A tentacle of trade deadline trades in any sport is the human element. Players have to find a place to live, if only temporarily, in a new location in the middle of a season. To say nothing of having new teammates, etc.
The Detroit Lions made a long-talked about move to acquire defensive end Za'Darius Smith from the Cleveland Browns on Tuesday. The easy assumption, even if he didn't hit the practice field, was that he would have been with his new team for the first time as soon as Wednesday.
Had Smith remained with the Browns at the trade deadline, he would've had a bye this week. The Lions have already had their bye (Week 5), so it would be 18 games or longer, with a playoff run in mind) without a week off for the 32-year old,10-year vet upon joining his new team.
With that in mind, Lions head coach Dan Campbell told reporters Smith has been given a couple days off.
"We gave him a couple days off," Campbell said. "He’ll be back Friday, and we’ll see where it’s at there.”
Will Za'Darius Smith make his Lions' debut vs. Texans in Week 10?
There has also been an easy assumption, even if he isn't fully up to speed with a new defensive scheme, that Smith will make his Lions' debut against the Houston Texans on Sunday night. If he's not going to be around until Friday, the final day of the practice week, that's automatically in some doubt.
Campbell did talk about Smith's possible role against the Texans, while reinforcing how important he felt it was to give Smith some time to refresh.
"There’s certainly a place to use him. We’ll see what it is when he gets back on Friday. I thought that was important," Campbell said. "He’s been in this league a while, and they were actually just going on their bye week when he got the call from us and everything got done. Let him do what he needs to do, refresh, get back here Friday.”
Lions' team reporter Dannie Rogers landed on the bottom line regarding if Smith will play against the Texans.
#Lions unsure if Smith will play Sunday night at #Texans https://t.co/m1fr1LlKId
— Dannie (@dannierogers___) November 6, 2024
With Wednesday's update, it's easy to quickly lean toward the idea Smith will not play on Sunday night. That would be a real buzzkill to the excitement of the Lions acquiring him, but it's to be determined.
Ultimately, this is just another sign of the kind of player's coach Campbell is. He wants Smith's best, and a couple days off for a veteran player before his first practice as a Lion stands to be helpful to that.