Defensive line
The Lions played a lot with their line up front today, shifting between three and four-man looks — as is expected with a multiple defense.
Da’Shawn Hand was everywhere and it was a nice reminder of what a dynamic player he is. Most of the down defensive end and 3/5-techniques saw their roles expand and that opened the door for players like Kevin Strong and Frank Herron to get more time. Both had solid days.
Romero Okwara got another obvious sack today, in what is becoming another common theme — this one came on the last offense vs defensive play of the day.
Linebackers
With the defensive line making adjustments, the linebackers were naturally adjusting as well. We saw a lot of rotating between where players were lining up and what their roles were.
During just one 11-on-11 series, we saw linebacker combos of:
| Christian Jones | Jarrad Davis | Jamie Collins |
| Jamie Collins | Jahlani Tavai | Jarrad Davis |
| Reggie Ragland | Jalen Reeves-Maybin | Jahlani Tavai |
The battle between these six players for time is going to be fun to watch play out.
Corner
Desmond Trufant is still not doing much of anything and that meant Amani Oruwariye was looking for a starting partner once again.
Oruwariye continues to hold his own — he had at least two more pass breakups today — and he’s going to see time in the regular season, either as a starter or heavy contributor.
Jeff Okudah mixed back in with the starters splitting those reps with Darryl Roberts. Okudah continues to show his recovery speed is legit but is still working the learning curve. During a 2-minute drill, he got a PBU when covering Hall, but also gave up a touchdown to the speedy receiver.
Roberts has put enough days of practice together repping ahead of Mike Ford and Dee Virgin, I think it’s safe to say he’s ahead of them on the depth chart — adjust your 53-man roster projections accordingly.
In the slot, Coleman continues to look better than last year and had an entertaining banter with Agnew today after he got the better of the former corner.
Tony McRae is quietly locking down the reserve slot duties and when you combine that with his reps at gunner on special teams, he’s in a solid spot.
Safety
Like the defensive line and linebackers, the safeties are rotating a lot. There’s is a clear hierarchy of the top four, then a bunch of young guys trying to get comfortable.
Tracy Walker continuing to run with the second team is starting to draw more attention in the media, but I still feel pretty confident this is just the coaches cross-training the group.
Special teams
In case you needed reminding, Matt Prater is basically automatic. Today he attempted field goals from 48, 48, 49, 49, and 55 — all five were easily good, with four sailing perfectly down the middle.
Kick return drills were featured today, with Agnew and Hall as the two return men. Huntley is presumedly also going to be included in this group but his absence prevented that today.
As mentioned earlier with Hockenson, if a player wasn’t a clear starter they were getting time in these drills, save the offensive/defensive linemen.
That means we saw both Okwara’s taking on important blocking roles, as did players like Ty Johnson and Jason Cabinda. After the session was done, Cabinda stayed back a bit wanting to discuss things over with special teams coach Brayden Coombs. This is important because if Cabinda is going to make this roster, he’ll need to be a significant contributor here.
Bonus: Punter battle
The punter competition has been somewhat subdued through the first week of camp with not much information to evaluate. With no preseason, Patricia ramped things up a notch to close out the week with a pick-a-side battle.
Here’s the setup: Don Muhlbach snapped to Jack Fox and Steve Wirtel snapped to Arryn Siposs. Each punter punted twice for distance and hang time, then a third punt measured how close they could get to the goal line. Teammates picked a side and the losing team ran a lap.
Both guys boomed punts, drawing roars from teammates, and in the end, Siposs won a tight contest.
Overall, it was probably stressful for the punters, but a nice way to close the day and head into a day off.