Teez Tabor is day-to-day, not practicing today but Darius Slay is. Reports say he wasn’t in pads but then he was, go figure.
Lions WR Deontez Alexander has been waived.
CB Tarvarus McFadden has been signed.
Darius Kilgo is off the NFI.
Not many updates today, mostly drills and walkthroughs I guess. There’s a nice video of Stafford hooking up with Amendola in the EZ.
-
Slay not in there on full 11-on-11s. Oruwariye takes his place.
-
Devon Kennard is BACK.
-
Mike Ford with an impressive INT. Was beaten originally, but a bad throw from David Fales allowed him to catch up to Chris Lacy.
Still, good ball skills from Ford. -
Slay is in there now. They’re easing him in, clearly.
-
Stafford rolling right, hits Amendola in EZ
https://twitter.com/i/status/1158044926476636161
This is all I got for now. Will post the beat-writers’ notes and observations when I find it.
From Rothstein, ESPN:
Some thoughts after Sunday’s Lions practice – the last before three joint workouts with New England:
-While it’s unclear who exactly is going to be at guard for the Lions, the group that many thought would be the starting five – Taylor Decker, Kenny Wiggins, Frank Ragnow, Graham Glasgow and Rick Wagner – took snaps together Sunday. For much of the past week, the Lions had been rotating the guards in. It’ll be worth seeing what things look like this week because that may shake out.
-Darius Slay took part in team and individual drills in the unpadded practice, pushing rookie Amani Oruwariye to the second team. Also of interest, Jamal Agnew and not Justin Coleman took reps with the first group in the slot.
-The play of the day came cornerback Mike Ford, who is trying to earn a spot on the roster. He read a David Fales pass well and cut in front of Chris Lacy to make an interception. Wrote his number down often Sunday as getting on the ball or having pass breakups. A good practice for him, particularly with Teez Tabor out.
From Jeremy Reisman, PoD:
The Detroit Lions returned to practice on Sunday after a day off. With the New England Patriots coming to town, the pace was a little slower, the team wasn’t in full pads, and the duration of practice was a tad shorter.
That being said, in front of a crowd full of only season-ticket holders, the energy was actually a little higher, as the fans filled out the place for the first time and even brought some noise on Sunday.
Here’s what I saw from the Lions’ ninth training camp practice.
Attendance
There were a few notable changes to the lineup on Sunday, as the Lions practiced in partial pads (shells).
Most notably, Darius Slay returned to practice. The Lions eased him him, sharing first-team reps with Amani Oruwariye during 11-on-11s, but it’s clear he’s just about ready to go.
Sticking with the cornerbacks, Teez Tabor was sidelined all practice, but was not sporting the bandage/wrap around his right leg that he was wearing on Friday night.
Additionally, Devon Kennard was back with the first-team reps for the first time since Week 1 of training camp. Like Slay, he wasn’t a full go, splitting snaps with Garret Dooley, but he’s very close.
Darius Kilgo and newly-signed Tarvarus McFadden were also suited up and ready to go. Here are the players that sat out on Sunday.
Christian Jones
Malik Carney
Jonathan Wynn
Da’Shawn Hand
Austin Bryant
Mike Daniels
Marcus Cooper
Tommylee Lewis (PUP)
Steve Longa (PUP)
Trey Flowers (PUP)
Damon Harrison Sr. (NFI)
Jonathan Wynn and Christian Jones appear to be the players closest to coming back, as they both participated in some early individual drills before sitting out team reps.
Rough day for the nickel corners
For the first time all camp, Jamal Agnew received just about every first-team rep ahead of Justin Coleman as the nickel corner. It was a rough day for Agnew, as Danny Amendola consistently blew by Agnew rep after rep. In my notes, Matthew Stafford found Amendola at least three times with Agnew in coverage, and two of those plays saw Amendola with at least two steps on Agnew. To be fair, Amendola has been doing this to everyone at camp. I guess age is only a number.
