Detroit, MI

Detroit Lions injury updates: DJ Reader working his way back

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2024

Detroit Lions injury updates: DJ Reader working his way back

The Detroit Lions took the field on Thursday with 87 of 89 players on their roster in attendance and practicing in some capacity. The two exceptions were rookie guard Christian Mahogany and defensive tackle DJ Reader. However, the outlook for both players seem promising moving forward.

Mahogany has been dealing with an illness that has held him out of back-to-back training camp practices.

“Mahogany is dealing with an illness right now so that’s why he’s not out there,” coach Dan Campbell said. “As he heals up here, we’ll get him out here and get him going but that’s what’s going on there.”

As for Reader, there was a note of progress from Thursday’s practice. He was out there on the field working with a trainer, running up the hill and doing other sprinting drills with protection around his right leg. Last year with the Bengals, Reader tore his right quad in December.

Campbell noted that Reader’s injury has healed. It’s now just a matter of trusting the leg and conditioning.

“We’re not in any hurry with him, but he’s doing well, he’s getting his strength back,” Campbell said. “The injury has healed, it’s just a matter of getting him to that point where now we feel comfortable getting him out there competing around others.”

Limited players

While the Lions are not required to offer an injury report during training camp, three notable players remain limited in their participation: running back Jahmyr Gibbs, defensive end Marcus Davenport, and defensive back Brian Branch. Gibbs has been limited to walkthroughs and individual drills, while Branch and Davenport have been mostly doing walkthroughs.

Gibbs sat for the spring while dealing with what Campbell called a “soft tissue” injury, while Branch had an offseason clean-up procedure and Davenport continues to work his way back from a high-ankle sprain that also required surgery.

Campbell noted Thursday how important it was that both Branch and Davenport were able to avoid the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list.

“We knew that they were not going to be 100%, walk in, day one, doing full practice. But to be able to keep them off of PUP, NFI, any of that so that they can do the walkthroughs, maybe a little bit individual, I think that goes a long way,” Campbell said. “It’s good to have them out there. They’re both doing well.”

Brief scare

While the Lions were working on special teams, Terrion Arnold required some medical treatment on his lower body. But after a few minutes with a trainer, he was back out there during the next set of team drills.

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Detroit, MI

Metro Detroit Weather Forecast, March 21, 2026 — 8:45 AM Update

Published

7 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Press Room

NEWS

Published: March 21, 2026 at 9:17 AM

After an unseasonably warm day across Metro Detroit to end the week on Friday, while we are cooler to start the weekend, 4Warn Meteorologist Bryan Schuerman is tracking more rain and even a few thunderstorms moving in by the end of the weekend.

The 4Warn Weather team tracks the latest weather alerts in Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan. Get the most updated information here: https://www.clickondetroit.com/weather/

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Detroit, MI

Farmington, Farmington Hills push for revitalization of Grand River

Published

19 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Farmington, Farmington Hills push for revitalization of Grand River

Farmington — Farmington and Farmington Hills officials are pushing to continue to revitalize a key commercial corridor through both cities, with one city leader saying residents eventually won’t recognize it because it will have evolved so much.

Both cities are using a mix of tools to develop Grand River Avenue, which runs from downtown Detroit all the way to Grand Rapids. It’s the main commercial thoroughfare in downtown Farmington and also runs through Farmington Hills. City officials want to bring in more commercial development, but also make it more pedestrian-friendly.

A 2025 market study through Gibbs Planning Group showed Farmington Hills’ side of the corridor has $1.2 billion in restaurant and retail spending over the course of a year.

But the study, which Farmington Hills Mayor Theresa Rich touched on during her State of the City address earlier this month, also indicated there’s demand for 20 new restaurants or retail businesses, and 400-500 new housing units in the corridor.

“We have the density, we have the consumer demand, and we have the traffic that can sustain the kind of investments that belong,” said Farmington Hills’ Economic Development Director Cristia Brockway.

Both cities are already making a concerted effort to revitalize Grand River Avenue east of downtown Farmington through the Grand River Corridor Improvement Authority, which was created more than a decade ago. It has focused on public projects and incentives to bring businesses, housing and landscaping to the area.

Farmington Hills’ improvement district along the corridor runs between Orchard Lake and Eight Mile roads; Farmington’s is between Mayfield and Hawthorne Streets. They’re the boundaries of the cities’ tax increment finance districts, which put money from property tax increases toward public projects.

