CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Fifteen wins. No. 1 seed. Super Bowl betting favorites.
The Detroit Lions fell way short last season, going one-and-done in the playoffs after having the best regular season in franchise history.
Click to Gallery
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) throws after an NFL football practice in Allen Park, Mich., Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Los Angeles Chargers running back Omarion Hampton carries the football during an NFL training camp Monday, July 28, 2025, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh runs a drill during an NFL training camp Monday, July 28, 2025, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell gestures during a news conference before Back Together Weekend at NFL football training camp Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Allen Park, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
They still have a loaded roster stacked with talent and plenty of unfinished business.
The Lions kick off their quest for their first Super Bowl title when they take on the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night in the Hall of Fame game, which opens the NFL’s preseason schedule.
The Chargers are also coming off a season that ended with a loss in their playoff opener, a wild-card game against Houston. But it was a different vibe in Los Angeles where Jim Harbaugh came in and led a six-win improvement.
Harbaugh, who led Michigan to a national championship before leaving for the NFL, guided the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in his second season in 2012. Can he do it again with the Chargers? They haven’t won any titles since capturing the 1963 AFL championship.
Expectations are high for both teams but it’s a long road to the Vince Lombardi trophy.
It starts in the exhibition opener, two days ahead of the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“It’s a new season, it’s a new beginning,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said as he enters his fifth season in charge. “You understand what that road looks like and there’s going to be nothing easy about it. But I think it’s — every year you do this and you just realize, ‘Hey man, just get in.’ Win this division — that’s always going to be the goal. Find a way to win your division because now you’re automatically in and then once you’re in, it’s the matchup. And don’t worry about the — OK, maybe we have to go on the road, so be it, or if something happens.
“You take your best unit, you put your best practice that you can together, find the guys that you’re going to use to try to go win that game and then let it ride. No, I’m still as enthusiastic as ever. I know these guys are. There’s a price to be paid to get yourself back into the dance, back into the tournament, and that will never change and if we let that slide at all, then we’re going to be sitting here at home in January and that’s not what we want.”
Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Penei Sewell and the rest of Detroit’s star-studded offense won’t see any action against Los Angeles. Hendon Hooker and Kyle Allen will play quarterback for the Lions as they battle to be Jared Goff's backup.
Justin Herbert and the Chargers’ veterans also will watch from the sideline. Trey Lance will start at quarterback for Los Angeles. Lance, the 25-year-old third overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, is on his third team after stops in San Francisco and Dallas.
“He’s had a heck of a camp,” Harbaugh said. “I just want to get Trey Lance game experience. With his career and then in college, he doesn’t have as much as most guys.”
Rookie DJ Uiagalelei, who signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent, is scheduled to play the second half. Veteran Taylor Heinicke will serve as the emergency third quarterback.
Rookie running back Omarion Hampton, selected by Los Angeles 22nd overall and wide receiver Tre Harris, a second-round pick, are expected to play. But Detroit's top two draft picks, defensive tackle Tyleik Williams and guard Tate Ratledge, aren't scheduled to play.
The game features the debut of Detroit’s two new coordinators. OC John Morton replaced Ben Johnson, who left to coach Chicago. DC Kelvin Sheppard took over for Aaron Glenn, who went to coach the New York Jets.
“I’ve said this before, it hurts to lose two guys that, man, have been here from the beginning, have a lot of trust and faith in,” Campbell said. “There’s a lot of communication that goes that’s not even said because once you get to that, you understand each other. A look, a nod, body demeanor says it all. And that’s just a little bit of what we have to gain together between myself, Johnny Morton and Shepp. But that takes a minute, it takes time. We’ll get it, it’ll come. That’s what practice is about, that’s what preseason games early in the year, all of that. We’ll be good.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) throws after an NFL football practice in Allen Park, Mich., Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Los Angeles Chargers running back Omarion Hampton carries the football during an NFL training camp Monday, July 28, 2025, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh runs a drill during an NFL training camp Monday, July 28, 2025, in El Segundo, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell gestures during a news conference before Back Together Weekend at NFL football training camp Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Allen Park, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
DEIR HAFER, Syria (AP) — The leader of Kurdish-led forces in Syria announced Friday that they will withdraw from a contested area in northern Syria, potentially heading off a major clash with government forces.
