Lions running back D'Andre Swift returned from his three-game absence last Sunday with a season-low five carries, and that was "one too many" in the eyes of Dan Campbell.
While Swift was back on the field in Detroit's loss to the Dolphins, he is not back to 100 percent after missing a month with ankle and shoulder injuries. And he likely won't be for the rest of the season.
"We probably gave Swift one too many carries," Campbell said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "We love Swift, I’m glad he’s out there, but he’s not back. He’s giving us what he has but it’s just not – so maybe give another one of those carries to Jamaal (Williams). These are things you go through and you learn and figure out what you can do better."
Swift turned his five carries into six yards. The last one, to Campbell's point, went for minus two yards on the Lions' final drive of the game when Swift couldn't gain the edge. Detroit wound up one yard shy of the sticks three plays later and turned the ball over on downs.
Swift did chip in five catches for 27 yards and a touchdown, but Williams was much more efficient on the ground: 10 carries for 53 yards. Swift, who was a full practice participant throughout last week, played 33 offensive snaps to Williams' 22.
Asked if the Lions would have been better off limiting Swift's role or simply giving him another week to heal, Campbell said, "Those are things we talk about."
"We’re in constant communication with Swifty. He’s out there and he wanted to give it a go and we appreciate that, but we always have to gauge that," he said. "We’ll see where he’s at this week. That’s something that we’ve thought about.
"We want to make sure that he’s up to feeling himself and that we can get the most out of him, whatever those are, even if that’s 10 reps. But we’ll gauge that this week, he’ll come out here and practice and we’ll see where it goes."
Campbell also discussed the Lions' offensive lapse in the second half against the Dolphins, when they totaled 67 yards and zero points. They had put up 326 yards and 27 points in the first half.
"The way that we speak and the way that we exit the locker room needs to be very much like how we start the games. We have a lot of energy and we come out the gate pretty strong, so we gotta make that a point of emphasis. That certainly starts with me and our coaches, all of us, the assistants, we gotta do a better job of really pushing the envelope and coming out with a sense of urgency, just like we started the game," Campbell said.
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