came to Pettine's defense.

— Because he isn’t likely to play more than a series or two in Friday’s preseason opener Lars Eller Jersey , Detroit quarterback Matt Stafford has a few modest goals for the Lions offense.
“Just execute and communicate at a high level,” Stafford said Wednesday. “Get out there and communicate and make sure everybody’s on the same page. At the end of the day, on offense if everybody’s communicating on the same page you’re going to have a chance to be successful. That’s the biggest thing, go out there and make sure that we’re just playing good, sound football.”
The Lions spent the past two days conducting joint workouts with Oakland at the Raiders’ training camp facilities in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
Following Tuesday’s 2 1/2-hour practice, which was highlighted by a multi-player brawl that ended a team scrimmage session, the Lions packed up to travel to a hotel 75 miles south of Napa where they’ll stay until Friday’s game.
Detroit first-year coach Matt Patricia declined to say how much Stafford and the rest of the Lions starters will play.
“I’m just trying to get through today’s practice and make sure I get everybody going in the right direction,” Patricia said prior to Tuesday’s practice. “We’ll find out on Friday.”
The Lions’ first offense had an uneven day against the Raiders during the team scrimmage. They were flagged for three penalties and sputtered on their initial drive before Stafford found wide receivers Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr. for deep completions.
“I feel physically good,” Stafford said. “Obviously another year in the system is going to hopefully help me expand my ability within the system to get us into the best plays possible. I feel very comfortable at the line of scrimmage doing our thing, but I can always be better. I’m always trying to find ways to improve and to get the ball to those playmakers at a higher clip.”
Stafford passed for 4,446 yards with 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2017 Michael Pierce Jersey , his seventh consecutive season with 4,200 yards or more. The 30-year-old quarterback also had a career-best 99.3 passer rating.
Detroit, which hasn’t made it past the wild card round of the playoffs since 1991, won three of its final four games down the stretch but failed to advance to the postseason.
Although he won’t be on the field very long Friday, Stafford is relishing playing in a game after mostly practicing against Detroit’s defense before the two workouts with Oakland.
“It’s a good change-up,” Stafford said. “We have to go out and prepare for another defense a night before. You don’t have a ton of time to look at them. You just go out there and try to execute your stuff as well as you can. I’ve got players on this team that I’ve never played an NFL game with before so it’s going to be to see how they go about their business and how they react.”
Tuesday’s practice got chippy when Lions defensive end Anthony Zettel hit Raiders backup guard Jon Feliciano from the side, sparking a fracas involving multiple players before they were eventually pulled apart.
Arizona wide receiver Greg Little has not caught a pass in the NFL since 2014 but the down time has not prevented him from making a strong impression in training camp this summer.
If that continues, Little could find himself in the hunt for a starting position with a Cardinals team with no clear-cut favorite to pair with Larry Fitzgerald.
Little thinks about that every night.
"Every night before I go to bed, just try to realize and reflect and just kind of meditate a little bit about my journey and where I am and come out each day and try to get better," Little said. "How long it took and what's left on the plate for me to still accomplish and still go out and do it. Just try to achieve that each day."
Wide receiver Brice Butler, a free agent signee from Dallas Bo Horvat Jersey , is listed No. 1 on the depth chart with Fitzgerald. Among the other competitors are holdovers J.J. Nelson and Chad Williams and second-round draft pick Christian Kirk, who appears to have secured a spot on the roster as the primary punt returner. Fitzgerald and Nelson are the only returnees with as many as 20 receptions in 2017.
The 29-year-old Little has 161 receptions in four NFL seasons, the first three with Cleveland after the Browns took him in the second round in 2011 out of North Carolina. He started 41 of 48 games with the Browns and was targeted more than 90 times each year, topping out at 61 receptions for 709 yards as a rookie. He led the team in catches his first two years.
After being cut by the Browns, he had six catches in six games with Cincinnati in 2014 and has not played in a regular-season game since. He spent time on the Bengals' practice squad in 2015 and was in Buffalo's training camp in 2016 before being released.
Little, 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, arrived in Arizona with little fanfare, candidly acknowledging the Cardinals were the only team that showed interest. After opening eyes at a rookie minicamp, he was intriguing enough to be asked back.
"The biggest thing that you see when he is out there, he does a tremendous job of catching the ball in traffic," Cardinals coach Steve Wilks said. "Big body. Can really create that separation. There are tight windows in this league Larry Allen Jersey , so you have to have receivers that can do those kinds of things. That is one of the things that stands out with Greg."
Cardinals safety Antoine Bethea, who has played 13 seasons, has seen the same thing.
"When he was at UNC, he was a beast," Bethea said. "He's definitely doing some good things out there, jumping out on film. Good strong hands. Running good routes. After three years and coming out here and looking really good, I'm excited to see him out there."
Little's time in Cleveland was up and down. He was among the league leaders in dropped passes in his three years. He also seemed to clash with head coach Mike Pettine. Little said Pettine did not communicate well, although other players came to Pettine's defense.
"Just a number of things that kind of led me to this position," Little said. "I'm here now. I just want to make the best of it. I'm confident in my ability to still play this game."
A large support group of family and friends helped him make it through the last few seasons, Little said, even if the games themselves were difficult to watch.
"Sometimes I didn't watch at all Womens Henrik Zetterberg Jersey ," he said.
Being back on the field "makes you appreciate the privilege it is to be in the NFL. Once you understand that, then all the other noise doesn't bother you."
He said he views this as a final opportunity, but mainly because of the potential for injury.
"I'm going to take that approach, being that the nature of this game as physical as it is, you have to," Little said. "Obviously, it's a reality for anybody that is playing this game."
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