The announcement by Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, came as the Syrian military announced it had begun striking SDF positions, while the SDF reported “intense artillery shelling” in the town of Deir Hafer east of the city of Aleppo.
Hours earlier, a U.S. military designation had visited Deir Hafer and met with SDF officials in an apparent attempt to tamp down tensions.
The U.S. has good relations with both sides and has urged calm. A spokesperson for the U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abdi said in a statement posted on X that “based on calls from friendly countries and mediators and in a demonstration of good faith," the SDF would redeploy its forces to areas east of the Euphrates River Saturday morning.
Shortly before Abdi's announcement, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had announced issuance of a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people carrying their belongings arrived in government-held areas in northern Syria ahead of the anticipated offensive by Syrian troops on territory held by Kurdish-led fighters.
Many of the civilians who fled were seen using side roads to reach government-held areas because the main highway was blocked at a checkpoint in the town of Deir Hafer controlled by the SDF.
The Syrian army said late Wednesday that civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and then extended the evacuation period another day, saying the SDF had stopped civilians from leaving.
There had been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides in the area before that.
Men, women and children arrived on the government side of the line in cars and pickup trucks that were packed with bags of clothes, mattresses and other belongings. They were met by local officials who directed them to shelters.
In other areas, people crossed canals on small boats and crossed a heavily damaged pedestrian bridge to reach the side held by government forces.
The SDF closed the main highway but more than 11,000 people were still able to reach government-held areas on other roads, Syrian state TV reported.
Abu Mohammed said he came from the town of Maskana after hearing the government had opened a safe corridor, “only to be surprised when we arrived at Deir Hafer and found it closed.”
SDF fighters were preventing people from crossing through Syria’s main east-west highway and forcing them to take a side road, he said.
Kortay Khalil, an SDF official at the Deir Hafer the checkpoint, said they had closed it because the government closed other crossings.
“This crossing was periodically closed even before these events, but people are leaving through other routes, and we are not preventing them,” he said. “If we wanted to prevent them, no one would be able to leave the area.”
The U.S. military convoy arrived in Deir Hafer in the early afternoon accompanied by SDF officials. Associated Press journalists saw SDF leaders and American officials enter one of the government buildings, where they met inside for more than an hour before departing the area.
Inside Deir Hafer, many shops were closed Friday and people stayed home.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo, previously Syria’s largest city and commercial center, that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from three neighborhoods north of the city that were then taken over by government forces.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached in March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
The U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, posted on X on Friday that Washington remains in close contact with all parties in Syria, “working around the clock to lower the temperature, prevent escalation, and return to integration talks between the Syrian government and the SDF.”
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey. Some of the factions that now make up the Syrian army were formerly Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
Al-Sharaa, the former leader of an Islamist rebel group that spearheaded the overthrow of former President Bashar Assad, has sought to win over Kurds and other minorities suspicious of his government, particularly after several outbreaks of sectarian violence last year.
On Friday, he issued a decree recognizing Kurdish as a national language along with Arabic and adopting the Newroz festival, a traditional celebration of spring and renewal marked by Kurds around the region, as an official holiday.
The decree also annulled measures resulting from a 1962 census in the northeastern al-Hasakeh province that stripped tens of thousands of Kurds of their citizenship, and announced that “Syrian citizenship is granted to all residents of Kurdish origin living in Syria, including those previously unregistered, with full equality in rights and duties.”
There was no immediate response by the SDF to the decree.
American soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group stand guard during a meeting with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Displaced Syrians walk to cross at a river crossing near the village of Rasm al-Harmil al-Imam in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Displaced Syrians cross a river in a boat near the village of Rasm al-Harmil al-Imam in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Displaced Syrians walk to cross at a river crossing near the village of Rasm al-Harmil al-Imam in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
U.S. military vehicles from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group drive through Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, before a meeting with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Rohlat Efrin, center, a commander in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, speaks with an SDF member as American soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group stand guard during a meeting in Deir Hafer, Syria, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
