Isiah Pacheco Camp Update — August 23: Still Idle While the Room Stacks Film
2026 NFL Season · Sunday, Aug 23
Pacheco's knee kept him out of practice Thursday and out of Saturday's win over Washington, where Detroit's reserve backs ran for a hundred sixty-nine yards without him. The September expectation still stands. The August audition is now essentially over.
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Isiah Pacheco's week can be counted in absences: he was on the sidelined list at Thursday's practice, per Justin Rogers at the Detroit Football Network, and he sat Saturday's 17 to 13 win over Washington along with Jahmyr Gibbs and Sione Vaki, per Tim Twentyman at the team's website. The knee-sprain reporting from earlier in camp — expected ready for the start of the season — has not been contradicted, and it has not been updated either.
The backs who did play made the most of the stage. Detroit's reserve runners piled up a hundred 69 rushing yards as a group behind rookie Blake Miller's run blocking at right tackle, per Avik Das at Heavy; Trayveon Williams scored on a one-yard touchdown run and Jacob Saylors, back from an ankle issue of his own, added 32 yards, per Twentyman. Dan Campbell's postgame note that the group "ran hard" and moved the line of scrimmage, per John Maakaron at Sports Illustrated, was earned by players other than the veteran signed to be Gibbs's complement.
Back in June we were skeptical of a fifth-year back on a one-year deal behind a bell cow, with goal-line work the one path that beats the history — and the preseason reps where that path would have shown itself are nearly gone, with Pacheco having taken none of them.
What to watch: whether Pacheco returns to practice before cutdown on Sunday, August thirtieth, and — once real games arrive — whether the short-yardage and goal-line packages include him, which remains the entire question. We'll check after cut day.
_Data via nflverse._
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