Dan Skipper was holding back tears at the end of training camp when Dan Campbell looked him in the eye and cut him. When Campbell looked him in the eye in the locker room Sunday, Skipper was holding back tears again -- this time after making the first start of his six-year career and helping the Lions to their first win of the season.
"Hey, Skip! Nice freaking job, man!!" Campbell told the 27-year-old offensive lineman as his teammates hooted and hollered and then chanted his name: "SKIP! SKIP! SKIP!!"
"If anybody in the NFL deserves an opportunity to start, it would be Dan Skipper," left tackle Taylor Decker said a short while later. "God, he’s bounced in and out of Detroit since I’ve been here. He’s been cut more times than you can count. Practice squad here, then you get signed here, then you’re gonna go back to this other place, he’s just been through it and it’s crazy he hasn’t batted an eye yet."
Skipper was batting his eyes like crazy as they welled up in the locker room. This was a moment that felt like it would never come. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2017 and was promptly cut by the Cowboys, a preview of the road ahead. He would bounce between six teams over the next several years, including three separate stints with the Lions, spending most of his time on practice squads. He would play just well enough to stick around, not quite well enough to stick on a roster.
"My sixth year in the league, I’ve never made a team," Skipper said after the Lions' 36-27 win over Washington Sunday at Ford Field. "It’s tough. You go in, and you’re never quite good enough. You’re not quite enough. You show up every day and you think you’re doing the right things and just for whatever reason, it doesn’t quite work out. I think I’ve had 20 NFL contracts? They’re not worth the paper they’re written on."
Indeed:
The Lions needed Skipper on Sunday. They were missing their three starting
interior offensive linemen against one of the best interior defensive lines in the NFL. When they had to replace Pro Bowl guard Jonah Jackson, Campbell and the Lions were down to two guards who have been with the team for less than a month and a 6'9 tackle who hadn't played guard since his freshman year at Arkansas when he had a full head of hair. That was in 2013. They went with the guy they could trust.
"We just felt like Skip, man, has a real good understanding of (our offense)," Campbell said. "And we felt like even though he’s never played guard in a game, he was going to hold up. We trust him, I trust him. He’s a battler. He’s not going to go in the tank if something happens. He’d fight."
"He was so excited," said Decker. "I said it all throughout the week, nobody will play harder than this guy because nobody practices harder than that guy."
Skipper's excitement was clear midway through the first quarter when he blocked a safety about 15 yards down the field, like Michael Oher in 'The Blindside,' to pave the way for a 50-yard run by D'Andre Swift. He spent most of the game sparring in the trenches with two first-round picks in Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne and helped the Lions rush for 191 yards and 8.0 yards per carry. Aside from his size, he looked more or less like a natural.
"It’s not something I would want to have to do," said Decker. "Especially Jonathan Allen, he hits that hump move and that hump move is hard (to defend) when you’re tall, especially when he’s played tackle all throughout camp. But the one thing about Dan is, he's super competitive and very smart. He’s on top of all the playbook at all times because he’s moving around in practice all the time. And he stepped up to it. He stepped up to the challenge."
Even got Decker got emotional when talking about Skipper. The two have been off-and-on teammates since Skipper first arrived in Detroit in 2017, then returned in 2019, then returned again in 2021. Decker has watched him grind to no end. No one embodies Campbell's mantra of biting kneecaps on the way back up more than Skipper, who has been knocked down more times than he cares to remember. It was all worth it Sunday, when he got his shot and made it count.
"Just happy for him," said Decker. "I know his kids were here, his wife was here and sh*t, that’s why he’s been doing it for six years, for something like this."