Keith Abney didn’t blitz more than a handful of times in college, and when I asked him over the weekend about that part of the job in his new role as a slot cornerback, the Detroit Lions rookie fifth-round pick said he was still learning the particulars of pass rush.
“The main key is try to get them to not know that you’re going,” Abney told me Saturday, Aug. 22, after the Lions’ preseason win over the Washington Commanders. “That’s literally the hardest part, especially cause you’re trying to listen to the cadence, but the stadium’s loud so it’s like you don’t want to make the eye contact with the quarterback cause he’s going to look at you. That’s really the main thing, trying to time up the blitz.”
Abney has done a pretty good job timing up
his blitzes this summer, and at the end of practice Wednesday, he got a reminder of just how important it is to disguise his intentions.
Abney blitzed twice in a four-play span in the final situational period of practice, when the second-team offense was looking for the go-ahead score with time winding down in a simulated 24-20 game.
On first-and-10 play from the plus-23-yard line, Abney got caught leaning toward the line during quarterback Luke Altmyer’s cadence and the right tackle on the play, Larry Borom, pointed in Abney’s direction to slide protection Abney’s way.
Abney came on a blitz, Sione Vaki stoned him with a block, but Altmyer threw incomplete to Tom Kennedy on a fade.
Three plays later, on fourth-and-10, Abney did a better job disguising his blitz and came unblocked up the middle to hurry an Altmyer throw. Lions coach Dan Campbell didn’t blow the play dead for a sack, though he could have, but it didn’t matter as Dan Jackson jumped to knock down Altmyer’s heave to the end zone.
“You’re trying to just take away any indicator, that’s really the main thing that the vets have been teaching me,” Abney said. “The alignment. It’s just the little things cause any little thing could, ‘Hey, hey, he’s coming. He’s coming.’ And then it’s over. Got the whole line sliding to you.”
Along with the vets in the defensive back room, Abney said he has spent time talking blitzes with Vaki this summer. Vaki shared the tells he saw from Abney as a blitzer, and Abney said he consciously tried to change those up Wednesday.
With a little more than two weeks till the season opener Sept. 13 against the New Orleans Saints, Abney is in a two-way competition with Roger McCreary to start as the Lions’ nickel cornerback now that Christian Izien (who Abney called a “pit bull” and the secondary’s best blitzer) is out with a leg injury.
Abney and McCreary spent time after practice Wednesday talking about their quarter flat technique and working on the leverages they use in coverage. The two have become good friends, with McCreary playing the big brother role and helping Abney learn a position he barely played in college.
“I feel like he already understands a lot of stuff as a rookie that I didn’t know as a rookie,” McCreary said. “They said he really didn’t play that much nickel and it seemed like he played nickel really the whole time in college so I give that props to him. He learned the game really fast at the nickel and he’s a smart one I would say, for sure.”
Both Abney and McCreary said the competition at slot has helped make them better players. Their friendship has done so, too, and chances are both will be called on to play a significant role in the Lions secondary at some point this fall.
More observations from Wednesday’s practice in Allen Park:
Lions injuries
Thomas Harper remains out with an ankle injury, which had the Lions shuffling personnel at safety for the second straight day.
Nick Whiteside took some second-team reps at safety a position he played some in college.
“Trying to get back into the swing of things,” he said after practice.
Undrafted rookie Aamaris Brown played as the sixth defensive back in the Lions’ first-team dime package Wednesday and Brown made a key play at the end of the situational period with the first-team offense, tagging Jameson Williams down a few yards short of the goal line after Williams took a pitch from Amon-Ra St. Brown on a fourth-and-18 play.
Defensive linemen Derrick Moore and Ahmed Hassanein also sat out practice Wednesday, and running back Jabari Small worked out on a side field with trainers in his return from a brain injury.
Dan Campbell changes schedule
Campbell said the Lions switched up practice plans Wednesday, moving their planned heavy day of work to Thursday after a physical practice Tuesday.
“They were humming yesterday in a good way,” Campbell said. “So just trying to be smart and then we'll pick up where we left off, but we'll get them moving out there today. It's been good so far. It's hard to believe it's almost over, but that's where we're at.”
The Lions close camp Thursday, travel to Indianapolis on Friday for their preseason finale Saturday against the Colts (1 p.m.), and final cuts are due at 6 p.m. Sunday.
“This is difficult,” Campbell said. “You got to have a pretty good idea where you're at before you go into that game, knowing there's a few spots left. But you better have a pretty good idea because it's a quick turnaround. We land next morning, get up and we have got things we have to do and it's difficult. It's on you.”
Mini scrimmage standouts
The Lions weren’t in full pads Wednesday but they had a mini scrimmage of sorts with the first- and second-team offense each getting two series against the first- and second-team defense, respectively, before a quick special teams period and the situational work to end practice.
Jared Goff threw a bomb to Jameson Williams for a long touchdown on a third-and-6 play on the first possession of the scrimmage, and Ben Stille had a sack on second-and-10 to thwart the second-team offense’s ensuing possession.
Penalties muddied the next series, with Christian Mahogany committed a false start after a Jahmyr Gibbs 8-yard run to put the offense back in second-and-7 and Derrick Barnes jumping offsides one snap later to give the offense a third-and-2. Gibbs got stopped for no gain on that play, and Goff followed with a long touchdown pass to St. Brown against D.J. Reed.
On the final possession of the scrimmage, Josh Dobbs and the offense went four-and-out, with Dobbs running for a 6-yard gain on first down and Khalil Dorsey breaking up a pass to Malik Cunningham on fourth-and-3 after two plays that went virtually nowhere.
Offensive penalties
Penalties also were a thing on the first situational period at the end of practice, when the first-team offense started first-and-10 at the plus-46-yard line, down 24-20, with 41 seconds on the clock and two timeouts
Goff opened the series with a 15-yard pass to St. Brown, then Reed made a good read on a screen pass to St. Brown to throw the play for a 4-yard loss. Rock Ya-Sin was flagged for pass interference against Jameson Williams on the next play – former long snapper and special assistant Don Muhlbach throws the flags on the sideline, always to the chagrin of one side or the other – giving the offense a first-and-10 at the 31 with 25 seconds left.
Goff threw two straight incompletions – Aidan Hutchinson and DJ Wonnum had good pressure on the first play – before another false start penalty (I couldn’t tell by whom) put the offense in third-and-15 at the 35.
The offense committed two more false starts on fourth down after a short pass to Gibbs – Christian Mahogany seemed to take issue with the second flag – before Brown made his touchdown-saving tackle on Williams.
Williams claimed he got out of bounds with 1 second left on the clock, but Campbell ruled Brown tagged him down inbounds with the clock still running.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions observations: Rookie Keith Abney talks slot blitz, starting job
