The Detroit Lions completed the first day of their 2019 training camp, and while the action was a bit slow to open to camp, rookies T.J. Hockenson and Jahlani Tavai stood out amongst the pack and saw significant time with the first team.
The day opened with coach Matt Patricia rolling into the morning press conference recovering from leg surgery and announcing that while Damon Harrison and Darius Slay were both at camp, they were also being placed on the Non-Football-Injury (NFI) report. A’Shawn Robinson was the only surprise absence from practice, and at this time it’s unclear why. For more on these storylines, check out our Day 1 Participation report.
Offense
The rust is still coming off a lot of the players, as to be expected on Day 1, but Hockenson had arguably the best day among the offensive players.
Hockenson made two brilliant catches in the red zone, highlighted by the one in the tweet above. He looked sharp on a day where the other tight ends weren’t overly noticeable.
Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones had solid debuts after missing spring ball and Chris Lacy — who was just removed from the PUP list — regaining some of the momentum he garnered in the spring before his injury.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before but Ty Johnson is very fast. He ran a quick out into the flat and Stafford sidearmed him a rocket ball, which Johnson caught and walked into the end zone, as no linebacker was within 3-yards of him.
The Lions went right back to where they left off in spring camp with the offensive line rolling with (left to right) Taylor Decker – Kenny Wiggins – Frank Ragnow – Graham Glasgow – Rick Wagner, as their starting five.
At one point in practice, the coaches split the offensive skill players into two groups and the offensive line shifted with them. It was subtle, but also noteworthy, that in addition to the starting five, it was Tyrell Crosby and Joe Dahl that traveled with the first team and the remaining eight players went with the second team.
It’s only day one, but Oday Aboushi traveling with the “B” team instead of the top unit tells me he is behind both Wiggins and Dahl for now.
This was our first time seeing the rookie offensive lineman and they lined up with the third team: Ryan Pope at left tackle, Micah St. Andrews at left guard, Beau Benzschawel at right guard and Matt Nelson at right tackle.
Defense
The biggest takeaway from today’s defensive action was linebacker Christian Jones was working out with the JACK linebackers and Tavai was starting at WILL linebacker.
The linebackers moved around a lot today with each of them playing at least two positions, here’s a look at the top linebackers roles:
- Jarrad Davis shifted between MIKE, WILL, SAM
- Jahlani Tavai between WILL, MIKE, SAM and JACK
- Devon Kennard between JACK and WILL
- Christian Jones between JACK, SAM and WILL
- Jalen Reeves-Maybin between MIKE, WILL, SAM
Avid Lions Wire readers will recognize JACK, MIKE and WILL linebacker designations from Patricia’s multiple defense, but SAM isn’t a role we saw last year because the Lions never put four linebackers on the field.
Get used to this change.
Today we saw frequent formation switches between 43 and 34 base sets in red zone defense and it’s now very clear they have the flexibility to deploy four linebackers on the field at the same time.
These switches were sometimes executed by quick personnel swaps, or just realigning the existing personnel. Having players, like Da’Sahwn Hand who can switch between, down defensive end, the 5-technique and nose tackle all within three plays allows the linebackers to move around him and fill gaps.
Another notable formation shift the Lions defense ran today was to drop Tracy Walker into the box. He operated at the linebacker level both on the outside covering the slot and in the middle, similar to a money linebacker role.
When I asked Walker if he was able to use his length as an asset at that level, he responded, “Definitely, I feel like my size in itself allows me to cover receivers better and allows me to be more physical and be stronger at the point of attack.”
Other secondary players that stood out today were, Andrew Adams who intercepted an errant pass from Tom Savage, as well as Teez Tabor, Mike Ford and Andre Chachere who each had terrific leaping pass breakups. Tabor is continuing where he left off in the spring.
Special teams
The punt return competition today featured Jamal Agnew, Amendola, Brandon Powell, Tom Kennedy and Quandre Diggs. When Tommylee Lewis is removed from the PUP list, he is expected to be in the competition battle as well. He spent time observing, taking pointers from Amendola and mimicking receiving punts in drills today.
The gunner roles featured six players prominently: Ford, Chachere, Charles Washington, Andy Jones, Dee Virgin and C.J. Moore. Washington, Ford and Jones were the primary gunners last season.
Post-practice
What happens after practice is becoming just as entertaining as what happens during practice because this team is willing to put in extra work.
After the conclusion of today’s practice, equipment managers dragged out pads — players did not use them during practice — and the linebackers and defensive linemen put them on to do extra drill work on their own time.
Wide receivers and running backs worked on the jug machine, and Amendola literally caught a one-hand ball and then walked over to fulfill his time with the media all in one fluid motion. The hard-worker moniker that follows Amendola around is legitimate.
There was lots of family time as well, but there were so many players staying behind to put in the extra work, it was impossible to keep track of them all.