To make matters worse, it’s never a good sign when the nickel corner you signed to a four-year, $36 million deal is repping with the second-team defense. While the optimist in me wants to believe that they’re simply testing out Agnew, the realist in me knows that Coleman hasn’t done a particularly great job this camp against Amendola, and even on Sunday, he struggled in coverage against Brandon Powell, who beat him cleanly on back-to-back team reps.
Of course, the positive spin here is that the Lions’ slot receivers are looking good thus far, but when you’ve invested far more money on the defensive side of the ball, there should be some concern.
Jermaine Kearse starting to emerge
It was a really slow start to camp for Jermaine Kearse, but over the past week, I think he has separated himself from the rest of the reserve wide receivers. Twice on Sunday, he made great contested catches for big gains. Near the end of practice he pulled in a perfectly thrown back shoulder catch with Mike Ford all over him.
That being said, when Kenny Golladay took a rest in full team drills, it was rookie Travis Fulgham who took reps with the first team. It was a quiet day for Fulgham, though on one play, he had thoroughly beaten Andre Chachere deep, but a sprinting Andrew Adams knocked the ball away after an impressive close from center field.
Offense dominates 7-on-7s
Early in practice the Lions worked on red zone drills, and I don’t think I saw the offense lose a single rep out of six or seven plays. The offense scored every single time.
Obviously, 7-on-7s tend to favor the offense, but watching the route combinations actually scheme receivers open was—and continues to be—a refreshing site for this offense. Fulgham and T.J. Hockenson both had fairly easy scores after finding open space on defense.
Matt Patricia gets big mad
At one point in practice, Matt Patricia made the entire team run a lap after some 11-on-11 drills. Team rules—and general decency—prevent me from printing some of the things Patricia was screaming at the players, but let’s just say it wasn’t hard to hear him from the opposite end zone from where he was situated.
It’s hard to know exactly what sent Patricia off, but on the play prior to the lap, Chris Lacy had beaten Mike Ford by at least a step or two. However, an underthrown ball from Tom Savage allowed Ford to recover, and the young corner made an athletic play to intercept the pass. The Andrew Adams pass breakup was the play that preceded that one.
Odds and ends
- The Lions offensive line was back to having Kenny Wiggins and Graham Glasgow at left and right guard, respectively. Joe Dahl and Oday Aboushi did take a very limited amount of reps with the first team, but spent the majority of practice with the twos.
- One interesting new wrinkle: Andrew Donnal took a small amount of reps at left tackle, with Tyrell Crosby at right. Though it was just for a few reps, it was the first time I have seen that alignment all camp.
- The Lions worked a little on onside kicks today. It appeared they were focusing on the receiving team recovering the ball, and they managed to do so on every rep without incident.
- Nick Bawden has made some serious progress as a long-snapper in the three days I’ve watch him. He still is prone to airmailing one or two, but he’s got the spiral down and is even bringing some heat. #LONGSNAPPERWATCH2020 is on.
- Marvin Jones Jr. got the best of Amani Oruwariye several times on Sunday.
- Tracy Walker: Still good. Had another interception on Sunday, though I don’t believe his feet landed in bounds.
From Dave Birkett, DetFreeP:
Darius Slay isn’t one of those veterans who can do without the preseason. Quite the opposite, in fact. Slay wants as much work during training camp as he can get, and finally took meaningful snaps. Slay participated in team drills Sunday for the first time this summer, two days after the Lions pulled him off the non-football injury list.
“I need all that cause it’s good reps,” Slay said earlier this week. “(Training camp is) just long, but it’s good reps so everybody needs it. We all need to get our feet wet.”
The Lions practiced for a little less than two hours Sunday and without pads, and that gave Slay a chance to split first-team reps with rookie Amani Oruwariye in his return to the field.
Slay said at Friday’s team scrimmage that he wasn’t injured and explained his stint on NFI as “whatever they wanted me to do, I was just doing it. That was it.”
It’s clear the Lions are being cautious with Slay and other vets as they take the long approach to the season, and it’s worth repeating that’s the best way to survive a 16-game schedule (and hopefully more).
