On Thursday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked, yet again, about the defensive end position. Campbell gave a relatively boiler plate answer\u2014noting that he likes that unit\u2019s length this year\u2014he did manage to sneak in a name that most fans and analysts aren\u2019t talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have got some guys now, between (DJ) Wonnum and (Payton) Turner and this pup (Anthony) Lucas, obviously (Derrick) Moore,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some length now, we\u2019ve got some size and length and athletic ability on the perimeter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that Campbell came up with undrafted rookie Anthony Lucas\u2019 name before second-round pick Derrick Moore may mean something. It may mean nothing. But it certainly caught the ear of the media in attendance. Minutes later, when defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard met stepped to the lectern, he was asked specifically about Lucas, and the team\u2019s intrigue in that player was confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI turned on his junior film and USC and legitimately it was against LSU and he was a game wrecker,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n
If you were to look at the box score of that game, Lucas\u2019 performance wouldn\u2019t stand out. He was credited with just two tackles in the Trojans\u2019 27-20 come-from-behind victory over the Tigers. However, the tape shows something different. Often lined up against LSU left tackle Will Campbell\u2014who became the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft\u2014Lucas produced three quarterback pressures and forced Campbell to have the second-worst PFF grade of his three-year college career (50.9).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people go back, those two tackles that played at LSU that year, they both\u2013one of them [Campbell] was the number four pick and the other [Emery Jones] went in the third round,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cThose are some pretty good players and he wrecked that game. So, as a guy I had my radar up on how did we get this guy undrafted?\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair, Lucas\u2019 overall college career beyond that game hasn\u2019t been as notable. After transferring from Texas A&M to USC in 2023, he produced just 63 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, and 3.0 sacks over three seasons with the Trojans. It\u2019s a far cry from expectations of a five-star recruit, but Detroit is hoping they can extract the potential out of a player who once had such high promise and comes with an NFL-prototypical build (6-foot-5 1\/2 with an 85 1\/8-inch wingspan).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s far too early in the offseason program to see how he\u2019ll compete at the NFL level. There\u2019s no full contact allowed yet and the pads haven\u2019t come on, either. Additionally, he\u2019s got a revamped defensive end room to contend against. Complementing Aidan Hutchinson this year will be DJ Wonnum, Derrick Moore, Payton Turner, and Ahmed Hassanein, among others. It won\u2019t be easy to crack the roster, but Detroit is known for actually handing the job to those who earn it, so don\u2019t count out Lucas this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked, yet again, about the defensive end position. Campbell gave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[291781,4992,39966,4993,2130,349,99],"class_list":["post-705906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-otas","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-preseason","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-detroit-lions-training-camp","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}