A Fistfull of Dollars: Lions' camp getting a little chippy
Quick hits from practice today:
-- A couple fights -- DE Jason Hunter and TE Casey FitzSimmons on the undercard, followed by DT Landon Cohen and G Terrence Metcalf. No harm done, but they'll all get fined, probably about $500. For Hunter, that's already a few fights in camp, so his piggy bank's getting a little lighter.
-- Jim Schwartz declined to name his starter for Saturday's game at Cleveland, but there's no reason to expect it won't be Matthew Stafford first and Daunte Culpepper second in the rotation, as he'd indicated it would be last week and again Monday.
-- Culpepper completed a nice deep ball to D.J. Boldin in team drills, and Boldin later came down with another deep jump ball from Drew Stanton. He's still a long-shot to make the roster, but there's a few guys there at WR perhaps fighting for a practice-squad job. -- FitzSimmons, by the way, said he doesn't expect to play Saturday -- he hasn't practiced in pads yet -- and Schwartz said Calvin Johnson won't play, but is targeting a return for the third preseason game against Indianapolis.
-- Safety Louis Delmas sat out Thursday's morning practice, as did S Marquand Manuel, but Schwartz said Delmas will be back in the afternoon. Cornerback Eric King returned for limited duty in practice, and CB Keith Smith also is easing back in. But in team drills Wednesday morning, the second-team CBs were Chris Roberson and Will James, while the second-team safeties were Calvin Lowry an Stuart Schweigert.
-- Grady Jackson was back at practice this morning, and the first- and second-team defensive line combinations were: 1st -- Hunter-Jackson-S. Smith-Avril; 2nd -- Cohen-Hill-Darby-Conover. Dewayne White saw some spot duty after missing time the last couple days, so put him in at LDE and bump Hunter to the second team and you've probably got your Saturday first-half lineup. (I would think Jackson finally gets out there for a series or two, but we'll see.)
