Detroit Lions, New York Giants skirmish during joint practice ahead of their preseason opener
Dan Campbell and Brian Daboll wanted a highly competitive workout when the Detroit Lions and New York Giants opened two days of joint practices in New Jersey on Monday.
And the two coaches may have gotten a little more than even they wanted.
Cornerback and Lions first-round draft pick Terrion Arnold left the field after a goal-line drill and was being evaluated for a possible concussion. Detroit veteran guard Kevin Zeitler, who was signed as a free agent, injured a shoulder early and left practice.
It appeared Arnold was hurt when blocked by Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas.
There were at least four scrums after plays where the players rushed to the altercation from all sides of the field and peace was eventually restored.
There were two involving Lions All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, one with safety Dane Belton and the other with rookie cornerback Dru Phillips.
The scariest one for the Giants was seeing quarterback Daniel Jones rush into a scrum with his center Greg Van Roten down on the field and the Lions player on top of him.
It came one play after Jones hit his hand on the equipment of a Lions defender while making a throw.
Daboll immediately took exception and yelled at the Lions to stay away from his quarterback, who was wearing a red no-contact jersey.
"A situation happens like that, you try to stand up for your guys," Jones said of running to Van Roten's aid. "I thought it was good competitive practice all day today and we made some plays and did some good things. There are some things we need to sure up, for sure, but good intensity and competitive spirit today."
Giants edge rusher Brian Burns, who had a couple of tackles for losses in the workout, later rushed onto the field to help break up a scuffle during the 11-on-11 drills.
He smiled when he heard Jones got involved in another.
"Oh, Lord. Daniel got jiggy with it. Daniel was out there with it? Yeah. I'm going to need him to back up." Burns said. "Let his O-Line handle that. But Daniel, he's a competitor, man. He's a fighter. So, I don't expect anything less from him."
The teams will practice again on Tuesday and then play their preseason opener on Thursday at MetLife Stadium.
"I told them, 'Man, like we always do. We're competing and we're not pulling back,'" Campbell said of his pre-practice talk with his team. "But this will be evaluated like a game, so if you do something that's going to cost us in a game, that's part of your evaluation.' But we've got to go, we've got to get better, we can't just be tiptoeing either."
Campbell was drafted by the Giants and spent his first four seasons with them, playing in a Super Bowl with them after the 2000 season. He led the Lions to the NFC title game last season as coach.
"The most important thing is that they understand what it took to get to where we were at even last year and just because we got to that point doesn't mean anything, so we start over," Campbell said.
The Giants made the playoffs in Daboll's first season in 2022 but they stumbled in '23, finishing 6-11 in a season where Jones tore his ACL in November. Daboll did not put any restrictions on him Monday.
"Again, it's practice," Daboll said. "It's a competitive practice against two teams. We'll try to do it the right way. Dan and I have talked about it. We talked about it last year. We thought we got a lot out of it. But again, it's practice. It's just a higher-tempo practice because you're practicing against somebody else."
The Giants have stressed getting big plays this season, and Jones completed a couple of long passes to No. 1 draft pick Malik Nabers and second-year wideout Jalin Hyatt. Veteran Darius Slayton also caught a long pass.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed long passes to a wide-open Daurice Fountain on the second play of the 7-on-7 drill and later with Jameson Williams in a team drill.
Giants inside linebacker Bobby Okereke intercepted Goff in the 7-on-7s and nose tackle Dexter Lawrence stuffed a run early.