For businesses and developers, Brockway said the city has a Housing and Urban Development grant of up to $30,000 and a Brownfield improvement grant of up to $200,000 that can assist projects. Brockway said these dollars can be used in demolition or for property owners “looking for help with their obsolete building.”

As far as public improvements go, Brockway said the city plans to bring beautification and pedestrian improvement projects valued around $250,000 to Farmington Hills City Council over the next five to eight years. Money generated from the district will pay for the projects, she said.

The city is also looking to incentivize murals in the district.

“It is going to be a continuous effort to always make this area a focus, and to make sure that when we’re adding art, we’re adding spaces, that we’re also maintaining them so things don’t look the same constantly and things don’t lose focus as far as updates,” said Brockway.

At her State of the City address, Rich said residents eventually won’t recognize Grand River.

“By the 2030s, you’re not going to recognize what the Grand River Corridor was. It will be transformed into a beautiful, vibrant, more walkable district,” she said.

On Farmington’s side, meanwhile, the city plans to collect more than $1 million from the district to put back into improvement projects. While most of the money would be spent on land acquisition, it would also be spent on a transportation study, streetscaping, a park assessment plan and gateway enhancements, said Assistant City Manager Chris Weber.

The city is especially focusing on the Farmington Junction building at 31505 Grand River for revitalization efforts.

“We are trying to spur redevelopment in the area. Obviously it’s all built up, but a lot of those areas are older commercial areas that need a refresh or need a development, a scrape and rebuild,” Weber said.

While Farmington didn’t conduct a market study for the district, Weber said “a lot of” Farmington Hills’ data would likely apply to Farmington’s district because they border each other.

Weber said the goal of the revitalization efforts is to create a “similar aesthetic” as motorists and pedestrians travel the corridor.

“We didn’t want one side of the road to look one way and another side of the road to look an entirely different way,” said Weber.

mbryan@detroitnews.com

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Detroit, MI

Lions save nearly $1.3 million with Malcolm Rodriguez contract trick

Published

1 day ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Lions save nearly .3 million with Malcolm Rodriguez contract trick

Earlier this week, contract details on the Detroit Lions’ re-signing of Malcolm Rodriguez came out, and if you were to just look at the Over The Cap outline of the deal, it would probably be pretty confusing.

Rodriguez has a salary of over $2.5 million—all guaranteed—a signing bonus of $137,500, and a workout bonus of $50,000. Combine all of those, and it should equal a salary cap hit of a combined $2.7 million. Yet, per OTC, the Lions’ cap charge for Rodriguez’s deal is just $1,402,5000.

There are no void years. This isn’t a misprint. The Lions are just using a salary cap stipulation that rewards teams for developing players and staying loyal to them.

How to qualify for the Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract

The relevant Collective Bargaining Agreement rule is called the “Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract.” You can read the entire terms of this rule, but here’s the short of it. In order to qualify for this advantage, a player has to have:

Four or more Credited Seasons whose contract with a Club has expired after four or more years of continuous, uninterrupted service with that Club

In Rodriguez’s case, he played through the entirety of his four-year rookie contract, so both he and the team are certainly eligible for this benefit.

What is the actual benefit?

Essentially, a team can award a one-year contract to these players that acts as a veteran minimum salary deal when it comes to the overall cap hit, but they are able to increase these players’ salaries from the minimum by a fixed number that will not count against the cap.

In Rodriguez’s case, the veteran minimum for a player with four accrued seasons is $1,215,000. According to the CBA, for the 2026 season, the “Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract” can increase the salary by a maximum of an extra $1.55 million.

So if you look at the actual cap hit, it’s based on that veteran minimum salary:

Vet minimum salary: $1,215,000
Signing bonus: $137,500
Workout bonus: $50,000

Add those together, and you get $1,402,500—Rodriguez’s cap hit for 2026.

But the actual payment Rodriguez will be getting in 2026 is this:

Actual salary: $2,562,500
Signing bonus: $137,500
Workout bonus: $50,000

For a total of $2,700,000 in earnings. In short, the Lions are saving nearly $1.3 million by using this salary cap tool. And for Rodriguez, the benefit is that everything but the workout bonus is guaranteed. Note that no player is obligated to accept this kind of contract, but for a player like Rodriguez, who is coming off an injury-shortened season, it’s a nice little guaranteed payday that he may not have been able to get elsewhere. And for the Lions, it’s a way to pay a player his value while also getting some savings on cap space.

This isn’t the first time the Lions have used this cap trick. They used it with Jalen Reeves-Maybin back in 2021, and they’ll likely use it again.

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