Coming off a sloppy preseason debut in the Hall of Fame Game, the Detroit Lions have a lot to fix. The Lions committed five turnovers, saw Kyle Allen and Hendon Hooker struggle and saw their defense get bludgeoned by Trey Lance in the 34-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers last Thursday night.
While the Lions didn’t play most of the stars that will help them compete for a Super Bowl, it was still a disappointing effort with plenty of room for improvement entering Friday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Luckily, the Lions have received a gift that could help them turn things around and give some players the opportunity they need to make a positive impression.
Lions Will Miss Kirk Cousins, Michael Penix Jr. in Friday’s Preseason Game vs. Falcons
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris told reporters on Monday that his top two quarterbacks, Michael Penix Jr. and Kirk Cousins, will not play against the Detroit on Friday night. According to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Falcons will play Easton Stick and Emory Jones, giving the Lions a golden opportunity.
Stick and Emory Jones will play at quarterback for the #Falcons on Friday. Penix and Cousins will not play in the exhibition game vs. the #Lions.
— D. Orlando Ledbetter (@DOrlandoAJC) August 4, 2025
Lions head coach Dan Campbell wasn’t thrilled with his team’s effort on Thursday night although he admitted he had a limited roster to work with. While Jared Goff, David Montgomery and Amon-Ra St. Browns were some of the players that spent their trip to Canton on the sidelines, Campbell would like to see more out of the guys that are trying to make the team.
“The message is, when you get an opportunity to make your plays, you’ve got to make your plays,” Campbell told reporters after Thursday’s loss. “And now you got one on tape. We’ve got to clean this up. We have to get significantly better. We’ve got to coach them better and they’ve got to play better next week.”
That task will get a lot easier playing against the Falcons’ backups. Stick is a journeyman that hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2023 and just six total games since he was selected in the fifth round by the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2019 draft. Jones is a player that went 10-21 as a starter during his collegiate career and hasn’t made an active roster since entering the league as a UDFA in 2023.
This is great news for a defense that only allowed 4.4 yards per play against the Chargers but also couldn’t limit the damage after playing on short fields all night. The offense will have a similar task as it looks to improve from 3.9 yards per play on Thursday night and sort out the backup quarterback position between Hooker and Allen.
While it’s just the preseason, Friday’s game could determine which players on the bubble could make the roster and whether the Lions have the depth they didn’t have one season ago. A positive performance would make the vibes a little bit better as Detroit progresses through camp and Atlanta is doing its part to turn the difficulty down on Friday night.