Asked Sunday about defensive end Trey Flowers, who hasn’t practiced this summer as he returns from offseason shoulder surgery, Lions coach Matt Patricia explained it like this: “You just try to put the final timeline on it and back up from there and say, ‘OK, how do we prepare to get them ready to go for when we need to see something on the field from that standpoint?”
Slay, clearly, feels he can benefit from preseason work, and he plays a little more complex of a position than, say, Damon Harrison in the Lions defense. That might explain why Slay’s on the field now, on a limited basis, while Harrison remains on NFI.
I doubt Slay gets a full starter’s load of reps this week when the New England Patriots come to town for joint practices and I’d be stunned if he played in Thursday’s preseason opener. He’ll be out there for practices, but in a competitive environment, and given his absence from the first week of camp, there’s more risk than there is reward at stake.
As Slay said Friday, “There ain’t nothing wrong with the preseason, but what really counts is the 16.”
More observations from Sunday’s practice:
• Devon Kennard got his biggest workload Sunday since the first practice of camp as he returns from a minor injury. Kennard took some situational first-team reps, but the Lions mixed up their personnel groupings plenty Sunday and had Miles Killebrew running some with the first-team.
• Killebrew has had a nice camp and I could see him having a situational role on defense this fall because of the speed he brings to sub packages. He led the Lions in special-teams snaps last year but did not play a single snap on defense. For the record, Killebrew is still listed as a third-string strong safety on the Lions’ unofficial depth chart, but he hasn’t practiced with the safeties all summer.
• No practice for a bunch of the usual suspects Sunday, including Mike Daniels, Da’Shawn Hand, Austin Bryant, Malik Carney and Marcus Cooper. Teez Tabor is a relatively new addition to the injury ranks - he left practice last Thursday - and I didn’t see Christian Jones do anything outside of individual period.
• It was a relatively light practice Sunday since it was in pads, so I’d give the play of the day to Jermaine Kearse, who made a nice back-shoulder catch along the sideline against Mike Ford on a good throw from Tom Savage. Kearse has a lot of familiarity with the offense and coordinator Darrell Bevell from their time together in Seattle, and that’ll present the Lions with a tough decision to make when it comes to their final two receiver spots. Rookie Travis Fulgham, who got some run with the first-team offense on Sunday, Brandon Powell and Andy Jones are among others in the mix for probably two jobs.
• Kearse’s catch came in a two-minute period and set up a Savage-to-Chris Lacy touchdown pass. The Lions ran a plays from the 2 after Kearse’s catch against zero blitzes. Savage threw incomplete to Lacy on the first one - Lacy had to climb over top of Justin Coleman to prevent an interception in the end zone - and Lacy beat Ford for the score.
• Lacy, by the way, is like a junior Kenny Golladay. He’s been a favorite of quarterbacks in the red zone this camp because of his size and physicality.
• Matthew Stafford did technically throw an interception Sunday, his fourth of camp by my count, but this one comes with an asterisk. The Lions were working on a final-play/not quite-far-enough-to-be-a-Hail-Mary situation and I’m not sure they were quite going full speed. Either way, Stafford launched a pass towards the end zone that Rashaan Melvin picked off.
• One more interception to mention Sunday: Tracy Walker showed off his length by coming from the middle of the field to pick off a Savage pass intended for Brandon Powell along the sideline. Jamal Agnew did a good job riding Powell out of bounds in coverage, and Savage left the ball too close to the numbers.
• Melvin had a nice pass breakup at the start of practice on a Stafford bomb to Marvin Jones. It wasn’t a great throw, but Melvin did a nice job recovering after it initially looked like he was beat on the play.
• Sunday’s practice was big on situational work, including onside kicks and burning the final few seconds of the game, and the Lions did something early on - maybe going to the ground too often? - to incur Patricia’s wrath. Early in practice, Patricia called the entire team over to his ATV and had the jog the field as he let out a few choice words. I’m not sure if fans quite understood what was going on as some cheered loudly as players ran past.
