If the Detroit Lions want to stay in-house for a new offensive coordinator when Ben Johnson inevitably gets a head coaching job next year, they won’t lack for options.
They have one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL. He, their quarterbacks, receivers and tight end coaches all played in the league. Passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand is apprenticing under Johnson now. And running backs coach Scottie Montgomery has play-calling experience and is doubling as the team’s assistant head coach.
By virtue of where I was standing when position drills began, I got an up-close look at Montgomery’s coaching style on Day 2 of training camp Monday and Montgomery — who has well-known head coach aspirations — struck me as the type of detailed assistant who will get a chance to climb the NFL coaching ladder in the near future, if the Lions have the type of success they envision over the next few years.
Lions media policy prevents us from sharing on-field conversations between players and coaches, but Montgomery seemed both motivating and meticulous as he led his backs through a series of ladder drills.
(You can watch and hear him in one of the drills in a video I posted on my Instagram account.)
The drills weren’t any different from what I’ve seen a decade’s worth of Lions assistants run, but Montgomery was very clear in explaining the teaching points of the drills — keeping pad level low and the ball high — as his players took turns testing working on their agility.
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When David Montgomery finished one rep without so much as nicking a rope, Scottie Montgomery gushed as if he had just seen the second coming at a Sunday morning service.
When rookie Jahmyr Gibbs started another rep too high, Scottie Montgomery corrected his posture — then had some choice words for the rookie when his pad level rose up again as he navigated the ladder.
If a player messed up, he forced them to start over, to do the drill correctly and explain why that was important.
“He’s very passionate about the game as you can see,” David Montgomery said. “He wants to be the best group in the league, so he definitely tries to — well, not try, he definitely challenges us every day to kind of push ourselves to the limit and beyond that limit and I can appreciate him for that. He’s learning and we’re learning him and I think it’ll be great. Help us all together.”
The Lions were fortunate to land Scottie Montgomery after Duce Staley left for a job with the Carolina Panthers in January, and they’ve given him a solid room to work with.
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David Montgomery and Gibbs should give the Lions one of the best backfields in the NFC, and the addition of Justin Jackson makes the room more complete. Gibbs is an above-average receiver, Montgomery can get tough yards between the tackles and Jackson does a little bit of everything well.
The Lions had one of the NFL’s most effective rushing games last season; they ranked 11th at 128.2 yards per game. And while that statistic is about way more than a team’s backs, Scottie Montgomery’s attention to detail should serve them well this fall.
“It’s definitely like very important just to be able to be sure that you’re paying attention to the details because one thing, one step wrong can throw you off your aiming point and cause you to miss your read and mess up the whole play,” David Montgomery said. “So really just got to be sure that you’re locked in and honed in to the fundamentals first. Rely on the fundamentals first and everything else will follow.”
More observations from Monday’s practice
∎ The Lions had 10 interceptions in their final 10 games last season, when their defense did an about-face after an ugly start. Judging by the looks of things this spring and summer, that wasn’t a fluke.
Lions defensive backs were regulars in getting tipped passes and interceptions in organized team activities and spring minicamp, and the trend has continued two days into training camp. Tracy Walker got the defense’s second interception in as many days Monday — linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin had the first Sunday — and I counted six other pass breakups (four from defensive backs) in team drills and seven-on-seven.
Walker’s INT came on an underthrown Nate Sudfeld pass intended for Kalif Raymond on the fifth play of the Lions’ second team period, two snaps after C.J. Gardner-Johnson went down with his knee injury. He made a better play on his pass breakup near the end of practice, when he came from behind rookie tight end Sam LaPorta to knock down a short curl route from Jared Goff.
Cam Sutton and Brian Branch had textbook PBUs Monday, with Sutton going up through Josh Reynolds’ hands to break up a pass from Goff in third down period and Branch punching the ball away from Dylan Drummond. Josh Paschal also deflected a pass at the line of scrimmage, Steven Gilmore had another PBU on a ball thrown to Drummond, and Trevor Nowaske got his hands on an errant throw from Adrian Martinez to Chase Cota.
∎ Watching kicks from the side bleachers doesn’t provide the best view, but both Riley Patterson and Parker Romo appeared perfect in their kicks Monday. Patterson hit a 40-or-so-yarder from the left hash on his second kick that appeared to slide just inside the right upright, while Romo’s kicks ranged form 36 to 44 yards.
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I’ve noted this before, but Romo has a huge leg that should land him a practice squad spot even if he loses the kicking job. Asked Monday why the Lions kept Romo and Patterson and cut Michael Badgley, Campbell noted Romo’s unique skill set.
“Look, it was hard to let Badgley go,” he said. “That was tough. I’ve got a lot respect for Badge, but we wanted to give another look at Patterson. We feel like they’re very similar type players, Badgley and Patterson, and get a look at Patterson. We like Romo. He’s kind of the wild card. He’s got the big leg. There’s a level of development to him that needs to take place and so we just felt like between those two guys, let’s get a look at it and let them compete against each other. So that’s why we did what we did.”
∎ Halapoulivaati Vaitai took first-team reps at right guard Monday, after Graham Glasgow was first up in the rotation Sunday. I don’t think the Lions can wrong with either player in their starting lineup, and there’s a good chance Vaitai and Glasgow keep their rotation going for another month.
Glasgow, who also will see time at center this summer, played right guard with the second-team offense Monday, and Germain Ifedi was on the first-team field as the seventh lineman during installation.
From a personnel standpoint, here’s how the Lions’ lined up their second- and third-team lines, from left to right:
Second team: Matt Nelson, Kayode Awosika, Ross Pierschbacher, Glasgow, Ifedi. Third team: Obinna Eze, Logan Stenberg, Brad Cecil, Colby Sorsdal, Ryan Swoboda.
∎ Rookie receiver Antoine Green made the catch of the day Monday, laying out to catch a seam route from Sudfeld with Chase Lucas trailing him down the middle of the field in seven-on-seven drills. I mentioned Sunday that Green got first crack at gunner on the punt cover team (along with undrafted rookie Starling Thomas). That’s clearly a case of the Lions wanting to see how much Green can handle. He’s looked the part two days into camp (and including the small glimpses we saw this spring) and would be on my 53-man roster prediction if I did one right now.
∎ Denzel Mims made a nice catch one play after Green’s diving stab, tipping the ball to himself on a Sudfeld pass that was thrown wide to the far reaches of his catching radius. Mims said he feels comfortable in the playbook already, and he has the size and speed to contribute, though it never seemed to translate with the New York Jets, for whatever reason. Mims caught a second pass in seven-on-seven a few plays later, when Thomas’ helmet came flying off near the line of scrimmage and Mims quickly got two steps on the undrafted rookie.
∎ The Lions spent their special teams periods working on kickoff and kick return Monday, after starting camp with a focus on punt. Five players were on the first-team kick return, kick cover and punt cover units, which makes them fair bets to be core special teams players this fall: Malcolm Rodriguez, Will Harris, Jason Cabinda, Anthony Pittman and Thomas. Justin Jackson, the Lions’ primary kick returner last year, also took first-team reps on kick and punt cover and was part of the return rotation Monday.
∎ The Lions have two more non-padded practices Tuesday and Wednesday before their first day off of camp Thursday.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.