LIONS TRAINING CAMP DAY 3 OBSERVATIONS: INTENSITY BUILDING AT THE RIGHT TIME
The Detroit Lions practiced in front of an audience for the first time in 2024 training camp, as they welcomed in friends and family members of players, coaches, and organizational employees. Friday also marked the first day the Lions could practice in shells and with that change came another level of intensity.
Participation Report
Coach Dan Campbell opened up his morning press conference with some disappointing news, informing the media that incumbent kicker Michael Badgley suffered a significant hamstring injury and would be placed on injured reserve, thus ending his season.
No change in the status of DJ Reader—who remains on the PUP list, but was present at practice—and rookie Christian Mahogany who is still working through an illness. Jahmyr Gibbs and Marcus Davenport also remain limited to walkthroughs but neither has done team drills in camp so far.
Additionally, Jameson Williams and Brain Branch were both absent from practice today, but per the team, it was an excused absence for personal reasons.
Rotational work continues at positional battles
Of note, quarterback Hendon Hooker, SAM James Houston, and nickelback Emmanuel Moseley all returned to the second team at their respective positions, leaving Nate Sudfeld, Mathieu Betts, and Amik Robertson mainly with the third team. Robertson did get a few looks with the first team late—like Moseley did yesterday—but the nickel battle seems very wide open.
Additionally, with no Williams, the Lions gave Donovan Peoples-Jones and Kaden Davis some work with the top unit, joining Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kalif Raymond, Antoine Green, and Daurice Fountain.
Intensity level slowly building
On Thursday, the Lions' physicality was elevated for the first time in camp, and then with shells on during Friday’s practice, we saw a few physical plays lead to some early practice scuffling.
In the team's first set of 11-on-11s, the offense was mixing up plays both passing and attempting to execute run plays, with a focus on blocking. The competition level slowly grew and eventually bubbled over with Brock Wright and Derrick Barnes grabbing each other's facemasks and needing to be separated. Things de-escalated quickly and no punches were thrown, and both players stayed out there for the next rep. A few plays later, tangled-up legs caused a pileup and another skirmish, but once again, players were quickly separated and the team went right back to work.
The players appear to be itching for contact but have been doing their best to stay within the NFL rules for the acclimation period. Barnes in particular has been at the center of several borderline physical plays, but it’s all part of the game, and there are no hard feelings afterward.
“We gotta mix it up once in a while,” Wright sheepishly smiled while talking to Pride of Detroit after practice, commenting that they’re just having fun out there.
During red zone drills, we once again saw some intensity levels rise up, most notably from Levi Onwuzurike and Craig Reynolds, but like earlier, a quick word from veteran Frank Ragnow and the pair separated and they returned to action.
A bit later, Jared Goff connected with Reynolds on a beautiful wheel route for a touchdown, despite great coverage from Alex Anzalone. Amongst the celebration, St. Brown delivered some trash talk for Anzalone, who playfully gave a big playful shove in response.
Through three days, practices have gone pretty smoothly, as is expected for an experienced team returning most of its core. The intensity level is climbing but not crossing the line, and if things continue to trend this way, when pads come on Monday, they should be at peak intensity and ready to explode.
Hendon Hooker progressing
I spent a bit more time focusing on Hooker today at practice, and with him back working with the second team, he saw a higher level of competition to test his progress.
During the first 11-on-11 drills, Hooker made arguably his most, mature play of camp. After feeling inside pressure from a John Cominsky pass rush, Hooker timed a spin move to avoid the pressure and escape the pocket. Hooker then immediately squared himself to the line of scrimmage, got his head up, located a target, and delivered a perfect strike to rookie Jalon Calhoun.
On the day, Hooker connected with a variety of players for touchdowns in red zone drills. Shane Zylstra shook loose of coverage in the end zone and despite not being the primary read, Hooker saw the easy layup and made the easy pass for a touchdown. When Peoples-Jones got the inside edge on his defender and cut across the back of the end zone—ala, Josh Reynolds special—Hooker fired a bullet that worked its way through defenders for a score. When Sione Vaki shook his coverage, Hooker again made a nice read and timed a perfect throw for a touchdown.
Each of these plays is a sign of the progress has made with his reads, but he still has some obstacles to overcome. In other drills, Hooker would spend too much time locked on his primary target, which was even more pronounced in the red zone. In these situations, he was almost intercepted more than once, and this also resulted in him overthrowing his target when forced to make a quick decision if forced to move off his primary read.
These are important first steps for the Hooker to make in his journey and he’ll have another month to prove to coaches that he can be trusted as the team’s QB2.
“Man, he’s done some things that are good, that are really good,” Campbell said of Hooker. “It’s like, ‘Ok, you feel just a little bit of growth,’ which is what we wanted to feel. Taking command of the huddle and some of his decision-making has been good. The accuracy has been better after two days. Now, he’s like anybody else, he’s got things to clean up, but yeah, we’re certainly not disappointed after two days.”
Secondary learning from early mistakes
Speaking of progressing, the Lions’ secondary illustrated their ability to also learn from past mistakes, and on several instances on Friday, they made positive plays in situations in which they were beaten in previous days.
After two days where the secondary was beaten on 40+ yard deep balls, they didn’t allow a big play on Friday, despite a few attempts. The best chance the Lions had was on a route that saw Daurice Fountain split the zone defense on a deep angle route, but the Lions were dropping corners Terrion Arnold and Carlton Davis, who both stayed in phase and locked him up.
During 11-on-11s, Goff connected with Green on a crossing route that ended with an easy 15-yard catch on the sidelines, resulting in some chirps from defensive coaches. A few players later in the series, the offense tried the route again with the third team, and while Sudfeld threw a quality ball to Calhoun, UDFA defensive back Morice Norris closed on the ball in a hurry and made a textbook pass breakup.
The learning curve for a rebuilt secondary is going to take some time but the players are responding to coaching, which is what you want to see.
Quick hits
- Jack Fox can still boom the football. Punt unit was the focus on Friday and Fox was routinely punting the ball 55+ yards in the air and even maxed out with a 65-yarder.
- On punt coverage, Fountain tracked down a deep punt from Fox and impressively managed to down the ball inside the 10-yard line.
- Blitzing isn’t going away and we saw several players get in position to make sacks because of it, including Moseley, Betts, and Mekhi Wingo, to name a few standouts.
- In the battle for RB3: Reynold caught multiple touchdown passes from Goff, while Vaki put Houston in a blender behind the line of scrimmage.
- Catch of the day: Goff connected with St. Brown on a red zone sideline pass that required St. Brown to extend and drag his feet to secure the score.