Lions minicamp Day 3 observations: Defense shuts down spring practices

There was certainly a “last day of school” vibe to the Detroit Lions’ final minicamp practice on Thursday. The practice was the final one for Lions veterans, as next week’s conclusion of voluntary OTAs will feature just the young players. It was essentially a half-day, with offensive linemen working at a walk-through pace. Additionally, there were a handful of “fun” drills to lighten the mood and finish minicamp on a high note.

But the team ended minicamp with a competitive end-of-game drill that should leave Lions fans feeling more optimistic about their defense. Let’s get into it with our final minicamp observations report.

Thursday Funday

Detroit messed around a bunch on Thursday, starting with a walkthrough rep that completely flipped the offense and defense. “Quarterback” Kerby Joseph dropped back to pass, scrambled to his left and threw it as far as he could, intending for receiver Aidan Hutchinson to catch the ball, but cornerback Jameson Williams appeared to knock down the pass into traffic.

Later, when the Lions broke into positional drills, they let every skill position player pass the ball significantly downfield. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Maurice Alexander kicked off the drill with a couple of dimes. Craig Reynolds also had an impressive throw. I won’t throw anyone specifically under the bus, but just hope the Lions don’t dial up any trick plays with a tight end throwing.

Finally, the day ended with three players attempting to catch a punt from Jack Fox. They would start close to Fox, then run backwards (or back pedal) to chase down the ball before it landed. First up was cornerback Morice Norris, who just had the ball glance off his fingers. Terrion Arnold was up next and looked like a natural fielding the punt.

The final contestant—as it has been for a couple years—was Dan Skipper, and he did not disappoint. The wind took the ball pretty far to his left, but Skipper tracked it down and made a sliding catch.

Defense shuts down offense’s comeback attempts

As promised by Dan Campbell before practice, the Lions set up a situational period that put the offense in a precarious spot to see if they could mount a dramatic comeback. It’s worth noting that the offensive and defensive lines were at a walkthrough pace in this drill, while everyone else was working full speed.

The scenario: 1:59 left, three timeouts, down 30-21, starting on the offense’s 30-yard line

The first-team offense got off to a promising start with Jared Goff hitting Amon-Ra St. Brown on a post-corner route in the soft spot of the zone between Amik Robertson and the safety for an 18-yard gain and a stoppage of the clock. Unfortunately, Goff threw three straight incompletions after that. The first was a deep shot to St. Brown (who had gotten past both safeties) that was overthrown. The second and third passes were broken up by Robertson and Terrion Arnold respectively.

On fourth down, the Lions moved the ball up to attempt field goals from about 55-60 yards. Both Michael Badgley and James Turner made the kick.

The Lions then simulated a three-and-out defensive stop to give the offense the ball back, now down just six points. First, they gave Amik Robertson an opportunity to down a punt, but he just missed out, and the ball bounced through the end zone.

So the first-team offense took back over on their own 20-yard line with 1:02 left and no timeouts.

Again, the drive started promisingly with an 18-yard pickup by Jameson Williams on an out route with Carlton Davis in soft coverage. It did not go well after that:

• Deep shot to an open Williams that was overthrown
• False start
• 14-yard pickup from Antoine Green
• Spike (now fourth down)
• Sam LaPorta 8-yard gain to keep the drive alive
• Incomplete deep shot to Williams, arguably a drop with Williams full extending but getting both hands on it
• Incomplete pass to Williams, who had stopped running (Goff held onto the ball for a long time)
• Incomplete pass to LaPorta (well covered by Brandon Joseph)
• With only seconds left and over 50 yards to go, the Lions tried a play involving several laterals that was ultimately recovered by Levi Onwuzurike.

The second-team offense had even less success. While Hendon Hooker completed a couple of short passes on the first drive, they ultimately turned the ball over on downs via this sequence: spike, 8-yard checkdown Brock Wright, spike, incomplete pass on a low ball.

Again, the Lions moved the ball up and both Badgley and Turner knocked through 53-yard kicks. It’s worth noting, again, that Turner’s kick went significantly farther, clearing the goalposts with at least another 10 yards to spare.

On the ensuing punt, Robertson was given another shot to down a punt, and this time he did successfully. That set up Hooker with a nearly impossible situation:

43 seconds left, down six points, zero timeouts, starting on his own 3-yard line

While Hooker converted a third down with a connection to Donovan Peoples-Jones for 15 yards, he quickly ran out of time. Still on his own 29-yard line with only 15 seconds left, Hooker overshot his target on second down, and with nine seconds left, the Lions just called it a fail and moved on.

Stray thoughts:

• I watched Badgley attempt 11 kicks during warmups, ranging from 30 to roughly 60 yards. It was a windy day, so he was a little erratic, but I still had him making 8-of-11 kicks, with only one miss coming from shorter than 50 yards.
• Today was the first day that I saw Terrion Arnold and Carlton Davis work as the primary first-team cornerbacks together. Combined with Amik Robertson at nickel, they gave the first-team receivers serious trouble.
• Also noteworthy: Kindle Vildor had served as one of the team’s starting cornerbacks all spring, but on Thursday he was delegated to the “backups” field and replaced with Morice Norris—who got a few first-team reps reps in during the situational drill.
• Other notable players on the “starters” side of the field during warmups: EDGE Mitchell Agude, who has spent considerable time on that field, and rookie Mekhi Wingo. CFL star Mathieu Betts was back with the reserves after getting some “starter” reps earlier in camp.