​Dan Campbell on Lions' starting LG: "I don’t like rotating guys, but if we need to do it we’ll do it"

Dan Campbell doesn't want to do it -- but he will if he has to. With Christian Mahogany and Ben Bartch still battling for the starting job at left guard after Bartch missed most of camp with injuries, Campbell is considering rotating the two during Sunday's season opener against the Saints.

"Look, I’ll be the first to tell you, I don’t like rotating guys, but if we need to do it we’ll do it," Campbell said Wednesday on 97.1 The Ticket.

Mahogany was Detroit's starting left guard when healthy last season and is penciled in as the starter for now. But Bartch is pushing him for the job, which is exactly what the Lions intended when they signed Bartch this offseason. The seven-year vet started games for the 49ers each of the last two seasons when he was healthy.

That's the rub: Bartch has rarely been healthy. He missed most of last season due to ankle and foot injuries, the latter of which required surgery and delayed his start to training camp this summer. He was a starter for the Jaguars before that, but missed most of 2022 due to a knee injury.

And shortly after getting the green light this summer, Bartch wound up in concussion protocol and missed more time, including the first two preseason games. He made it back for the preseason finale and played well.

Mahogany, meanwhile, had an up-and-down camp that resembled his performance last season, on either side of a leg injury that cost him several weeks.

"I’d love to have this done," said Campbell. "I’d love to say that by the time we roll into this game, it’s one guy and he’s playing 65 snaps. But if I don’t feel that way, we’re going to play them both until somebody distinguishes themselves as truly the most consistent, most dependable player for us. It’s as simple as that."

Campbell is looking for one thing more than anything else: "I’m about consistency, man."

"That doesn’t mean perfect," he said. "I’m not asking for perfection. You’re always striving for perfection, any player will tell you that, knowing you never will be. But it is the consistency of getting your job done, battling, making sure that you give your best attempt to keep that quarterback clean behind you, to give this running back a lane that we’ve got who’s pretty special -- both of those guys are special -- and whoever gives us the best chance to do that is going to be the guy."

Detroit's offensive line should otherwise be solid, especially once center Cade Mays returns from injury and takes over for Juice Scruggs. Tate Ratledge should take another jump at right guard, Blake Miller should grow into a stable right tackle as the year goes on, and Penei Sewell is Penei Sewell, wherever he plays.

"In the last week of training camp you really felt it coming together, with Juice leading the show there," Jared Goff said Tuesday. "I know there's still some things going on at left guard, but Tate, Blake and Penei have been as steady as anything. And then the guys who are competing at left guard have been great too. It's still a work in progress as far as the gelling comes, but the last week of training camp was really good and I thought the stuff they put on tape in the preseason was really good."

Goff said that the battle between Mahogany and Bartch doesn't really change anything in terms of his own preparation.

"Making sure I'm on the same page with both of them and making sure that they feel comfortable with everything, that would be the only thing," he said. "But they'll be ready, whatever the coaches decide to do."