With two big midseason additions for the Lions come two big questions.
How much can Brian Branch handle off the bat? And how will the return of Cade Mays affect Juice Scruggs?
The Lions' star safety and marquee free agent signing at center are slated to make their season debuts Sunday against the Packers. Regarding Branch, who's coming off a torn Achilles, "I think that'd be asking a lot to say he's going to play 70 plays," Dan Campbell said Monday. "But we do feel like he can handle quite a bit here, and we're going to push him in practice here early."
In fact, Campbell said that the Lions flipped their typical schedule this week with a full practice Tuesday followed by an off-day partly so they can hit the throttle on Branch and Mays early in their preparations for the Packers: "I think that'll help a little bit. And then we'll have a really good idea by the time we hit the game" of what each player can contribute.
Branch played almost every snap on defense last season when healthy, never coming off the field in half of his 12 games. He averaged 95 percent of the defensive snaps. It sounds like the Lions will be a little more judicious with his deployment early in his return.
The two players who stand to be most affected by Branch's return are veteran Chuck Clark and rookie Keith Abney II. Abney was drafted as a nickel, but impressed the Lions in his first NFL start at free safety in their Week 5 win over the Cardinals. They want to keep working with him there. Given that Branch is more of a strong safety, it might be Clark whose role is reduced the most with Branch back in the lineup.
The Lions have another important decision to make at center with the return of Mays, who broke a bone in his wrist early in camp: "We're still back and forth on, what do we do with him?" Campbell said. "Do we work he and Juice in and out?"
Scruggs has played well at center since stepping in for Mays, grading out as one of the best players at his position this season, per PFF. But the Lions gave Mays a three-year, $25 million contract this offseason to stabilize that very spot on the O-line. And as Campbell acknowledged, it's not as simple as turning to a rotation at a position like guard.
"At the center position, that's where it's a little different, that's somebody that's constantly touching the football," he said. "But either way, barring anything negatively happening between now and the game, we plan on playing both of those guys."
Some of it, said Campbell, will depend "on how much Cade can play." With that in mind, the Lions will "keep Juice ready to go at center because he's really plug and play in that regard, the IDs, all of those things."
"The hard thing," said Campbell, is that Scruggs has done everything the Lions have asked of him, and they might have to turn around and tell him he's going back to the bench. Scruggs will also factor into the battle at left guard, where Christian Mahogany has begun to separate from Ben Bartch.
"Juice is playing good football for us right now. He's gotten better every week. Juice is a freaking team guy. If it comes to that, it doesn't mean that he likes it. There's definitely an argument to keep him rolling, because he's playing good football. But he's all-in. He'll do whatever we ask him to do.
"And the good news is one way or another, we get Cade worked back in, with Juice playing pretty good, Mahogany's had a couple of good weeks, well, now we’ve got some guys. We’ve got a pretty good crew there to go with and get better as the season goes on."
