Although I was not there to witness it, Thursday night’s Detroit Lions training camp was apparently dominated by Matthew Stafford and the Lions offense. For most of training camp veterans like Marvin Jones Jr. and Kenny Golladay have shown their dominance over the Lions’ young and adaptive defense. We even have a little bit about some young Detroit guns about offensive fakes like D’Andre Swift, TJ Hockenson and Jason Huntley.
But what I saw on Friday was the strong rebounding of the defense. We saw foul balls, we saw passes from unexpected places and we saw the Lions’ third overall pick of his first interception in practice.
Let’s jump right into our observations of Day 4 of the Lions training camp.
Notification report:
Here is a quick breakdown of who was in and who was out. Comment on my remarks here: Sidelined means they were there for exercise, but they just worked on the sideline strokes, conditioning, as well as on the exercise bike. In other words, no individual drills as a team. No team drills meant they were there to participate, but when the team went 7-on-7s or 11-on-11s, they were on the sidelines. OUT just means they were not even on the field.
Friday’s announcement report:
– Andre Swift – OUT
– Bo Scarbrough – OFF
– Victor Bolden – Sidelined
– Nick Bawden – Sidelined
– Matt Nelson – Sidelined
– Isaac Nauta – Sidelined
– Beau Benzschawel – No team drills
– Desmond Trufant – No team
– Marvin Hall – Left early– Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) 21 August 2020
With neither Isaac Nauta nor Nick Bawden involved, the Lions had fullback Jason Cabinda again who worked full time with the official as fullback.
Offensive
Quarterbacks
It was another solid day for David Blough, third string. During 11-on-11s, Blough delivered a perfect ball to Chris Lacy with the kind of deep ball touch needed in this offense. While I do not think there is any legitimate competition for the backup job with Chase Daniel, Blough makes a solid case for a third roster spot that is dedicated to the quarterback.
Running rain
With D’Andre Swift and Bo Scarbrough out, it was mostly Kerryon Johnson and Ty Johnson who reunited for the first time.
While Kerryon looked good, it was Ty Johnson who stood out the most on Friday. He was absolutely dominant during one-on-one receiving drills against the linebackers, burning Jarrad Davis in back-to-back reps.
Jason Huntley also had a day off, but much of that was overshadowed by the end of practice. Huntley was one of three players who took point return reps (Danny Amendola, Jamal Agnew). I saw him back there three times. He mumbled two of the points and failed to catch up with a short point on the third.
Huntley could still be an enormous, fast-paced weapon of offense – he had one of the most beautiful plays of the day on a wheelbarrow – but it was a rough day for special teams.
Broad receivers
Concentrated Friday not a ton on receivers, but among the reserves, Chris Lacy stood out the most. However, do not be surprised to see that the team brings some extra help in the coming days. With Victor Bolden out of practice and Marvin Hall leaving early due to injury, the Lions have just seven healthy receivers.
Tight agrees
Another great day from TJ Hockenson, who was probably among my five biggest standouts from Friday practice. Hockenson Vs. Tracy Walker has become a must-see exercise reps, and Hockenson had the upper hand today. He also made some easy-to-see catches during 11-on-11 drilling, as it does not seem like anyone can consistently cover him in camp.
Not much of Jesse James today, but Hunter Bryant had another couple of solid catches with the third team official.
Offensive line
No changes in the first team’s offensive line, as rookie Jonah Jackson holds the right-back spot:
First team: (from left to right): Taylor Decker, Joe Dahl, Frank Ragnow, Jonah Jackson, Halapoulivaati Vaitai
Only a small change on the second team, as Oday Aboushi and Kenny Wiggins alternated positions left and right.
Second team: Tyrell Crosby, Kenny Wiggins, Logan Stenberg, Oday Aboushi, Dan Skipper
“That some of the rotation actually flew from the right side to the left side, and that was good because we had to practice the guards at both of those positions,” head coach Matt Patricia said before the exercise.
Logan Stenberg continues to really fight in the center position, especially with snaps. One snap during team drills was so high that by the time the quarterback grained the ball, the timing of the play was completely gone. The snap-induced timing problem collided the handoff to Ty Johnson, resulting in a lost fumble.
Elsewhere, Taylor Decker remains a full rock at left tackle. I do not think I have seen one loss one-on-one rep this camp.
As a unit, the offensive line dominated the NASCAR (third-down pass rushing) unit of defense. However …
Defense
Defensive line
Today was the day that the Lions’ interior representatives showed up big at one-on-one pass raging drill. The biggest surprise of the day came from nose tackle Danny Shelton, who finally broke Frank Ragnow’s perfect camp with a surprisingly twitchy pass-rush move. He followed it up on the very next rep by doing the same to Joe Dahl.
Da’Shawn Hand physically dominated Dahl on a rep of his own, while both Julian and Romeo Okwara scored a few sacks during both individual and team play.
Linebackers
As mentioned earlier, Davis once again struggled in coverage against running backs, while Jamie Collins Sr. and Jalen Reeves-Maybin made it clear that they are still the best two coverline backers.
Today was a very bright day for Jahlani Tavai. In fact, in the two days that I’m on camp, Tavai does not take many reps of the team. He usually appears to replace Collins by the second team when he is on the field. But in full 11-on-11 drills, I don’t believe he took a single rep on Friday.
Cornerbacks
With Desmond Trufant out of team drills, rookie Jeff Okudah spent the entire Friday with the first time defending. He started the day with a bit of difficulty, and even did a bit of frustration when Marvin Jones Jr. hit him on a inning. However, he ended the day incredibly strong. Later in practice he became the first cornerback to pick up Matthew Stafford … although it’s a bit of an asterisk there.
“The choice was on a free play,” Stafford said after the practice. “I’m glad he made the choice, but that was a 5-yard offense on defense.”
Still, Okudah was quite Jones at play, showing off some of the ball skills that made him such a highly regarded prospect.
In the next full offensive series, the Lions secondary dominated the offensive. First, Will Harris (I know, a safety) had a breakthrough pass on Hockenson. Then Justin Coleman followed it up with a pass breakup of his own. Finally, Amani Oruwariye grabbed the series with an interception.
Overall, I would say this was an impressive day out of the corners, even with Trufant out.
Safeties
Despite losing his tight battle with Hockenson today, Tracy Walker remains solid and comfortable out of it. However, the defensive play of the day came from his cohort Duron Harmon. As free safety, Harmon came halfway across the field to break a bomb to Marvin Hall, and collided with the Lions receiver at the perfect time to reach the breakthrough of the pass.
Special teams
If I had to pick a punter with the early edge on camp, I would go with Jack Fox. He put a couple of tight spiral dots that landed almost directly on the sideline, making a little-to-no comeback. He was also the first to rep as the field goalie. Arryn Siposs, however, is not far behind.
In addition, special teams remain pretty slick at the moment – and I heard from beats writers that it was even slimmer yesterday. We saw false start, muffed return, and one punter was even knocked down on a live rep.
This is something to be expected without offseason to acclimatize these roles with a new special teams coordinator. If these problems still exist in a few weeks, then you may have to worry.
