A big piece of the Detroit Lions defense was missing during the first day of training camp on Thursday. No, it wasn’t Damon Harrison or Darius Slay after their holdout threats, but it was defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson.
Head coach Matt Patricia spoke to the media before practice on Friday and explained why the former first-round pick wasn’t on the field.
“He reported to camp,” said Patricia. “A’Shawn was excused by me for a personal matter. He’ll be back shortly. I’m in contact with him.”
After being a healthy scratch in the first game of 2018, Robinson rebounded in a big way. He tallied 49 tackles a sack and three tackles for loss and is expected to play a major role in the defense in 2019.