{"id":797585,"date":"2026-08-01T15:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797585\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:10:10","slug":"which-lions-player-has-been-the-biggest-surprise-in-2026-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797585\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Lions player has been the biggest surprise in 2026 training camp?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Detroit Lions have banked three training camp practices so far in 2026, and after a day off on Saturday, they\u2019ll stack another six practices in consecutive days while welcoming fans into their Allen Park training facility starting on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For the most part, things have gone pretty much as expected, but despite being very early in camp, there have been a few surprises (both good and bad) that have resulted from unexpected performances\/circumstances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Here are a few examples that have stood out to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Which leans us to today\u2019s question of the day:<\/p>\n<p>Which Lions player has been the biggest surprise in camp?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">My answer: CB Nick Whiteside leveling up his game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">On Day one of training camp, Whiteside was arguably the most impactful player on the field, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prideofdetroit.com\/detroit-lions-preseason\/167898\/detroit-lions-training-camp-observations-day-1-new-players-new-roles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forcing three pass breakups<\/a> while showing great range and closing burst in coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cHe\u2019s improved,\u201d coach Dan Campbell said at the following morning\u2019s press conferecne. \u201cAnd what you like about Ironsides (Whiteside) is that when we brought him in, gave him an opportunity, he fought, made some plays, man earned the right to stay, pulled him up, needed him, did some good things for us. We get him back with us here and look, he\u2019s all about business. It\u2019s not too big for him, he\u2019s all about business and he\u2019s going to maximize everything he\u2019s got. And he looks like he wants a spot and he wants a job, that\u2019s what he looks like. I mean, I know it\u2019s day one, but he made more plays than anybody out there. So that\u2019s encouraging, it\u2019s good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">At this time, I feel pretty solid about my CB rankings, but Whiteside\u2019s performance has me wondering if I could make room for him on my next 53-man roster projection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">So what do you think? Which player storyline has surprised you and caught your attention? Let us know why in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions have banked three training camp practices so far in 2026, and after a day off&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[79878,167857,2131,5192,349,99],"class_list":["post-797585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-conversation-starters-and-community-questions","tag-detroit-lions-discussion","tag-detroit-lions-analysis","tag-detroit-lions-opinion","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797585","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=797585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}