Detroit Lions camp observations: Bringing college play cards to NFL (kind of)

Detroit Free Press

They won’t be as creative or impossible for the casual fan to decipher as the ones used by many college football teams, but the Detroit Lions will use a similar play card system to help players quickly identify personnel groupings this fall.

At Thursday’s training camp practice, I noticed a Lions support staff member holding up what appeared to be a large binder with numbers as players shuffled on and off the field.

The staff member held up an “11” when the offense had its “11 personnel” package —three receivers, one tight end and one running back — on the field. When a tight end replaced a receiver, the staff member quickly flipped the pages and held up a “12.”

Asked about the cards Friday, Lions coach Dan Campbell said he plans to use them on gamedays in the regular season, too.

“It just helps them,” Campbell said. “You have your own personnel in the game with your call, but once that comes in it really helps the secondary and the linebackers know, ‘OK, they have their base personnel in. They have their sub.’ Honestly, I’m not so sure we shouldn’t do it on offense because they’re things sometimes that sound good on paper like, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to run it in sub.’ Sometimes it messes you up because you forget that little nickel is really now a SAM linebacker, or a WILL, or whatever he is.”

I buy that argument completely.

The game can move fast at times, and there is the added challenge this year of the NFL’s new uniform numbering system, where running backs, receivers and tight ends can all wear similar numbers.

If one player misidentifies a package, or doesn’t clearly get a call, it has the potential to disrupt the entire defense.

“I think it really clears things up when you truly know without having to try and search for it,” Campbell said. “If you could just look to the sideline and go, ‘I know what they’re in. They’re in base or sub.’ That’s what it does. It really helps them.”

More from Friday’s Lions practice:

• The Lions spent a good portion of Friday working third-down situations, and the defense was the clear winner in the final 11-on-11 period of practice.

Jared Goff and the first-team offense ran four third-down plays, ranging from about third-and-2 to about third-and-8. Goff threw a pop pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson on the first snap for a first down, then the offense failed to convert its next three tries. Goff completed a short pass on the second play of the period, but only after coaches did not blow the play dead on a would-be sack by Da’Shawn Hand.

Hockenson had a false start on the third play, and when the Lions lined up again, Romeo Okwara knocked the ball loose from a scrambling Goff. And Goff was forced to throw a check-down short of the sticks to Jermar Jefferson on the final play of the series.

• Goff said after practice he wants to open up the offense and sling the ball downfield. A few minutes later, talking about his running backs, he said, “Check-downs are my friend.”

Through three days of camp and after watching a few practices this spring, Goff has done a whole bunch of checking down, a trend that, given his receiving corps and history with the Los Angeles Rams, I suspect will continue into the fall.

• One other post-practice moment that stood out: The affable Jamaal Williams had his first in-person media session since signing with the Lions and it was a hoot. When two reporters attempted to ask questions at the same time, Williams made them play a best-of-three game of rock, paper, scissors to see who got to go first.

I wrote about Williams’ vibrant personality in my Thursday observations, but it was clear watching him talk Friday — and watching safety Tracy Walker delay his post-practice availability to watch Williams speak with reporters — why he’s so beloved in the locker room.

• Amon-Ra St. Brown was at it again Friday, catching his 202 extra passes off the JUGS machine, and he wasn’t the only receiver putting extra work in. Goff stayed on the field for several minutes after practice to throw routes to Quintez Cephus.

More: For Detroit Lions’ Dan Campbell, deciding when to play veterans this preseason is TBD

Cephus has run largely with the second-team offense to this point in camp, with Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman the Lions’ top receivers in two-wide sets. Still, I think he has the best chance of winning the No. 5 receiver job, with St. Brown and return man Kalif Raymond likely in the 3-4 spots.

• All the aforementioned check-downs don’t make for great notes, but backup quarterbacks David Blough and Tim Boyle both connected on nice deep balls Friday. Blough hit a long sideline pass to Damion Ratley over Corn Elder on the side field during seven-on-seven drills, and Boyle, who was back taking second-team reps Friday, hit Ratley for a would-be touchdown in 11-on-11 work.

Ratley seems like Cephus’ biggest competition for the No. 5 receiver job. He has the speed to get open deep and may offer more value on special teams.

• Special teams contributions, of course, will factor heavily in the back-end roster spots, so I should note the Lions’ early first-team punting line consists of Willliams, Dean Marlowe, Jason Cabinda and linebackers Derrick Barnes, Jahlani Tavai and Alex Anzalone.

The Anzalone acquisition has been overlooked by many, but he is a clear favorite to start at one inside linebacker spot. The former New Orleans Saints linebacker is wearing the defensive headset and relaying calls in practice, something he said he did for some of his time in New Orleans as well.

• Your daily up-down update: The defense did a competitive ball-location drill at the start of its individual period Thursday where groups of five players lined up near the goal line, did three sets of up-downs, then had to go locate four loose balls near the sideline spread across the field. The one player in each group who did not recover a loose ball then reported to midfield for another set of about 20 up-downs.

Players who ended up at midfield, either because they did not locate or get to the ball in time, included Trey Flowers (in a group with fellow outside linebackers the Okwara brothers, Charles Harris and Robert McCray), Tavai (in a group with middle linebackers Anzalone, Jamie Collins and Anthony Pittman) and rookie defensive backs Ifeatu Melifonwu and Jerry Jacobs.

• Lastly, Saturday’s practice will be the first one of the summer open to fans, though it is for registered season-ticket holders only. General admission starts Monday, when the Lions will be in full pads for the first time and when Campbell said they will begin repeating this week’s installations in order to do them with contact.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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