The rain managed to stay away for Day 4 of Detroit Lions training camp, but the field was still relatively slippery out there. Nevertheless, the Lions were able to get a full day’s worth of work in, and plenty of team drills to draw upon plenty of observations.
Here’s what we learned from Sunday’s practice.
Note: If you want a full injury/participation breakdown of Sunday’s practice, you can find that here.
Miles Frazier is everywhere
With Giovanni Manu and Ben Bartch out, and Blake Miller limited to individual drills, the Lions
needed Miles Frazier to play just about every position… and he did. I would say the majority of his reps came at tackle—and he got some significant work as the starting right tackle—but he also got time at both guard positions. While it would certainly benefit him most to focus in on the left guard position, where the starting job is up for grabs, he is clearly showcasing his versatility, and he had an overall very strong day on Sunday (more on that later).
1-on-1 WR vs. DBs winners and losers
Winners
Every Amon-Ra St. Brown vs. D.J. Reed rep
This is becoming must-see TV as the two players are at the top of their game. On the first rep, it looked like Reed was all over St. Brown, but a perfectly placed ball from Jared Goff and some late hands from St. Brown resulted in an improbable catch.
Thomas Harper
This expands beyond 1-on-1s, but Harper—who has had a quiet start to camp—had two forced incompletions during 1-on-1s against Malik Cunningham and Lawrence Keys. During red zone 7-on-7s, he also perfectly timed a pass from Teddy Bridgewater for the interception, but landed out of the back of the end zone.
Dominic Lovett
I’ve been hard on Lovett, but he came down with two big wins during 1-on-1s: he had an incredible one-handed back-shoulder grab opposite Keith Abney, then toasted De’Shawn Rucker off his release for an easy grab.
Lucky Jackson
The former UFL receiver had two very impressive reps, and both were against potential starters. The first, he cleanly beat McCreary with an impressive, slippery release for a wide-open touchdown grab. The second, he probably got away with a push-off, but showed some physicality by creating separation on Rock Ya-Sin.
Losers
Isaac TeSlaa
It’s been a slow start to camp from TeSlaa, but this may have been his worst day of practice. He went 0-for-5 during 1-on-1s and was particularly struggling against press corners. Rock Ya-Sin, Roger McCreary, and Avonte Maddox all posted wins against the second-year receiver
More 1-on-1 OL/DL winners and losers
Note: I was watching DB/WR drills during this portion of this practice, so the following observations are from our own Al Karsten:
Below are the combined win-loss-tie records for each offensive lineman against the defensive line over two separate sessions. The defense controlled the opening period before the offense responded with a vengeance, winning the majority of the second session.
A few notes: Blake Miller did not participate in the one-on-ones, while several first-team veterans—including Aidan Hutchinson and Penei Sewell—only took a limited number of reps. As an added bonus, assistant coach Dan Skipper served as the de facto quarterback throughout both drills.
Keep in mind these periods move extremely fast, and some reps are close calls when determining whether the pass rusher or offensive lineman earned the win.
- Devin Cochran (LT) — 3-2-0 vs. Tyler Lacy (1-0), Eric O’Neill (1-1), Anthony Lucas (0-2)
- Lacy got him on an impressive outside swim move to seal off Cochran around the corner
- O’Neill showed off a nice little burst to get outside on the first rep but Cochran swallowing him on the second rep
- Juice Scruggs (LG) — 1-2-0 vs. Levi Onwuzurike (1-0), Alim McNeill (1-0), Tyler Lacy (0-1)
- Onwuzruike walked Scruggs back into the QB
- McNeill also powered Scruggs into the backfield
- Cade Mays (C) — 2-1-0 vs. Tyleik Williams (1-1), Myles Adams (0-1)
- Williams had a really good first step penetration but Mays did recover well in a close fought battle Mays had really solid positioning on the second rep
- Mays swallowed Adams whole
- Tate Ratledge (RG) — 2-0-1 vs. Alim McNeill (0-1), Levi Onwuzurike (0-0-1), Mekhi Wingo (0-1)
- McNeill got stonewalled in a great rep by Ratledge
- Ratledge and Onwuzurike had a physical rep that we’ll call a draw with Ratledge second reaction recovery
- Larry Borom (RT, LT) — 4-0-0 vs. DJ Wonnum (0-2), Ahmed Hassanein (0-1), Derrick Moore (0-1)
- Borom anchored on a bull rush the first rep against Wonnum then second rep sat on a spin move inside
- Borom kept Moore shielded off outside on a swim counter move
- Miles Frazier (LG, RT, LT) — 7-1-0 vs. Skyler Gill-Howard (0-2), Anthony Lucas (0-2), Derrick Moore (1-1), Ahmed Hassanein (0-1), Eric O’Neill (0-1)
- Checked Gill-Howard up right at the line of scrimmage
- Moore attempted a Hutchinson esque set-up to go outside-inside with a spin move and Frazier clobbered him to the ground. On their second rep, Moore got Frazier on an outside rip