• Last thing: A reminder that Monday’s Lions-Patriots practice is for season-ticket holders before camp opens back up to the general public on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you want to see some action, I’d try to make it out Tuesday as Wednesday’s practice could be a little lighter since it’s the day before the preseason game.
From Eric Schlitt, Lionswire:
The Detroit Lions completed the ninth day of their 2019 training camp and the slot receivers owned the day.
Slot receivers win the day
Matthew Stafford likes slot receivers but he prefers to spread the ball around. Tom Savage, on the other hand, has been inconsistent in hitting players on the outside and has, in turn, been heavily targeting the inside receivers. It’s hard to blame him either, especially on a day like today when the slot receivers seemingly could do no wrong, Savage went back to the well, time and time again.
Slot corner Justin Coleman struggled in Week 2, and now as Week 3 begins, he found himself with the second team and replaced by Jamal Agnew in the starting lineup. This may not stay this way moving forward, but for now, the slot matchups were Danny Amendola vs Agnew and Brandon Powell vs Coleman.
All camp, the Lions defense has struggled to cover Amendola. His quickness, precise route running and veteran savviness is difficult to match. He routinely gained separation from Agnew, sometimes it was only a step, but other times it was up to five yards.
When asked about the danger of going too hard in practices, Amendola responded, “No. Full tilt. All go. All day. Let’s go.”
“We’re always talking,” Amendola said in repose to a question about Powell picking his brain for information, “everybody in the room always talking, throwing around ideas. Old ways, new ways, trying to get open.”
Powell also put together a nice few days of practice and was beating Coleman more often than not. Two weeks ago this would’ve been a matchup that heavily favored Coleman, but the two are headed in different directions right now.
After rotating with Agnew on both punt and kick returns in Friday’s scrimmage, coupled with a string of victories from the slot in practice, it’s about time we seriously considering Powell as a potential fifth or sixth receiver in this offense.
More notes on the offense
While the slot receivers won the day, Marvin Jones has quietly been putting together a strong training camp. He had a touchdown in Friday’s scrimmage and has been winning one-one-one battles both in drills and in game play. With defenses potentially rolling coverages towards Kenny Golladay and this offense accentuating Jones’ strengths, he seems primed for a bounce-back season.
Another day and the rotation on the offensive line continues with Kenny Wiggins and Graham Glasgow back with the starters. The only other notable change came on the second line where Tyrell Crosby and Andrew Donnal were cross-training by rotating between both tackle spots.
Defense
Darius Slay returned to the field today and while he saw limited participation levels on Sunday, it’s no surprise he was running with the starters. The starting battle on the outside opposite Slay lost a little luster with Teez Tabor getting injured, making an easy path for Rashaan Melvin to continuing taking reps with the ones. When Slay wasn’t on the field, it was rookie Amani Oruwariye taking his spot in the starting lineup.
As noted in the opening section, Coleman did struggle against Amendola previously and Powell today, but he did find success when he was matched up against bigger receivers. He was very sticky and got a pass break up when covering Chris Lacy.
Mike Ford also had a nice day getting an interception and a pass breakup, and despite being on the wrong end of an amazing toe-tapping sideline catch by Jermain Kearse, he did everything he could in coverage to defend it, it was just a perfect play by the offense.
Garret Dooley continues to find himself on the field near the top of the rotations. He was getting reps at MIKE and JACK linebacker, which is exactly the type of positional flexibility that the players at the back end of the roster possess. He’s a sleeper name to remember.
One thing I have noted each day of practice is that Devon Kennard continues to have side meetings with Coach Matt Patricia. Now that he has returned to action, their frequency seems to be happening even more. Kennard is an important piece in this defense and he looks to be getting extra attention.
Special Teams
Lots of unique special teams drills today, including blocking formations when the Lions are punting and onside kick recovery drills.
