Lions Day 9 camp observations: Detroit’s DBs continue to shine

D.J. Reed led an active and impressive Detroit Lions secondary on Day 9 of training camp.

The Detroit Lions returned to the practice field on Sunday, a few days removed from their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Chargers . It was back to business, and things looked much more in sync than they did in Canton, Ohio, on Thursday.

Here are my biggest observations from one of the longer days of training camp so far.

The starting defensive backs are really starting to shine

We haven’t talked much about D.J. Reed this camp. Some of that is because Reed has only gotten a few days of work during team drills, and some of that is because Terrion Arnold has been stealing the show for the first week of training camp.

But with Arnold sidelined on Sunday as he works back from a hamstring injury , Reed showed why the Lions invested in him this offseason. Working opposite Jameson Williams for much of the 1-on-1 drills, Reed made life hard for the star receiver. While Williams won the first rep between the two on a comeback route where Reed was still in good position, the cornerback went stride-for-stride with Jamo on a deep shot—something that is tough to do.

After practice, Reed talked about shadowing Williams and noted that people sleep on his speed. His only publicly recorded 40-yard dash time was a 4.51 at the NFL Combine , but Reed claimed he was running with a sprained MCL at the time and has regularly run in the 4.3s. That may be talk, but it certainly looked like the real deal on this particular rep, and during a rep last week when he chased down Jahmyr Gibbs.

But it’s not just Reed impressing among the starting secondary. Amik Robertson also won his rep against Williams, forcing an incomplete pass, and is the only person I’ve seen in camp give Kalif Raymond a run for his money during one-on-ones.

Kerby Joseph stood out during one-on-ones for a completely different reason. Lined up opposite rookie Isaac TeSlaa, he gave the receiver a very aggressive jam that had the rookie stuck in place for several seconds. On the next rep between the two, he did it again, but TeSlaa was able to disengage quicker. Given TeSlaa’s lack of press coverage in college, this certainly seems intentional on the Lions’ part.

Finally, there’s the most consistent defensive back of the last three training camps: Brian Branch. He was dominant again on Sunday. First, he was the only defender who seems to be able to take down Sam LaPorta during individual tackling drills. Then, during coverage one-on-ones, he had some extremely competitive reps. He was able to stick with Jahmyr Gibbs on a Texas route to force an incompletion. And while he gave up back-to-back completions to Amon-Ra St. Brown, his coverage couldn’t get much better on each play. Jared Goff just dropped perfect balls to his favorite receiver. The Lions were able to get video of both reps:

If you slow down that first play enough, it looks like Branch actually gets a hand on it.

Other standouts from one-on-ones

• The daily David Montgomery vs. Jack Campbell tackling drill went, again, in Montgomery’s favor. I also saw Montgomery handle Campbell very well in a pass protection drill.
• Dominic Lovett is generally good in the one-on-one drills, and he continues to find open field. However, he logged a couple of drops on Sunday, continuing an issue from Thursday’s preseason game.
• Isaac TeSlaa had two big wins in the tackling drill, evading Erick Hallett twice
• Ezekiel Turner was the defensive standout in the tackling drill. He easily took new running back Jacob Saylors to the ground both times.
• Gibbs closed out the coverage reps with a wheel route against Alex Anzalone. The linebacker did his absolute best, but it’s not a fair matchup. Goff laid another perfect pass for the big gain.

Depth chart shakeups

Along the offensive line, we saw a few changes on Sunday. For one, with Taylor Decker still sitting out team drills and Dan Skipper nursing an ankle injury, it was mostly Jamarco Jones as the first team left tackle. That said, Giovanni Manu got a handful of reps with the ones as well.

While Graham Glasgow continues to take every starting center rep, we saw Kayode Awosika relieve the starting guards on both sides with the first-team offense a little bit. Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany still got the large majority of reps, but it’s still a good sign for Awosika after a strong preseason opener.

With the reserves, Trystan Colon got the second-team center reps, continuing the trend from the preseason game, while Kingsley Eguakun—who started Thursday’s game at center—worked as a third-string guard. Michael Niese was the third-string center.

Keith Cooper continues to get sprinkled in with the first and second-team defense, as does Pat O’Connor. But the most notable change on defense was seeing Rock Ya-Sin starting to get some safety and nickel reps.

“He’s pretty tough, he’s physical, he’s headsy, and he’s versatile,” coach Dan Campbell said before practice. “There’s a number of things he can do. We’d like to start working him at some safety, too.”

With the injuries to Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw—and Ya-Sin working a little at safety—Dicaprio Bootle got a lot of work with the first-team defense opposite Reed.

Other news and notes:

• Despite very tight coverage from Robertson, Jameson Williams made a couple of big catches during team drills on crossing routes, as he continues to grow his route tree
• Sunday’s practice had the most successful two-RB set play to date. A draw play to Gibbs had David Montgomery ahead as the lead blocker and earned at least 10-15 yards.
• It was a perfect day for Jake Bates, who made six field goals during team drills. Distances: 34, 38, 39, 44, 44, 49.
• Kalif Raymond had two huge gains during team drills, toasting the second-team defense during 11-on-11s, and then beating the starters during 7-on-7s.
• Branch absolutely laid out Shane Zylstra after a checkdown to the tight end. Based on my viewpoint, it could’ve drawn a flag for helmet-to-helmet contact. Thank goodness for guardian caps.
• Practice ended with a running-out-the-clock scenario. The offense had it first-and-10 from their 34-yard line with 2:24 remaining and a one-point lead. The defense had one timeout left. Despite a big stop on first down (Jack Campbell and Marcus Davenport combined for a tackle for loss), the Lions offense managed to dig themselves out of a hole and earn a first down to run out the rest of the clock. On a third-and-medium, Goff fooled the defense with a screen pass to Montgomery that gained at least 10 yards.