Lions Training Camp Observations: Several Reserves Make Most Of Promotions

It was a pretty unique day at Allen Park for Day 7 of Detroit Lions training camp. Not only was it one of the longer practices of training camp—just short of 2.5 hours—but with the humidity seemingly around 130% and the sun bearing down, there were a lot of absences or early exits from players. So much so that the Lions pushed an injury alert to media that several of those absences were cramping/heat related.

[Note: see the full injury report for Thursday here]

The Lions responded with heavy rotations and low pitch counts from a lot of their starting lineup. As a result, a bunch of reserves had big opportunities, and several ran with it.

Let’s break it all down in our Day 7 observations.

Several promotions in midst of injuries/absences

Luke Atlmyer shows good command as QB2

With Teddy Bridgewater sidelined, Luke Altmyer essentially got double his normal reps, quarterbacking the second and third-team offenses.

I continue to be impressed with his arm speed and accuracy. Twice on Thursday, he was able to fire the ball between two defensive backs in a zone, and I don’t think he’s thrown more than one or two interceptions all camp.

Beyond that, he’s also got way more poise than I would expect from an undrafted rookie. While sometimes his progressions are taking significant time, I’ve already seen improvement in that category. And when running a two-minute drill toward the end of practice, he showed impressive command—leading to a win* (more on that later) for the offense.

Running back reserves continue strong camp

With no Jahmyr Gibbs, Isiah Pacheco, or Sione Vaki involved in team drill, Jacob Saylors and Jabari Small even shared first-team reps at running back. Saylors continues to impress with his speed and one-cut style of running. Meanwhile, I thought Small ran with impressive strength, particularly between the tackles during red zone drills. Admittedly, they both benefitted from strong run blocking today (though it was Tate Ratledge’s best day of camp).

Skyler Gill-Howard, Ahmed Hassanein make most of early reps

With very limited roles for Tyler Lacy and Mekhi Wingo on Thursday, Ahmed Hassanein and Skyler Gill-Howard both got some significant work with the first team.

It was yet another impressive day for Hassanein, as he continues to live up to the fan hype. With the twos, I had him down for two tackles for loss and two sacks. The second sack came during the final situational drill, where he stunted with Gill-Howard, then he completely okey-doked Mason Miller for a free run at Altmyer. Hassanein was a bit out of control, though, and actually bumped into the rookie quarterback—a no-no in camp. While most of his production came against the second team, he did get a big win during one-on-ones against Blake Miller, beating him with a speed move around the edge.

Gill-Howard was pretty disruptive in team drills, notching at least one pass breakup and sack, but it’s worth noting he did struggle during one-on-ons, going 0-for-3 in the three matchups I saw.

Devin White, Trevor Nowaske get call-up to first-teamers

Nowaske got a ton of first-team work with Barnes pretty severely limited on the day. It’s worth noting Barnes looked a little shook up during Tuesday’s practice and told media it was just a minor knee injury that he finished practice with. It was a quiet day for Nowaske, but he’ll certainly benefit from the first-team reps.

White, on the other hand, got a ton of work in replacing Malcolm Rodriguez as the WILL linebacker in three-linebacker sets, and made a few plays throughout the day. He tallied a beautiful pass breakup on Kye Robichaux during 7-on-7s, and played with good anticipation in the run game.

Nick Whiteside’s early camp gets rewarded

With no D.J. Reed on the day, Whiteside got a ton of work opposite Rock Ya-Sin with the first team defense. Detroit was in nickel for a large portion of the day, and I would say the majority of those first-team reps went to Ennis Rakestraw. Although Rakestraw did get some outside work in replacement of Whiteside, with Christian Izien sliding into first-team nickel, as well.

Whiteside’s day wasn’t as flashy as previous camp appearances. Isaac TeSlaa got the better of him in on-one-ones in both of their matchups, but the promotion still shows Detroit has appreciated the work he’s put in.

Flags flying everywhere

Officials were on hand for the first time in training camp, and they were busyon Thursday. As expected, the flags were flying during the WR/DB one-on-ones. Keith Abney was the guilty party on each of his first two reps (vs. Tom Kennedy and Tarik Black).

But the flags continued all day. The offense was guilty of a few false starts, one offsides, and at least two illegal formations. Meanwhile, the defense got tagged with an illegal contact, a defensive holding, and at least one offsides penalty during team drills.

It’s not all that uncommon for things to be this sloppy early in camp, but I’m guessing the coaching staff won’t be very happy with the high number of procedural mistakes.

Isaac TeSlaa redemption

I mentioned it earlier, but it’s worth breaking down TeSlaa’s day, particularly during one-on-ones. A few days after going 0-for-4 during these drills, he won both of his matchups on Thursday, both against Whiteside. On the first, he used his size to high-point a back-shoulder throw on the sidelines. The second, he cleanly won on a comeback route for a modest gain.

Now, I’d like to see him do those against the likes for Reed and Ya-Sin—two extremely physical cornerbacks who have given him a hard time to date—but it was still a nice confidence boost for the second-year receiver.

Situational end… with just the second-teamers

The Lions ran an interesting situational drill, but only used the second-team offense and defense to end practice.

The scenario: down 14-13, 3:32 left, 2 timeouts for both teams, starting on own 8-yard line

The second-team offense really struggled out of the gate. After Greg Dortch (6 yards) and Cedrick Wilson (5 yards) picked up short gains to move the chains, the offense completely stuttered. Two penalties (false start on Miles Frazier and illegal formation) set them back, and the aforementioned Hassanein sack ended the drive quickly.

But Detroit ended up just re-setting the ball with a fresh set of downs, and the offense quickly found life. A great turkey-hole shot to tight end Thomas Gordon plus a medium gain to Tom Kennedy quickly put them in field goal range, and Bates drilled a 41-yard field goal as time expired.

Miscellaneous notes:

• I thought this was Jackson Meeks’ best day of camp. He sealed a few rushing lanes on the day, and his biggest highlight was a red-zone catch in which he delivered a vicious stiff-arm to Khalil Dorsey to turn a 5-yard curl into a 15-yard gain.
• Jake Bates had a pretty typical day.
  • Makes: 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 49
  • Misses: 39, 48
• Just because he doesn’t get mentioned much, I thought Jared Goff was lethal today, espeically during 1-on-1s. He dropped a few deep shots into tiny windows.
• Despite eating the aforementioned stiff-arm, it was a good day for Khalil Dorsey, mostly working with the twos. He tallied a pass breakup on Tom Kennedy, an interception during 1-on-1s (vs. Wilson), and he was dominant on both the gunner and jammer drills on special teams.
• Jameson Williams had the catch of practice on a red zone fade pass from Goff. Williams high pointed the ball and battled through contract from Ya-Sin for the score.