Nothing is finalized but the starters on the punting teams were:
Punter: Sam Martin
Long snapper: Don Muhlbach
Gunners: Charles Washington and Justin Coleman
Interior blockers: Jahlani Tavai, Miles Killebrew, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Dooley, Will Harris and Anthony Pittman
Setback blocker: Tavon Wilson
Apparently, Nick Bawden taking snaps at long snapper is a thing now as he has done it the previous four practices and quite frankly is getting much better at it. His accuracy has improved, as we should expect from a former quarterback, but his power still can’t touch Muhlbach’s.
Post-practice
Newly signed corner Tarvarus McFadden didn’t get to see the field much today in team drills/work, but he showed some work ethic by being first in line for the jug machine to catch balls after practice.
From Twentyman and O’Hara, DetroitLions.com:
Situational practice: The Lions went through a light practice Sunday ahead of the start of joint practices with the Patriots tomorrow. Head coach Matt Patricia put the team through a lot of situational football, including two-minute drills, red zone and a lot of special teams situations like onside kicks. – Tim Twentyman
Dead zone: It might have seemed strange to see running back Mark Thompson catch a punt inside the 10-yard line without signaling for a fair catch and not try to advance the ball. It wasn’t strange at all. It was a drill designed for the coverage team to down the ball inside the 10. Thompson did just that by catching the ball in the air. Point of emphasis: Details. – Mike O’Hara
No. 4?: We haven’t seen a lot of four receiver sets from the Lions in camp through the first week. They’ve used the tight end position a lot as the fourth receiver in clear passing situations. Working through some two-minute offense on Sunday, however, they used a fourth receiver – Jermaine Kearse – along with Kenny Golladay, Danny Amendola and Marvin Jones Jr. – Tim Twentyman
On the move: Tight end Logan Thomas is a big target at 6-6 and 250 pounds, and he has athleticism to go with size. He showed that on one play, cutting across the formation from left to right to make a nice catch on a pass from Matthew Stafford off a play-action fake. It’s a play that’s likely to be seen often in Darrell Bevell’s offense. – Mike O’Hara
Back to back: Late in practice in a two-minute period, Kearse made a terrific acrobatic catch adjusting to a deep ball from backup quarterback Tom Savage while falling out of bounds. Two plays later, Chris Lacy made a diving catch falling out of bounds along the right sideline to finish the two-minute drive with a touchdown. The cornerback on both plays was Mike Ford, who had great coverage on both plays, but Kearse and Lacy were still able to make the plays. The margin of error in this league is razor thin. It should be noted, however, that Ford made a terrific diving interception earlier in practice Sunday. – Tim Twentyman
A hand for hands: Kearse was applauded for his effort in making a nice sideline catch on a pass from Savage. Savage rolled right and used his strong arm to fire a laser that Kearse caught in traffic as he slid out of bounds. Kearse got hand slaps of appreciation from teammates on the sidelines on his way back to the huddle. – Mike O’Hara
Length: Former Lions safety Glover Quin used to joke that if he had Tracy Walker’s length, he would have made 10 Pro Bowls. Walker showed off that length – and range – Sunday when making a nice read from his deep safety spot on a ball thrown down the right sideline. Walker was not only fast enough to get over there, but he also had the ball skills to go up and make the interception over the receiver. Walker is fast and long, and has been pretty good throughout the first week of camp. – Tim Twentyman
From Justin Rogers, DetNews:
Allen Park — Here are some notes and observations from Sunday’s Detroit Lions training camp practice.
- After a quiet couple practices to start camp, wide receiver Marvin Jones has been on a roll the past few days, leaving little doubt he’s primed to rebound after disappointingly finishing last season on injured reserve.
Jones keep things moving in a positive direction on Sunday, with several nice grabs, combining smooth route running with good hands. In early full-team work, the receiver bested rookie Amani Oruwariye on an out route and got past veteran Rashaan Melvin on a corner pattern.
