Three of the Detroit Lions’ key free agent additions were limited or non-participants in this week’s mandatory minicamp because of injuries, but Lions coach Dan Campbell said he expects most of those veterans to be on the field for the start of training camp next month.

“I would say (D.J.) Reader would be the one who, he’ll be a decision on, at what point is he ready to start practicing?” Campbell said Thursday. “But that’s not something that we’re caught off guard by. We knew this would take a minute here. And I would anticipate everybody else to be pretty close to ready; if not, it’s going to be tight.”

Reader suffered a torn quadriceps tendon while playing for the Cincinnati Bengals in December and said at his introductory news conference in March he expected “to be out there beginning of the season,” but otherwise declined to put a timetable on his return.

Reader, who’s expected to start at nose tackle this fall, attended all three days of minicamp and has been around at other points of the offseason, acting as a mentor to some of the Lions’ young defensive lineman.

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“D.J. helps a lot,” defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike said. “Obviously, he’s more a nose guy so he helps Brod (Martin) more, but man, he just, whenever he is on the side and we come off, he just gives us little pieces of advice: ‘Hey, if you swipe inside here or do this, do that, you’ll get better.’ So you kind of just take his word and take it out on the field, so he helps a lot. Real good vet.”

Edge rusher Marcus Davenport missed 13 games with the Minnesota Vikings last season with an ankle injury and did not practice with the Lions this spring.

He spent part of the Lions’ three-day minicamp working on the side with trainers and is expected to be ready at the start of training camp.

Guard Kevin Zeitler sat out two practices this week for undisclosed reasons. Left tackle Taylor Decker and center Frank Ragnow also sat out minicamp for injury reasons, and Campbell has typically given his aging offensive linemen downtime in the spring, when teams practice without pads.

Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, who missed most of last season with a torn ACL, also is expected back around the start of training camp, Campbell indicated.

“It’ll be enough to where they’re going to get a really good amount of training camp work, if that makes sense,’ Campbell said. “So no, there’s nobody I’m really alarmed about. I would say Reader’s probably the one that’s going to take a minute.”

Campbell said the Lions also got “good news” on cornerback Khalil Dorsey, who left Wednesday’s practice with an ankle injury and did not practice Thursday.

Depth perception

Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes plan to meet about the state of their roster before breaking for summer next week, but the Lions coach said he does not feel like there are any urgent needs to address before camp.

“Really, depth (is the only thing),” Campbell said. “You want to know that you’ve got competition in every area, but enough to where you can battle with the twos and threes. That’ll kind of be the conversation but right now, I don’t feel like we’re pressed on anything.”

The Lions could be short on numbers on the defensive line if Reader, Davenport and Kyle Peko suffer any setbacks with their rehab, but have capable starters in backup positions at cornerback and linebacker.

Offensively, they have 17 linemen, 12 receivers, seven running backs, six tight ends and three quarterbacks on their 90-man roster.

Campbell said he wants backup Hendon Hooker to spend some of the next month visualizing all of the offensive installations the team put in this spring to come back in the fall prepared for camp.

“We’ve put him in so many hard situations, which has been unbelievable to have those,” Campbell said. “But you’ve got everything we’ve done to this point. You ought to have every script with you, and you should be going through every one of them, every day.

“The install is not really going to change, not offensively. We’re pretty much going to go in with what we went in with this spring. So I expect the player that is much more comfortable coming into camp than when he left spring.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: D.J. Reader might not be ready for Detroit Lions training camp