Earlier this week, we broke down the nine biggest winners from Detroit Lions OTAs and minicamp. Unfortunately, everyone can’t be winners.
The following list of six players who I believe saw their stock fall over the past month are far from in trouble. There’s relatively little on the line in the spring, but for various reasons–amount of reps, what coaches are saying, competition at the position, or injury–my expectations for these players have slightly dropped.
Again, I want to retirate that we’re
talking very low stakes in the spring, but I don’t think any of these people helped their case.
RB Sione Vaki
Let’s get one thing clear here: the Lions absolutely value Vaki as a four-core special teamer. I would be absolutely shocked if he doesn’t make the team. He continues to rep with first-team special teams units, and holds the valuable personal protector position on punt coverage. Detroit views him as one of the best special teams players on the roster, if not the entire league.
However, Lions coach Dan Campbell was pretty blunt when it comes to where Vaki stands as a running back after two injury-filled seasons.
“The running back position is a little raw. Yes, he has been in there, he did a little bit in college, this is year three, but he hasn’t played running back, not that much, and a lot of it is injury,” Campbell said.
Unless Vaki can prove himself more polished at running back, Detroit may be forced to keep a fourth running back like Jacob Saylors to provide a little more insurance behind the Lions’ top two backs.
G Miles Frazier
Nothing Frazier did this spring caused his stock to drop, but I did find it quite surprising that he didn’t have much of any reps with the first-team offense. Christian Mahogany held down that left guard position for nearly all of OTAs and minicamp. And when it wasn’t him, it was Juice Scruggs.
And while Campbell said the left guard position is wide open, he sounded more excited about the chance to throw Ben Bartch into the competition when healthy, leaving Frazier as a pretty big underdog to win a starting spot, in my opinion.
WR Dominic Lovett
No one stood to benefit from the unfortunate ACL tear of Kendrick Law more than Dominic Lovett, but the second-year receiver continued to struggle in practice. Drops remain a pretty significant problem for Lovett. And on top of that, he hasn’t established himself as a special teamer yet. He’s rarely repping with the returners, and still has a ton to prove as a gunner. During one particular set of special teams drill, Lovett was repping as the third-team gunner alongside UDFA De’Shawn Rucker–behind Khalil Dorsey, Rock Ya-Sin, Ennis Rakestraw, and Nick Whiteside.
EDGE Ahmed Hassanein
Again let me preface this by saying nothing Hassanein has done this offseason can be attributed to this decline in stock. Rather, he’s been widely praised for putting in the work to add some weight and strength to his game, even using Aidan Hutchinson’s trainer to help transform his body.
However, the Lions are apparently moving Hassanein from the rush end position to the big end position.
“We’re transitioning him from the rush position, which we got a lot (of players), to the big end position,” defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers said. “With his size and stuff, you know what, he’s been a pleasant surprise this spring.”
As we discussed on this week’s PODcast, that’s going to be a tough transition for Hassanein. I don’t doubt the effort and work he’ll put in, but in order to play the big end position, you need to set the edge in the run game. And typically the Lions have liked those players to be around 300 pounds. Hassanein, even after bulking up this offseason, is just 275 pounds. The players he’ll be competing against are Tyler Lacy (300 pounds), Levi Onwuzurike (304), and Tyre West (290), among others.
Perhaps that’s an easier path than trying to win a spot alongside Hutchinson, D.J. Wonnum, Derrick Moore, and Payton Turner, but it’s yet another hurdle for Hassanein to jump.
LB Damone Clark
It was a quiet spring for Clark, and that may honestly have more to do with media interest than anything Clark has done. There’s so much fascination with Derrick Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez, and rookie Jimmy Rolder, that Clark has fallen a bit into the background.
Clark still has a good chance to make the roster, but during team drills, it was Rolder making a couple big plays in coverage while Clark gave up a touchdown during an end-of-game scenario.
CB Terrion Arnold
Every moment that Arnold isn’t on the field further developing his game is another step toward losing his starting job. This spring Arnold estimated his health at 75-80 percent after two shoulder surgeries, and so he didn’t take part in any team drills during practices where media was present.
Hopefully, he’ll be closer to 100 percent when training camp rolls around, but even if he is, the Lions coaching staff says he’ll enter a competition for the starting job.
“It’s just about competing. We’ve got a lot of good guys in that room and he knows this, he’s got to go earn it,” Campbell said.
Compare that to last year, where coaches and teammates were singing his praises. It’s clear Arnold will have to climb himself out of a bit of a hole here.