Jones had a step and inside position running a deep route again Melvin, but quarterback Matthew Stafford’s ball was slightly off-target, allowing the cornerback to recover and break it up. But the duo hooked up on a deep ball later, when Stafford dropped his throw over the reach of Oruwariye. The two connected again in the back corner of the end zone against the rookie, although it’s debatable whether Jones was able to get both feet in bounds.
Regardless, Jones and Stafford appear to be on the same wave length as the season approaches. The tandem have connected for 151 catches and 18 touchdowns in three years working together. It’s also worth noting Jones had one of his better seasons the last time he was coming off a long-term injury, bring down a career-high 65 passes for the Bengals in 2015.
- The offense dominated an early seven-on-seven red-zone period, coming up with touchdowns on six consecutive snaps from inside the 5-yard line. Linebacker Tre Lamar surrendered back-to-back scores on throws to fullback Nick Bawden and running back Kerryon Johnson.
Bawden netted a second, more impressive touchdown catch, fielding a bullet from Stafford and holding on despite rookie Jahlani Tavai arriving at the same time as the ball. T.J. Hockenson also got in on the parade, slicing between safeties Andrew Adams and Tavon Wilson near the back of the end zone.
- It was an up-and-down day for cornerback Mike Ford, who found himself in good position on the majority of the throws his direction, but wasn’t able to consistently make a play on the ball.
Ford had a nice interception early in practice, undercutting a corner pattern thrown by David Fales, intended for Chris Lacy. Ford broke up a second deep ball to Lacy later in practice.
On the negative side, Ford gave up two receptions during a two-minute drill. Despite being blanketed by the young corner, veteran receiver Jermaine Kearse made an exceptional grab along the sideline while falling out of bounds, but managed to tap both toes inside the white line for a long gain down to the 2-yard line. Two plays later, Lacy hauled in a short, back-shoulder fade against Ford to complete the drive.
- The first-team offense also scored in the two-minute drill. Given 48 seconds and no timeouts to go 49 yards, Stafford capped the action by hitting Danny Amendola on an extended post pattern, beating the coverage of nickel corner Jamal Agnew.
- The Lions wrapped their final practice before the Patriots come to town with another round of sprints up the conditioning hill. Several recently injured players didn’t participate, nor did wide receiver Kenny Golladay, who was talking with a trainer.
From KyleMeinke, MLive:
ALLEN PARK – The Detroit Lions didn’t have pads when they returned to the practice field on Sunday afternoon, but they did have Darius Slay.
Detroit’s star cornerback participated in all individual drills, and even got some first-team work opposite Rashaan Melvin. It was his first day of work since the club moved him to the non-football injury list for the start of camp.
Coach Matt Patricia said he wanted to gauge the fitness of Slay and Snacks Harrison before allowing them to participate in practice following contract disputes that kept them away from the team for the entire offseason program. Slay wound up missing the first eight practices of camp, while Harrison has yet to return.
Slay said after the scrimmage on Friday that while he might be one of the best cornerbacks in the league, he still values the work and was excited to return to the field.
“I need all that (work) 'cause it’s good reps,” Slay said. “(Training camp is) just long, but it’s good reps so everybody needs it. We all need to get our feet wet.”
Detroit is expected to have one of the best defenses in the league this year, although four of its biggest stars – Slay, Harrison, Trey Flowers and Mike Daniels – have missed huge chunks of camp. Harrison remains on NFI while he works his way back into shape, while Flowers is coming off a shoulder injury and Daniels is still acclimating himself to Detroit after signing here last week.
Defensive tackle is a fairly straight-forward position in this scheme, and Harrison was the No. 1 interior run defender in the league last season, so there’s little rush on that front. Same goes for Flowers, who knows this scheme from his days in New England, although Patricia does want to get him some work before the season opener next month.
“He understands a lot of the defense and he can already have an advantage from that standpoint,” Patricia said. “Even guys that are just coming in, if they are guys that are picking it up pretty quickly from the mental part of it, that’s not really an issue. It’s really just about being physically ready to go and making sure that we’re doing everything appropriate for the player, and for all those guys, that when they step on the field they can compete at a high level.
