By Dan Campbell’s own admission, Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams took his biggest jump last year. His route tree developed, his cuts were sharper, and his hands became more reliable. In short, he became a trusted receiver by Jared Goff and the entire offense.
But through the spring program and three training camp practices, Williams has taken his game to another level. And the next step in his development appears to be coming down with contested catches. On the first day of camp, he elevated
between Ennis Rakestraw and Chuck Clark to come down with a bomb. On Day 2, he made a couple catches in traffic. And on Friday morning, he was as impressive as ever.
It started with a one-on-one rep against Rakestraw. He initially blasted by the third-year corner, but when the pass came up short, he was forced to hit the breaks and elevate over the 5-foot-11 defensive back. Despite Rakestraw being all over him, Williams came down with the grab—as he has done for nearly every contested target this summer.
More importantly, these strides have carried over into the team activities. On the final session of the day—an end-of-half drill with 1:10 left—Williams caught two passes in traffic: a short 7-yard catch with Rock Ya-Sin in close pursuit, and a 20-ish yard deep shot with Ya-Sin all over him again that put Detroit’s offense in field-goal position for the simulated win.
“He’s doing all the little things right. That’s where he’s made the most growth, man,” Campbell said before practice. “Watch his route definition. Watch the details to it. Him dropping his weight. Him pulling out, playing strong, catching the ball, reaching out, plucking. And, so with his ability, man, the sky’s the limit.”
Here’s more from Friday’s practice:
The left guard competition is on
With Christian Mahogany off of the NFI list after a non-injury related absence, it appears the left guard competition is on. In his first day back, Mahogany split first-team reps with Juice Scruggs and got plenty of work with the second team offense as well. I didn’t get a ton of looks on how he played, but I did see him lock down Tyler Lacy during a one-on-one rep.
While Mahogany is already on his way to reclaiming the top spot on the depth chart at guard, his biggest competition—Ben Bartch—should be coming soon. As of now, the Lions have kept Bartch out of team drills as a precautionary measure from the foot injury that ended his 2025 season early. But he has been getting some first-team reps during walkthroughs. Campbell expects Bartch to be out there next week.
“We’re being smart with Bartch. We hope we start to get some team reps next week with him, that’s the plan,” Campbell said.
As for Scruggs, Campbell says they really like him at center, and some of the reason he’s been getting so much play at guard is because of the absences from Mahogany and Bartch. His play at guard as been up and down, but Campbell noted that playing against Alim McNeill will do that to you.
First taste of 1-on-1s
For the first time in camp, we got a look at some highly entertaining 1-on-1 drills. I’ll bullet point my observations from each.
OL/DL
- Detroit clearly didn’t want to overwhelm rookie tackle Blake Miller, so they had Aidan Hutchinson go up against Penei Sewell. It was a pretty clean win for Sewell in both reps between the two, although Hutchinson’s relentlessness had him fighting to the whistle.
- As for Miller, I had him with a stalemate against DJ Wonnum on the first rep, and on the second rep between them, Miller took the veteran edge defender to the ground when he tried an inside move.
- Ahmed Hassanein showed off some serious explosiveness in his first rep against Devin Cochran, beating him decisively with an inside move. However, Cochran got the best of him on rep 2, with the frisky Hassanein unable to get out from Cochran’s clutches.
- The two best collective reps from the pass rushers belonged to rookie Derrick Moore. On the first against Larry Borom, he swam inside for an immediate pressure. On the second, he flashed his speed to get around Colby Sorsdal in a hurry.
- Tyleik Williams and Cade Mays split their series of two reps. On the first, Williams used his strength to execute a rip move past Mays. On the second, Mays had him locked up.
CB/WR
Admittedly, I was paying a little less attention to this, as it was taking place at the far end of the field, but I do have a few notes:
- Isaac TeSlaa made a nice back shoulder grab while shielding his body away from Rock Ya-Sin, who was in relatively good position.
- Later, Nick Whiteside continued his strong camp with a great pass breakup against TeSlaa. Earlier in the practice, Whiteside logged an interception on a pass over the middle that was intended (but overthrown) to Tom Kennedy (via Teddy Bridgewater).
- D.J. Reed has been quietly impressive to start camp. He had a very strong jam against Jameson Williams, forcing the young receiver to get a little off balance and mess up the timing of the play. While Williams eventually got by him, the target was way over both players’ head because of the disruption.
- Greg Dortch cleanly beat Roger McCreary on one rep, but Khalil Dorsey got the best of Dortch later with a pass breakup.
Other notes:
- When McNeill left due to injury, it was Mekhi Wingo who stepped in with the first-team defense at the three tech. Levi Onwuzurike, who picked up another tackle for loss on Friday, continues to rep between the first and second team.
- McCreary did a great job staying with a play on an attempt to Cedrick Wilson Jr. The veteran receiver bobbled the catch attempt, and McCreary attacked the ball as both players went to the ground. Initially, it looked like Wilson still came down with it, but the ball was jarred loose for the fumble/incompletion.
- Former UFL WR Lawrence Keys made an improbable toe-tapping catch on an impressive ball from Luke Altmyer. In terms of overall arm talent, I like what I’m seeing from Altmyer so far.
- Rookie Keith Abney made a nice pass breakup during 7-on-7 drills
- Detroit worked on a lot of third down on Friday, and unsurpringly, that meant a lot of passes to Amon-Ra St. Brown.
- Running back Jabari Small made the juke of training camp on linebacker Joe Bachie, who looked like he was left doing splits trying to change direction. The juke drew a large roar from the players.
- It’s hard to tell without full contact, but I remain optimistic about Isiah Pacheco’s explosiveness. There’s been some warranted concern that he’s lost it after a few injuries, but on one catch during Friday’s practice, he turn upfield and accelerated into the next gear in a hurry.
- Player who impressed the most Friday: Derrick Moore (multiple pressures in 1-on-1s and team drills), Ahmed Hassanein (another TFL during teams), Jameson Williams, Nick Whiteside (again)
End of half drill ends with some hijinx
To close out practice, the Lions worked on an end-of-half drill. The scenario: starting on their own 25-yard line with 1:10 left with a couple timeouts.
Here’s how it went down (yardage is estimated) :
- 9-yard pass to St. Brown (in bounds)
- 7-yard pass to Williams (in bounds) — timeout, 40 seconds left
- 5-yard pass to Sam LaPorta (in bounds)
- 8-yard pass to Sione Vaki (in bounds) — timeout, 20 seconds left
- 20-yard pass to Williams (in bounds)
- Spike
With the offense in somewhat comfortable field goal position, they celebrated the win and it appeared practice was over. But then Campbell got the group together, and the team lined up for a 48-yard field goal to really seal the win. The kick was good.
But here’s the twist: it wasn’t Jake Bates kicking the field goal, it was Jack Fox (and Isaac TeSlaa holding). Fox didn’t clear the crossbar by much, but that’s still pretty impressive for the punter.
