Dan Campbell Reveals Lions' Practice Plans for Playoff Bye Week

After securing the much-needed first-round bye by beating the Minnesota Vikings in Week 18, the Detroit Lions are getting additional rest this week. While their opponents are preparing for their Wild Card matchups, the Lions get a chance to get healthy, regroup, and wait for their opponent.

Two weeks of rest between games are not common in the NFL, so teams have to approach it with caution. Finding the right balance between rest and rust can be a tricky one, so each team has its own strategy. Head coach Dan Campbell just revealed Detroit's plan for the next ten days per Jeff Risdon of USA Today.

Campbell said that since they don't know their opponent, they are not going to over-prepare for a certain matchup. The Lions head coach revealed after the Vikings win that he expected to see them in the first round but there is nothing certain about the NFL playoffs. One lower seed upsetting the higher seed can flip the entire bracket on its head. Therefore, Campbell is giving his coaches three days off this weekend to "refresh, get [their] sleep, and rest" before coming in on Monday when they know their opponent.

He also laid out what the plan is for the players. Campbell said that they are bringing the players in on Thursday for end-of-half and end-of-game situations without pads, then having a full game with full pads and hitting on Friday.

"We’ll come back Friday and do a full game, all out, three hours, full hitting, goal line, short yardage. Thursday, we’ll practice, it won’t be in pads but it will be end of game situations, probably an hour just to stay in flow and little things that we need, little detail work that we can get. "

- Lions HC Dan Campbell

Campbell then will give the players three days off before coming back on Monday to have their standard week of practice before a game.

The Lions can play one of four teams in the divisional round: the Rams, Vikings, Commanders, or the Packers. If every favored team wins in the wild-card round, it will be the Vikings that Detroit will face. If either the Commanders or the Packers pull off a road win over the weekend, they will get the privilege to come to Ford Field to face the Lions.

Whoever it is that they face, the Lions will have a significant rest advantage going into that matchup.

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