"They need practice. We all need practice. We all need to get better. We all need training camp. In a lot of those cases, everybody pushing as hard as they can. We’re just trying to be smart with it and not do something too soon.”
Here are some more observations from practice:
– It was common to hear Matt Patricia barking at players during camp last year. He seems to have backed off some in his second camp, but was clearly frustrated with something early in practice today. He called both the offense and defense over to his ATV, barked at players for a few seconds, then sent everyone for a lap around Allen Park. Then he parked his ATV by the final turn and resumed yelling at players as they headed for the homestretch. Don’t know what set him off exactly, but it did happen after Mike Ford intercepted a pass from Tom Savage.
– The Lions have run two- and three-receiver sets throughout most of camp. When they have split out four players, one has always been a running back or tight end. On Sunday, we finally got a look at a four-receiver set, which included Jermaine Kearse joining the big three of Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Danny Amendola. Maybe that means something, maybe it doesn’t. I thought Kearse had a great shot of making the team at the outset of camp, given his experience and contract, but he just hasn’t done a whole lot in the opening weeks of practice. He’s been better of late though, including making really nice grabs over Mike Ford and Andre Chachere today.
– No receiver has been better than Marvin Jones. Not Amendola, and not even Golladay. Jones is coming off a knee injury that limited him to nine games last year and held him out of team drills this year until the start of camp. But man has he been tough to handle since returning. He caught that 5-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford in the scrimmage on Friday, then turned in another good practice Sunday. He caught a deep ball over Andre Chachere during team work and beat Rashaan Melvin a couple times too, including on a toe-tapper along the left sideline. It’s early, sure, but the early signs do point to Jones being ready for a bounce-back year.
– Matthew Stafford had Jones for a third time against Melvin, with Jones creating separation on a come-back route. But Stafford just missed him wide-left, and the ball sailed out of bounds. That’s inexcusable. That’s a throw an NFL quarterback needs to make, and it wasn’t the only one Stafford missed. On a third-and-10, he missed Danny Amendola on a simple out route 15 yards downfield. He also overthrew Amendola when the receiver got a step behind Jamal Agnew on a go route. I had some deja vu on that one, after Amendola beat Agnew deep during one-on-ones last week, but Stafford overthrew him then too. He also threw another interception on Sunday, his fourth in a week, although this one came on a fourth-and-10 as time expired, so he was in a position where he had to make something happen. Still, the thing he made happen was a Rashaan Melvin pick in the end zone. Stafford just lacks consistency right now.
– Tracy Walker might have added another interception for the defense too. Tom Savage was trying to hit Brandon Powell, who was moving toward the right sideline with Jamal Agnew trailing in coverage. But Walker flew across the field and used that long frame of his to spear the ball as he fell out of bounds. I couldn’t tell whether he would have been in bounds or not, it was that close, but either way it really speaks to this guy’s athletic profile. He’s just so long, and he’s going to surprise some quarterbacks this year with it. He also had a pick last week when he jumped a route by T.J. Hockenson.
– Da’Shawn Hand and Mike Daniels are still sitting out, but both were doing stuff on the side during practice on Sunday. Especially Daniels, who has been putting in some good work lately – including dragging a sled behind him during some sprints today – and seems close to practicing with his new team fully. Hand is much further away, but it was good to see him doing some sprints up the hill.
– Matt Patricia took a moment before practice to extend his condolences to those affected by the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend. “When things like that happen, it just makes me sad,” Patricia said. "I’m sad for everybody involved and my heart goes out to all the families. Obviously, we’ll just hope everything kind of keeps getting in the right direction. Obviously, I’m just really sad. A sad moment.”
– Calder Hodge, the 14-year-old double amputee who kicked off Detroit’s scrimmage with a touchdown pass to Marvin Jones, was back in Lions camp on Sunday. Several Lions players stopped to say hello, including Jones and Amendola, and then even Martha Firestone Ford herself paid him a visit. She signed a football for him and then gave him a hug before leaving the field.
1 Like