Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia doesn’t appear at all phased by the notable minicamp holdouts by two of the team’s top defensive players in Darius Slay and Damon Harrison.
In fact, he seemed to shrug it off as nothing unusual.
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“It’s nothing uncharted territory from that aspect of it,” Patricia said before practice Tuesday. “We’re just focused on the guys that are here. We’re really just trying to get better.”
When asked about his level of disappointment to be missing two big parts of the team, he instead focused on the players that were there.
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“Again, I don’t really talk about any of that stuff as far as contract situations or relationships or any of that sort of stuff,” he said. “So we’re just, again, focusing on the guys that are in the building and out on the practice field.”
By skipping voluntary offseason workouts so far, both Slay and Harrison have forfeited $250,000 in bonuses, and both face a maximum fine of $88,650.
“For us, we roll with different situations that occur all the time during the season,” Patricia said. “Injuries, guys here, not here, whatever a case may be. So for us, internally, it doesn’t really affect us (that they’re not here). We have great opportunities for guys that are here, great opportunities for people to step up and get better and be in positions to have an opportunity and we’ll just kind of go out and improve with what we’re doing on the field. So that’s really the biggest point for us from that aspect of it.”
