Observations are going to be relatively short from Thursday’s practice, because the Detroit Lions opted to finish this week of training camp by winding things down. Coach Dan Campbell though the team had just finished a series of strong practices, including a long scrimmage on Sunday, so it was appropriate to pull back on Day 16.
“We’ve gotten a great week,” Campbell said. “The last three days that we’ve had padded practices, the day before that night practice, that day, the night practice, and then
yesterday were outstanding. Just the work that we have got, the situations we have got, the amount of reps. They’re hard reps. They’re under stress. They get tired, have to work with each other. You have got to stay on top of your fundamental. I just thought it was great work. So, I’m pleased—(we’ve) backed way off today.”
This was the entirety of practice: walkthroughs, individual drills, four short drives, and one special teams set of drills. In total, it was less than a full hour, and it was an unpadded practice.
Still, I’ll provide my brief thoughts.
Jack Campbell completely disrupts the offense
The first team offense and defense ran a total of nine plays during Thursday’s practice, and I had Jack Campbell making an impactful play on four of them.
On the first, he blew through a blocking attempt from Jahmyr Gibbs for a sack—although they let the play run, and the pressure caused an inaccurate throw. The second came a play later, when Campbell dropped into a deep zone and got his fingertips on a floater downfield for Jameson Williams, knocking the ball out of harm’s way on third-and-long.
On the next series, Campbell flashed his run stopping abilities. He pursued Gibbs down the line for a gain of just 3 yards on first down. Then on a fresh set of downs, he shot the gap between Tate Ratledge and Juice Scruggs for a 3-yard tackle for loss.
That’s Campbell literally contributing on all three phases of defense in just nine plays: pass rush, coverage, and run defense.
Offensive line struggling with chemistry
It appears the Lions have settled on a starting offensive line. While it’s not official, Detroit has been running with this line for the last few practices:
LT: Penei Sewell
LG: Christian Mahogany
C: Juice Scruggs
RG: Tate Ratledge
RT: Blake Miller
Campbell expressed some optimism before practice that it was starting to come together a bit, particularly with Scruggs.
“I did think yesterday was better,” Campbell said of Scruggs. “And particularly in a lot of that situational work to where they got to be on the same page with some stuff. And the rest of the o-line, I think those only help.”
Unfortunately, Thursday appeared to be a step back for the unit. There were several missed assignments blocking in just those nine snaps for the first-team offense, and a false start—which have been a frustratingly common occurrence this camp.
D.J. Reed was untouched on a corner blitz sack, although there were a few tight ends to that side that were likely responsible for the assignment. On Campbell’s 3-yard loss, Ratledge was late in getting off his double team to account for the blitzing linebacker. And on the final red-zone play for the offense, a screen pass to Jahmyr Gibbs never got off the ground, because no one (Scruggs or Ratledge) put a hand on Alim McNeill, who forced Jared Goff to throw it at Gibbs’ feet.
On the second team, there was another false start, and zero success on two running plays.
While it’s not yet time to panic, it’s clear Detroit’s offensive line needs all the reps they can get between now and the start of Week 1.
Miscellaneous items
- Josh Dobbs played one entire team rep during practice: a 20-yard touchdown to a wide open Jackson Meeks. This was the play that Ennis Rakestraw was injured. Because the Lions were doing these drills like a drive, the third-teamers were done after that one rep. Despite the low rep count in practice, Dobbs will apparently start in Saturday’s preseason game.
- Sione Vaki had the biggest play of practice, hauling in a swing pass into the blitzing side of the defense. He turned up field with blockers and gained about 20 yards.
- Jake Bates was perfect on the day, making field goals from 41 and 42 yards, and he made his sole extra point.
- The starting kick returners were Tom Kennedy and Jacob Saylors.
- Ahmed Hassanein blew by Anthony Lucas on a punt pursuit drill, but Greg Dortch, the returner, juked him out of his shoes.
