Is Dan Campbell trying to talk himself into a 'hard decision' on James Houston?

However a knee injury played into it, and shouldn't be discounted, James Houston had a bad preseason opener against the New York Giants. That made the second preseason game, against the Kansas City Chiefs, look important for him.

In between the two games, the Lions also made a decision to stop trying to make Houston into a SAM linebacker (with the broader duties that spot entails) and let him simply be an edge rusher.

Then, with the knee injury possibly (likely?) playing a part, Houston did not play against the Chiefs. Any idea he didn't play in that game because he is so locked into a spot on the 53-man roster, such as it was even really out there, was flimsy at best.

So on to Saturday's preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Houston needed to play, and ideally perform well, to remove talk about him being on the roster bubble. However primarily against Steelers' backup lineman, he had a sack, one tackle for loss and two quarterback hits in the game.

After the final preseason game, most Lions' 53-man roster projections have Houston making it. Not us here at SideLion Report, and not Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network though. Rogers' rationale is rooted in his own question during Dan Campbell's press conference after the preseason finale.

Dan Campbell is trying to talk himself into a tough decision on James Houston?

Rogers directly asked Campbell how Houston, with the one thing he does well (getting after the passer) fits into the Lions' roster construction.

"That’s a good question because we really didn’t have him a lot of camp,” Campbell said. “He was hurt, so we didn’t get to see him at Kansas City this (last) week. So he’s probably had maybe half of training camp, if that, somewhere in there. So, you still have to go off the totality of what it is."

"We understand he’s a Year 3 player that — we have to take the body of work that is taking place in practice against our very good tackles,” Campbell continued. “We got two of the best tackles in the league that he has to go against. You take those (reps) and then you take a little bit of what you saw today, ‘OK, well what does the health look like? Can he still move?’ But, I think, look, that’s going to be a hard decision for (general manager) Brad (Holmes) and myself. You know it is, one way or another."

"That’s kind of what you are asking, ‘Is it enough?’ Campbell said. “It’s hard to say that right now. This will be a lot of the things that we hash out between the two of us, the coaching staff, all of it. We’ve got to make sure we’re seeing it clearly.”

Campbell wants to acknowledge Houston's body of work, which is what exactly?

• Houston had eight sacks over the final seven games of his rookie season in 2022, after being on the practice squad to start the season.
• A fractured ankle in Week 2 last season kept Houston out of game action until the NFC Championship Game. His return window from IR was opened on Dec. 28 when he returned to practice, and he was activated at the very end of that 21-day window. Then he didn't play when he could have, in the Divisional Round.
• Houston played 15 snaps in the NFC Championship Game (11 defensive snaps, four on special teams)
• Houston, by Campbell's admission, was injured for a large chunk of this year's camp and preseason.

Going against two excellent offensive tackles, Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker, in practice has practical value in an "iron sharpens iron" sense. But since 2023 training camp, how much has Houston really worked against those guys? He just hasn't been very available to do so.

General manager Brad Holmes may have a higher regard for one of his draft picks than Campbell appears to, leading to the head coach's "hard decision" headline fodder about Houston. But a player who hasn't be as available as would be ideal recently (using Campbell's own words), not to mention a player who had duties taken off his plate, feels like player who's on the wrong side of the roster bubble.

It should be no problem for Lions' brass to decide Houston's fate before Tuesday afternoon at 4.p.m. ET.