- Hassanein worked to set-up a second counter move and Frazier didn’t take the bait
- Christian Mahogany (LG) — 3-0-0 vs. Myles Adams (0-1), Alim McNeill (0-1), Mekhi Wingo (0-1)
- Mahogany rode Adams out of the pocket after initially losing ground
- In the most impressive individual rep of one-on-one pass rush drills, Mahogany dominated McNeill and had him flailing with his back to the quarterback eating on a McNeill spin move
- Mahogany definitively sat on an inside swim move from Wingo
- Penei Sewell (LT) — 0-1 vs. Aidan Hutchinson (1-0)
- In their only reps, Hutchinson won on the outside with a swim but slipped turning the corner
- Colby Sorsdal (RT, RG) — 1-2-0 vs. Derrick Moore (1-0), Ahmed Hassanein (1-0), Tyre West (0-1)
- Moore got a decisive win on the outside
- Hassanein was a train on the tracks and had a good bull rush
- Mason Miller (RG, RT) — 3-2-0 vs. Mekhi Wingo (0-1), Skyler Gill-Howard (1-1), Tyre West (0-1), Derrick Moore (1-0)
- Wingo got initial push but Miller surprised powerfully on second effort to shut it down
- Gill-Howard looked like his Texas Tech self with a nice swim inside on the first rep, with the second rep going as a tie and a potentially questionable Miller hold
- Miller beat West with West shoving him in the back after causing a small scuffle
- Moore beat Miller, at RT, on an outside dip
- Seth McLaughlin (C) — 4-1-0 vs. Chris Smith (1-1), Aidan Keanaaina (0-2), Myles Adams (0-1)
- After an initial slip, McLaughlin sturdily regained his anchor against Smith. On their next rep against each other Smith won with a bull rush.
- Melvin Priestly (RG) — 2-0-2 vs. Tyre West (0-0-1), Myles Adams (0-0-1), Skyler Gill-Howard (0-2)
- West tried an inside hump move which gained ground initially before Priestly recollected himself in the pocket
- Michael Niese (C) — 2-0-2 vs. Aidan Keanaaina (0-1-1), Tyler Lacy (0-1), Tyre West (0-0-1)
Defense dominates in the red zone
Once we moved to team play, the defense was absolutely dominant in the red zone, led by some strong play from the linebackers.
The first series (7-on-7s), Malcolm Rodriguez broke up an attempted Texas route to Sione Vaki with perfect coverage. Then a few plays later, Jameson Williams bobbled a ball only for it to go right into the hands of Reed for the interception. The first-team offensive did manage to find the end zone once with a pick-play concept that got TeSlaa open for the short touchdown grab.
When we moved to 11-on-11s, everyone on defense was getting into the mix. Ya-Sin continued his strong day with a pass breakup opposite TeSlaa. Tyleik Williams and D.J. Reed picked up tackles for loss in the run game. And Jack Campbell immediately scurried through traffic to find Vaki after a dump-off from Goff. When the first-team came back after that failed series, it was all about the linebackers. Campbell tallied another stop with a tackle for loss, then Rodriguez made a fourth-down stop with perfect coverage and a pass breakup on Sam LaPorta.
The reserve on offense had more success. Cedrick Wilson made the catch of practice with an acrobatic catch in the back of the end zone against McCreary. Tight end Anthony Firkser had a walk-in touchdown on a play-action design that left the defense shorthanded on one side of the field. Then Firkser scored again on a screen pass where Christian Mahogany cleared the with a violent block.
That said, on the third team, Keith Abney had a pair of pass breakups—including a near pick—against Luke Altmyer.
Offense rebounds with nearly perfect end-of-game drill
Practice ended with a situations drill. The situation:
Offense down 1 point, 4 minutes left, each team three timeouts
The goal for the offense was to clearly bleed all of the remaining time and kick a game-winning field goal, and that’s exactly what they did.
The drive started with a kickoff returned by Tom Kennedy to the 29-yard line and tackled by Ahmed Hassanein. From there, it was a methodical drive with only one negative play.
- Jared Goff to Brock Wright for 9 yards
- Isiah Pacheco up the middle for 2 yards
- Jared Goff throwaway (pressure from blitzing D.J. REed)
- False start on Juice Scruggs
- Diving catch by Vaki on a whip route
- Big third-and-10 converstion from Jameson Williams on a 20-yard comeback route (defense timeout #1)
- Amon-Ra St. Brown inside slant for 9 yards (defense TO #2)
- Run for 2 yards (defense TO #3)
- Run for 6 yards
- Kneel
- Kneel
- Game winning 43-yard field goal as time expired
Other notes
- Another up-and-down day for Jake Bates. He had makes from 33, 38, 43, 43, and 48, but he also missed consecutive 43-yard field goals.
- I thought Ahmed Hassanein was very disruptive all practice, and I have him pretty firmly “IN” on my roster predictions now.
- Here are the eight players who returned at least one kickoff during special teams drills (in order): Greg Dortch, Tom Kennedy, Isiah Pacheco, Dominic Lovett, Malik Cunningham, Lawrence Keys, Isaac TeSlaa, D.J. Reed
