On Monday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell showed some reservations about playing rookie guard Miles Frazier this week after the 2025 fifth-round pick got his first NFL action last week against the Dallas Cowboys. However, during Campbell’s weekly radio appearance on Tuesday, he seemed to suggest the Lions will continue to the guard rotation this week—between Frazier and Trystan Colon—against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
“I’d like to play Frazier a little bit again, but I like Colon,” Campbell said. “There’s things that can be cleaned up, but Colon did some good things, too.”
Last week against the Cowboys, the Lions went drive-by-drive with Colon and Frazier. Colon got the start and the second drive, then Frazier came in for the next two drives. That rotation continued throughout the game, with Colon playing 36 snaps to Frazier’s 26. After the game, Campbell indicated that Frazier played well enough to warrant more snaps than they initially expected to give him.
“He earned the right to keep going. He did good enough to where, ‘Alright, let’s get him another series,’” Campbell said Thursday night. “Because really, we didn’t have intentions of giving him as much as we did. We just wanted to kind of introduce him.”
But on Tuesday, he continued to preach patience with Frazier, noting that he’s still just a few weeks into practice after missing all of training camp and preseason with a knee injury that sidelined him until November. This experience, though, will help carry him the rest of the season and beyond.
”Those reps will invaluable for him and he’s going to have to learn from them. and we believe he will,” Campbell said. “We believe he’ll memory bank those and get a little bit better. I would like to get him in this game, get him a couple more reps, let him grow, but I see us using Colon, too.”
Campbell also provided an update on Kayode Awosika, who had been the primary backup for Christian Mahogany at left guard, but missed last game due to a midweek foot injury. It appears Awosika will try to practice this week, but it’s unclear if he’ll jump the Frazier/Colon rotations.
“I don’t know. We’ll see where he’s at. He’s going to try and go out and practice a little bit, but until I see him out on the grass, I don’t know what that’s going to be,” Campbell said.
Also worth mentioning is that Mahogany appears to be working his way back from a broken leg. On Monday, Campbell said that they are planning on returning Mahogany to practice this week, but he may not be ready to play for a bit.
“I don’t expect a lot right now this week, but I do think he’s starting to feel good enough to work him into practice,” Campbell said.
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