Defensive line
The Lions have been resting their veterans on certain days and it appeared it was Trey Flowers turn in the rotation. He didn’t do much at all today.
Nick Williams hasn’t got a ton of talk but he has been with the starters all camp and has been quietly good. Da’Shawn Hand gets all the love — and rightfully so — because of his positional versatility, but Williams is going to play a major role in this defense.
Hand is really a chess piece in this scheme. If he can stay healthy, he has flashed the same burst he had as a rookie and will be a problem for offensive linemen. In one-on-ones, he leveraged Benzschawel with so much power he walked him right back into the quarterback. He beat him so bad, coaches made them reset and do it again — this time Hand won with a rip move.
Linebackers
The rotation continues, players positional experience continues to expand, and with every passing practice, it sure looks like the Lions plan on using a lot of linebackers on Sundays.
A couple of quick notes on linebackers:
- Jarrad Davis got a pass break up in goal-line work, covering Ty Johnson.
- Reggie Ragland would have recorded a safety if drills had involved tackling.
- Jahlani Tavai praised Jamie Collins for helping him understand how to limit false steps — something Tavai said was his biggest weakness last year.
Corner
After three days of limited work ending last week, Desmond Trufant was back in full and running with the starters. He opened the team drills will Jeff Okudah by his side and the pair would eventually rotate starting reps with Amani Oruwariye. These three are the clear contenders for the two outside starting corner spots.
Darryl Roberts was the fourth corner on the outside — which has been a consistent theme throughout camp — and if you haven’t moved him up your depth chart accordingly, you need to.
Tony McRae is running with the twos in the slot — had a nice pass break up in team drills — and has had a prominent role on special teams. He may still be on the bubble, but he’ll probably be in my 53-man projection.
Mike Ford and Dee Virgin have been staples on this team the last two seasons, but they have been relatively quiet in camp and need to start making some noise.
Safety
Again, it was a tremendous day for Walker who was mostly running with Duran Harmon with the ones.
When the team went three safeties it was Jayron Kearse who got the nod with the starters early. Later, Will Harris would get worked back in with the ones, but most of the day he was with the reserves, paired with undrafted rookie Jalen Elliott.
Elliott has been slowly getting more reps and today’s stint with the second team came with some ups and downs. He showed nice range and timing overall but also got completely exposed by Huntley in the open field.
Special teams
The Lions spent more time on kick off coverage/return today, giving five players an opportunity to field kicks (in order): Jamal Agnew, Jason Huntley, Marvin Hall, Victor Bolden, and Ty Johnson.
Both Johnson and Huntley also pulled double duty as blockers when they weren’t returning — which could be important come time to make roster decisions.
The Lions also got in some more field goal work, and after a Matt Prater miss during warmups, each of the punters got some extra work in on their holds. This may have been a coincidence and scheduled part of warmups, and when they went to live drills, the holds all appeared solid.
Both punters got time with both long snappers during field goal attempts, so it’s difficult to declare who is ahead in the competition — but if you want to overanalyze things that probably mean nothing, Don Muhlbach and Jack Fox were the first ones up out of the gate.