sometimes aren't ready for the rigor of these minicamp practices.

"They're not ready, they're not ready for football, not really. Even on a limited basis. Now it's good you get them acclimated, you get them on the field," Campbell said. "At least it's your kind of first chance to do those things. And you can bring in some other guys, some veteran guys, some tryout guys, and you may find somebody you like. So, you get a little bit of that, but it's not worth it anymore."

Additionally, Campbell noted that there was a lot of contact in a walkthrough last year that may have drawn some ire from league offices.

As a result, Campbell came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth it to conduct a rookie minicamp and instead chose to use that time to focus on preparing them for life in the NFL in different ways.

"And really the straw that broke the camel’s back last year was, it was the first walkthrough, we had guys all over the ground, so the League didn't take too kindly to that, and it's not worth it. It's just not worth it," Campbell explained. "So, let's get them ready, let's physically get them ready to where they can get with the rest of the guys and look like football players a little bit.”

Detroit wrapped up its first session of OTAs on Friday with their third practice. They will have two more sessions of OTAs, with the next scheduled for June 2-4 and the final one June 9-11. After that, they will conduct two days of mandatory minicamp from June 16-17 before breaking for the summer until training camp begins.

While no training camp beginning date has officially been annnounced, traditionally NFL teams begin camp in late-July.

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