The Lions held a scaled back walkthrough on Day 7 of training camp but it revealed a quality look at the roster hierarchy.
After two days of intense padded practices , the Detroit Lions scaled things back on Day 7, opting to run a walkthrough practice on Wednesday. Practice only lasted about an hour and 15 minutes and players never did any drill at full speed. Things are expected to pick back up tomorrow, as the Lions have two more practices this week before heading to New Jersey for joint practices next Monday and Tuesday.
“Two days in pads and these guys got after it,” coach Dan Campbell said at his morning press conference. “It felt like we got a little bit better here and today will be a jog-through. Ramp them back down before we go back up the next two days. So, it’s really mental work, we’ll have two fields going so that the young guys get plenty of reps, so it’ll be pretty quick, pretty fast, pretty clean and it’s all mental focus for the day.”
As a result of this practice format, observations will be a bit limited.
Participation report
After suffering injuries during Tuesday’s practice, Campbell noted that both John Cominsky (right knee) and Netane Muti (left shoulder) required surgery and would be out for an extended time . Muti is expected to be placed on injured reserve soon, while Cominksy could be carried on the 90-man roster until cutdowns, which would make him eligible for a possible return late in the season.
“If anybody can do it, anybody can come back and be ready to go late in the season, we know Cominsky will do everything he can to get back,” Campbell said of possibly waiting to move Cominsky to injured reserve until cutdowns. “So that’s, tentatively, that’s kind of what we’re thinking.”
DJ Reader (PUP) and Christian Mahogany (NFI) remain on injury lists, Zonovan Knight was held out of practice once again, but a few injured players were able to return. Rookie UDFA wide receiver Jalon Calhoun and safety C.J. Moore were able to practice in full today, but because of the practice format, it’s unclear if they’ll still be full go when pads come back on Thursday.
Brian Branch also practiced in full on Wednesday, and he told Pride of Detroit after practice that the Lions are going to bring him back in full capacity on Thursday.
Additionally, the Lions used today’s walkthrough practice as an opportunity to give a few veteran offensive linemen some rest, and 80% of their starting offensive line—Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow, Graham Glasgow, and Kevin Zeitler—were not at practice. Penei Sewell was the only starter practicing, which quickly frankly, is no surprise.
Alterations to the depth chart
For this practice, the Lions opted to separate the team into two groups when in team drills, then pulled everyone together for special teams work.
With the majority of the offensive line taking some time off, we saw some adjustments to the offensive lines—mostly everyone getting a bump. Sewell shifted to left tackle, Kayode Awosika moved up to left guard, Michael Niese to center, Ike Boettger stepped in at right guard (with Muti injured), and Dan Skipper played at right tackle.
On the second line, Colby Sorsdal stuck at right tackle, Connor Galvin rotated with Giovanni Manu rotated through left tackle, while the three UDFA rookies—Kingsley Eguakun, Duke Clemens, and Bryan Hudson—rotated through the three interior positions.
On the “starters” side of the field, outside of the offensive line, we saw the depth play out as expected. Amongst the notable battles, Daurice Fountain saw time with the starting group over Antoine Green, while Donovan Peoples-Jones was repping even later with the top unit. At tight end and running back, Shane Zylstra was clearly ahead of James Mitchell, while Craig Reynolds remains ahead of Sione Vaki, both of which are important things to note for the reserve spots.
On defense, the Lions cycled through their Base and Nickel looks, with the only clear alteration being that Branch and Kerby Joseph were the starters, while Ifeatu Melifonwu was with the second group.
These may not feel like huge things to note in a walkthrough format, but they do give us a better understanding of how the Lions coaches feel about the players on each field. If a player was with the starters, it’s because they have earned a spot to reps with the higher team, while the “reserves” were just sent a clear message that they’re potentially on the bubble and need to improve in order to work their way up the depth chart.