If you do not have this yet, check out my full breakdown of Friday’s practice here. While that’s a pretty comprehensive look at what happened during the Detroit Lions’ fourth padded practice of the year, I wanted to take some time to focus specifically on five players who really made a positive impression. These players deserve a little extra attention for their efforts on Friday, and I wanted to get into what that might mean for the team in 2020.
Here are five players who stood out to me from Friday’s practice.
Taylor Decker
If you read any observations of training camps from Monday through Friday, I’m not sure you will see more than a handful of observing passes on Trey Flowers. The reason for this is Taylor Decker’s remaining Lions, who are as close to a perfect training camp as I’ve seen.
Personally, I did not lose him one-on-one rep against defensive lineman, and Matthew Stafford’s left side has been clean during team drills. For a man who is likely to be paid on the spot, he certainly left a positive impression on Lions manager Bob Quinn.
Ty Johnson
In our last Bubble Watch, five staff members had rookies that put Jason Huntley back on the last roster, while only four thought the same of Ty Johnson. Even though I was one of the four, it actually felt like a throw around me. However, after seeing the way the Lions used him early – enough reps with the first team official – and how Johnson reacts by being a tough matchup in coverage and looking somewhat comfortable between tackles , I begin to think we have all underestimated the man.
I do not call Johnson a roster lock now like anything else, because a lot can change in the next three weeks. Johnson, however, will make it really difficult for this team to even consider cutting him.
TJ Hockenson
No one looks as tough as he does against Lions defenders other than TJ Hockenson. On Friday, he hit the relatively easy ladder of the Lions’ best tight end in Tracy Walker, and he remains a ton of wide open catches during team drills.
I hate to be the guy who brings back the Hockenson hype train after the way last season ended, but it’s also very hard for me to see a similar result this year. The jump of year 2 seems very likely considering the way he has performed in camp so far.
Danny Shelton
Easily the biggest surprise of Friday was Shelton with some serious pass-rushing skills. Here’s what I wrote about Shelton after Tuesday’s practice:
Joe Dahl easily handled Shelton on back-to-back reps, but Detroit probably doesn’t expect much pass-rush help from the 335-pound nose pack.
Shelton responded to that call by fully blowing through Frank Ragnow with some impressive short-range speed on Friday. Ragnow, who looked insecure this week, looked as shocked by the moment as I was. And to top it off, Shelton did almost the same thing to Joe Dahl when he lined up for the next rep.
I’m still skeptical about Shelton’s overall pass rushing capabilities. He actually has only 4.5 career sacks in five seasons. However, three of those came last season, so it’s certainly possible that the 27-year-old has some new tricks up his sleeve.
Julian Okwara
We end up with Julian Okwara, a boy I tried hard to focus on the first two practices I attended. The first one on Tuesday I barely got to see much of him. During individual drills, he mostly worked with special teams, not the linebackers. And during team drills, he only got a handful of reps.
While they were still slowly joining him, Okwara saw many more opportunities during Friday’s practice. What worked with the second-string defense at jack linebacker, Okwara showed his burst from the edge and grabbed what would have been at least two sacks in periods with full team.
Okwara’s main concern is his lack of proper running movements and overconfidence in his speed, but during one rep on Friday I saw his first pass-rush denied, only to see Okwara with a smooth spinning motion inwards for a late push ‘ to get the quarterback. To see that kind of progress, this should soon be a good sign for the Lions’ third-round pick.
