Lions guard Christian Mahogany had played every snap for five consecutive games until Sunday in Miami, when Mahogany didn’t play at all and backup Miles Frazier took his place. Lions coach Dan Campbell said his decision was for one reason only: Mahogany wasn’t following team rules, and Frazier was.
Campbell didn’t get into specifics about which rules Mahogany violated, but he said that even though the offensive line was struggling without Mahogany early in Sunday’s win over the Dolphins, he never wavered in his belief that a player who hasn’t been meeting expectations isn’t going to play.
“Frazier earned that opportunity, and I thought he got better as the game went on, and you could say that about the whole unit — we were a little shaky early,” Campbell said on 97.1 The Ticket.
Campbell said he won’t talk publicly about what Mahogany did to earn the benching, but he did say Mahogany had broken a team rule more than once.
“That’s really between us,” Campbell said. “That’s why I have team rules, that’s why we have team rules and we’ve all got to abide by them, and if it’s broken multiple times, then you do something about it. We’re in good standing and like I said, the ball’s in his court. It’ll be good.”
Campbell said Mahogany respects his decision, and that the whole team needs to understand that the head coach is going to hold every player to a high standard.
“Listen, we’re good. He knows. We’re all good. He’ll be fine,” Campbell said. “Look, if you say you’re going to do something, you better hold up to it or otherwise you’re going to lose the respect of people around you. Because if I’m sitting in that seat and I say one thing and then I don’t do it, I’ll immediately lose respect for that person. So we stick by what we say we’re going to do here.”