Day 7 of Detroit Lions training camp was scheduled for Tuesday, but after coming together to discuss and make a statement on social justice issues, practice was canceled and pushed to Wednesday.
Today the Lions were back in pads and took the field in the pouring rain. It did lighten up near the end of practice, but for the most part, it was a wet day in Allen Park.
Tracy Walker put on a show
Tracy Walker was the clear star of the day today.
In tight end versus safety drills, Walker put T.J. Hockenson in his back pocket and was so tight in coverage, Matthew Stafford didn’t even bother throwing the ball. Maybe he didn’t want to force a wet ball, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this drill run where the quarterback didn’t even attempt the throw because the tight end was so blanketed by coverage.
On his next pass through, Walker matched up with Jesse James and Walker basically ran the route for him giving James no chance on the ball.
Third time through, Walker versus James again and it was a repeat of the second rep, expect this time Walker tipped the ball to himself and intercepted the pass.
When team drills began, Walker was back with the starters. On one play during goal-line drills, Walker was isolated in coverage with Kenny Golladay, and he put himself in the perfect position to force an incompletion.
Despite running with the twos at the end of last week, don’t get confused: Walker is the best safety on this team.
Quarterbacks
A wet ball is not a quarterback’s friend and it showed today. Chase Daniel had a real hard time handling the ball, David Blough missed some bad throws, and even Matthew Stafford fumbled and was forced to run a lap — so was Frank Ragnow, so he may have been partially to blame.
It wasn’t all bad today, but there were more errors than typical of this group.
Running backs
D’Andre Swift and Bo Scarbrough returned to the sidelines today and were dressed in a half-pads half-sweats combo. They traveled with their position group but did not interact in drills. This is step one of the acclimation process: “We’re just kind of trying to put them back in an environment where they feel comfortable and just working with them to acclimate them back in,” coach Matt Patricia said at his morning press conference.
Today’s running back versus linebacker blitz pickup drills were pretty even with the one standout being Kerryon Johnson who cleanly beat three of the four challengers he faced. Johnson also caught a touchdown score from Stafford during team drills.
Nick Bawden participated in positional drills but didn’t take the field during team drills until late in the morning — when he walloped linebacker Elijah Lee on the goalline.
Jason Cabinda continues to see the majority of work at fullback as Bawden gets back into the mix.
Wide receivers
It was a quiet day for the wide receivers. Maybe it was the rain. Maybe I cursed them after publishing my 10 players who impressed me during the first half of training camp article this morning and it listed three receivers.
Either way, they only caught my eye a handful of times, with the main standouts being: Quintez Cephus who continues to gain separation in a variety of ways and Jamal Agnew who has strung together several solid practices. In goal-line team drills, Agnew high-pointed a ball from Blough and reeled it in for the score.
Housekeeping note: Victor Bolden returned in full.
Tight ends
T.J. Hockenson looked human for the first time in camp — see the above section on Walker — but he did catch a touchdown during team drills on the goal line.
Isaac Nauta looks ready to roll and upgraded his participation level to full. Matt Sokol — who was repping in Nauta’s place — is still making his case.
Hunter Bryant was not in pads and was seen walking around after stretching with a limp as he recovers from what appeared to be a hamstring pull over the weekend.
Offensive line
Starting left guard Joe Dahl opened practice with his position group and went through some warmup drills, but once the live period began he sat out the rest of the day. “We’re trying to do a good job of monitoring him,” Patricia said of Dahl, “just in general with camp and some of the hitting that we’re doing in certain practices and stuff like that. We’re keeping track of that.”
With Dahl out, Oday Aboushi was promoted to the starters. On the second line, Logan Stenberg slid over to Aboushi’s vacated spot at left guard, and Beau Benzschawel — now recovered from an injury that limited early in camp — took over at center.
Frank Ragnow had an upper-body injury scare during OL vs DL drills but after sitting out the drill he was right back in with the starters on the next activity.
When Ragnow was temporarily out, it was Benzschawel who took over his spot. This may just be a case of he was next man up in the rotation, but it’s also a reminder not to count him out of the mix for the 53-man roster just yet. This is an important week for him.
With Dahl sitting out Wednesday, the offensive line depth chart was as follows:
| Left tackle | Left guard | Center | Right guard | Right tackle |
| Taylor Decker | Oday Aboushi | Frank Ragnow | Jonah Jackson | Hal Vaitai |
| Tyrell Crosby | Logan Stenberg | Beau Benzschawel | Kenny Wiggins | Dan Skipper |
| Matt Nelson | Logan Stenberg | Matt Nelson |
Matt Nelson continues to get looks at both guard and tackle, and while he is still a developmental project, he may be working his way towards a spot on the practice squad.
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.
