Tag: Day 8

The rain from Detroit Lions training camp practice Day 7 was gone and Day 8 welcomed 91-degrees of sunshine and humidity. It was uncomfortable enough that an hour into practice, coach Matt Patricia had the entire team exit the playing fields and go over to the cooling tent to reset before the final half-hour of practice.

Theme of the day: Get it right

In a two wide receiver versus two cornerback drill, the defensive backs are asked to cover the goal line as the receivers deploy an array of routes to get open. This drill puts stress on communication between corners.

When Jeff Okudah and Darryl Roberts paired up, the receivers crossed and Okudah passed off his man but Roberts didn’t, resulting in a wide-open receiver for the easy score.

Instead of rotating out, Okudah called off the next defensive back and wanted to go again, this time pairing up with Justin Coleman. The receivers crossed again, and this time Okudah stayed with his man, but Coleman passed his man off and it resulted in another wide-open receiver.

Coaches called Okudah over and he talked with them, asking questions right up until it was his turn in the rotation again. This time Okudah read the play, communicated effectively, and was credited with a pass break up.

Okudah is going to make mistakes, just like every rookie in the league, but his ability to take coaching and make corrections is impressive.

Special teams coach Brayden Coombs contributed to this theme as well. The Lions worked on punts quite a bit today and when someone made a mistake blocking, Coombs halted everything, took an extra 30-seconds to point out necessary changes, and made a correction.

At one point, he had the team demonstrate what he was asking of them at three-quarter speed, and the improvement was noticeable.

With a fixed amount of time to practice, stopping to make this change isn’t something all coaches would take the time to do. Historically, coaches would rather opt to point out and make changes in the film room, but there’s a lot of value in doing it this way.

By taking the time to make the change during the drill — and to really make sure it’s understood and digested by the players — Coombs is getting ahead of the problem and getting better reps on film today instead of tomorrow.

I’ve been incredibly impressed by how Okudah and Coombs have handled themselves during camp. Both make a conscious and determined efforts to take the time to get it right.