Matt Patricia: Goal is to teach players how to react, and how to be safe

[Roary]

The NFL has banned various types of contact exercises from NFL practices, including the Oklahoma drill. Teams will now have to adapt to the new reality.

Coach Matt Patricia said earlier this week that the Lions are ready to comply in full.

“I think the whole point is the NFL is trying to keep the players safe, which is our No. 1 priority, and put them in positions where we’re trying to decrease the risk of injury,” Patricia said, via Justin Rogers of the Detroit News. “And I think no matter what drill we do, tackling, turnover, team, any of that stuff, we’re always trying to coach and teach in a proper manner where guys aren’t going to get hurt. Whatever the NFL decides and go through, whatever the rules are, we’ll abide by that. But certainly, we’re just trying to get guys in good positions to learn how to react and how to be safe in all of those.”

The Lions used a variation of the Oklahoma drill a year ago, but it sounds as if the purpose was to help players adapt to the broad (but unevenly enforced) prohibition on lowering the helmet and initiating contact with an opponent.

“Really, what it was, was trying to put everybody in a close proximity, kind of a one-step situation that was a little bit more than a setup where we could concentrate on keeping the head up, keeping the top of the helmet out of where the contact points should be, trying to make sure that the face mask, we’re seeing what we hit, and doing that in more of a reactionary sort of method as opposed to a staged method,” Patricia explained.

It’s a smart approach. Ultimately, players need to learn how to react to whatever situations in which they may find themselves. The challenge for teams will be to come up with ways to get players prepared to react, and to stay safe, during games while also keeping them safe during practice.