The Detroit Lions completed the second day of their 2019 training camp and fans got a glimpse into the potential of the teams first-round pick T.J. Hockenson.
Welcome to the T.J. Hockenson show
On my tracking sheet, I put checkmarks next to a player’s name and an exaggerated checkmark when the player makes an incredible play. Today, Hockenson had three exaggerated checkmarks, after earning two yesterday.
In goal-line work (inside the 5-yard line), the Lions used 23 personnel as their base offense but did everything from keeping players in tight formations to spreading them out five-wide.
In this scenario, Hockenson made a brilliant play on Thursday, then replicated it, in a nearly identical fashion, in today’s practice.
On the play, the Lions ran simple stacked out routes with Hockenson taking the deep route to the back of the end zone. He had bracketed coverage over the top by a safety, while also being covered underneath by a linebacker. Coverage was tight but Matthew Stafford’s pass was better and Hockenson high pointed the ball, toe-tapping in-bounds as he fell to the ground securing the touchdown.
He saved his best play for the end of practice during 11-on-11s.
Hockenson ran the seam against zone coverage and as he crossed the goal line, David Fales zipped a pass that was perfectly placed, although low and behind Hockenson (anywhere else and it would’ve been intercepted). Hockenson was able to throttle down from full speed, sink his hips to drop his center of gravity, flip his body 180-degrees to adjust to the ball, and then engulfed it like a vacuum.
This kid is for real folks.
Pre-planned offensive line shakeup.
Like in spring practices, coaches continued to rotate their guards at different practices, indicating they’re not fully comfortable with their starting five.
Joe Dahl stepped into the starting left guard role in place of Kenny Wiggins, while Oday Aboushi took over for Graham Glasgow at right guard. This held for most of the day, but in certain offensive line only drills, we saw Glasgow take snaps at left guard, center and right guard, illustrating his positional range.
It’s worth noting that despite Aboushi getting first-team reps, he has yet to see any snaps at left guard. In my eyes, this is a red flag for those who believe he may be in the mix for a chance to start at left guard. If he does prove to be better than Wiggins and Dahl, it’s likely he would stay at right guard and Glasgow would switch to left guard. But if the team thinks Glasgow’s best fit is a right guard, Aboushi may only be competing for a reserve role on the roster.
Quick hits from the rest of the offense
Isaac Nauta, who had a challenging day on Thursday, dominate the third-stringers and often found soft spots in the gaps in coverage against the second team. He had a nice bounce-back day, showing off his strong hands.
Logan Thomas also had a nice day after showing some sloppy hands on the first day. Thomas looked athletic and was bodying several of the smaller safeties all around the field.
Nick Bawden made a strong catch in traffic. He ran a quick three-yard curl into the endzone, then had to catch a rocket pass from Stafford only standing a few feet from him. With no pads on today, it likely left a mark.
Ty Johnson once again found space on an out route, where not a single defender was within 3-yards of him. There’s a role for this in this offense.
Defense
Despite being primarily a man coverage team, the Lions spent a lot of time working on zone coverage today. Most of the veterans adapted well, but a lot of the younger players appeared to struggle most of the day.
Third-round pick Will Harris looked lost in space at times today and was often being coached up by veterans after making mistakes during plays. This is not a strong part of his game and is a reminder that he will need time to develop before being able to take on a larger role.
Fellow rookie, undrafted C.J. Moore looked very sharp in zone coverage today and got his hands on a few balls. One of them he tipped to Charles Washington for an interception. Moore has a tough road to the roster, but he should be in legitimate contention for a job on the practice squad.
Cornerback Amani Oruwariye had a very up and down day. In one drill he got toasted by both Chris Lacy and Deontez Alexander, then five minutes later he made one of the best plays on the day against Andy Jones — high pointing the ball for the pass breakup after gaining inside leverage and basically running the route for the receiver.
Teez Tabor struggled a bit today, but he is still making intelligent decisions on several plays. Practices are designed to replicate situational football and with time winding down in a drill, and the offense getting one more crack at the end zone, Tabor allowed a receiver to catch the ball in front of him, then he made the tackle short of the end zone. For the casual observer, it may look like Tabor made a mistake allowing an easy catch, but I would argue he understood the situation and made the play in front of him.
While the outside corners had their difficulties, slot corners Justin Coleman and Jamal Agnew both turned in nice performances. Both players handled Brandon Powell, while Coleman more than held his own against Danny Amendola.
Special teams
If you attend a practice in a day without pads, you can expect a lot of special teams and today was no different.
When special teams drills take place, nearly everyone is involved in some capacity. The only players that did not participate in special teams drills — and likely won’t be moving forward either — the quarterbacks, Kerryon Johnson, C.J. Anderson, Marvin Jones, Kenny Golladay and Jermain Kearse.
Today, they were still mainly focused on punt coverage/returns, and it was the usual suspects fielding kicks: Agnew, Amendola, Powell, Quandre Diggs and Tom Kennedy.
There were several new special teams drills, and coaches worked on their interior punt coverage teams, featuring several of the bigger-bodied athletes like Miles Killebrew.
Post-practice activities
With no pads on again at practice, today it was the offensive line, wide receivers and defensive backs who requested pads for additional work. This could end up being a regular thing.
First up on the jug machine to receive passes was, no surprise, Amendola.
I always like to take note of who is putting in the extra work, even after the rest of his teammates have exited the field, and after an up and down day, the last player to leave the field — Teez Tabor.
