The Detroit Lions kicked off their media-open Organized Team Activity practices on Friday, closing out Week 1 of the program.
The day started with coach Dan Campbell warning media and fans alike not to read too much into anything over the next few weeks of “pajama parties.”
“The OTAs we’re really doing right now for this week, it’s jog through with the team, and then we’re moving pretty good on seven-on-seven,” Campbell said. “But we’ll have two spots. We’re going to have two fields and walkthrough.
So don’t read into all that. ‘I saw so-and-so on field two.’ Okay. Doesn’t mean anything, the guys know that too.”
It’s a fair point to make, and he was sure to remind everyone that “nobody’s going to win a job in the spring.”
But with all due respect to Campbell, when the team is mostly running walkthroughs for an entire practice there isn’t much to note other than where certain players are playing, and what order they’re repping in. So, as long as we all understand that how things look in the spring may not reflect how they look in September, let’s jump into the observations from practice.
First off, the practice essentially consisted of four main segments:
- A good chunk of 11-on-11 time ran slightly above walkthrough speed
- Positional drills
- 7-on-7s
- Special teams (punt return/coverage)
Offensive line
Given that the offensive line has gone through the most changes this offseason, this feels like a good place to start. There was a heavy rotation involved on the starters side of the field, but this was the most common lineup I saw:
LT: Penei Sewell
LG: Christian Mahogany
C: Cade Mays
RG: Tate Ratledge
RT: Blake Miller
Most notable here is that it appears Miller may not be getting the rookie treatment. Oftentimes, the Lions make their rookies work their way into the starting lineup, no matter when they were drafted. However, of the reps that I made note of, Miller was at right tackle for about 70-80% of them. I expected he’d have to surpass veteran Larry Borom, but Detroit may have decided they don’t want to waste time in developing chemistry with Miller and company.
Speaking of Borom, I did see both him and Miles Frazier serve in the jumbo tight end role a few times throughout practice.
While Mahogany was clearly the “starter” at left guard, Frazier and Juice Scruggs both took reps there. In fact, Frazier was playing both guard spots, and Scruggs logged reps at all three interior offensive line spots.
Business as usual on defense
Obviously, the frequency in which the team is going to deploy subpackages and nickel sets is far from being determined at this point, and things remain very vanilla. But there was nothing noticeable different about how Detroit lined up defensively during team drills. While I can’t get into specifics schematics, Detroit’s base defense looked pretty familiar.
When Detroit utilized three linebacker sets, the starters were predictably Jack Campbell, Derrick Barnes, and Malcolm Rodriguez. Roger McCreary was the starting nickel.
In the secondary, D.J. Reed and Rock Ya-Sin held down the starting roles with Terrion Arnold out. Ennis Rakestraw also got some work with the starters. And with both starting safeties sidelined, Christian Izien and Chuck Clark was the most common pairing, although Avonte Maddox subbed in frequently.
On the defensive line, Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams, and Aidan Hutchinson were all clear starters, while the following defensive ends all split time with each other: DJ Wonnum, Tyler Lacy, Payton Turner, and rookie Derrick Moore. On the interior, Levi Onwuzurike and Chris Smith spelled McNeill and Williams.
7-on-7 defensive depth
When the Lions went to 7-on-7s, the starters remained the same. Here’s what the second-team defense looked like:
CB: Khalil Dorsey
CB: Nick Whiteside
NB: Roger McCreary/Keith Abney
LB: Trevor Nowaske
LB: Jimmy Rolder
LB: Damone Clark
S: Thomas Harper
S: Avonte Maddox
Third team:
CB: De’Shawn Rucker
CB: Keith Abney
LB: Erick Hunter
LB: Joe Bachie
LB: Trevor Nowaske
S: Aamaris Brown
S: Dan Jackson
Of note, Abney was working as the backup nickel and the third-string outside corner. While that may be because Detroit is shorthanded at outside cornerback, it’s certainly notable that they are cross training him.
Some actual practice observations
Because of the slow pace of walkthroughs and a relatively short 7-on-7 period, I will limit my play observations to a bullet point list for now.
- My favorite walkthrough rep was on a play where Tate Ratledge pulled to the left side of the formation and tried to “block” Aidan Hutchinson. The Pro Bowl defensive end quickly swam by him, but then turned back and appeared to tell Ratledge something.
- During positional drills, I always find it noteworthy which specific receivers take passes from Jared Goff. In that entire portion of practice, it was these six players and only these six players: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Dominic Lovett, Jameson Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, Brock Wright, and Tyler Conklin. Consider that your early hierarchy among wideouts and tight ends.
- TeSlaa’s hands are really fun to watch. Throughout receiving drills, he was making full extension hands catches, and he makes it look very easy.
- During 7-on-7s, coverage held up pretty well, often forcing Jared Goff to progress to his second, third and fourth looks. The one exception to that was Amon-Ra St. Brown, who logged catches against Rakestraw, McCreary, and Clark.
- Jameson Williams was up and down during 7-on-7s. He made a nice contested grab on a comeback route against Christian Izien, but Ya-Sin was all over him on a quick slant, forcing an incompletion.
- Play of the Day came from Jack Campbell, who aggressively punched a ball free from tight end Tyler Conklin for the forced fumble.
- Best route came from Dominic Lovett, who got a clean release on rookie corner Keith Abney (lined up outside). Abney tried to press Lovett, but the second-year receiver made him whiff and took a quick slant for a big gain.
Extra work
I like taking note of which players stayed after practice to get a little extra work in. This isn’t an exhaustive list (I spend some of this time talking to players, as well), but here’s who I saw working overtime:
Jugs machine:
- Greg Dortch
- Chuck Clark
- Jacob Saylors (kick returns)
Working the sled dummies:
- Jack Campbell
- Trevor Nowaske
- Dan Jackson
