Dan Campbell took his hat off, wiped his mouth, then shared a story before the Detroit Lions‘ first padded practice of training camp Friday, about his first day in pads as a rookie tight end with the New York Giants 24 years ago.
Campbell was a third-round pick out of Texas A&M, so he wasn’t a nobody — but he felt like one at times while trying to make a favorable impression.
“There’s a lot going on,” Campbell said. “I think rookies burn at such a higher rate, I know I did because you’re trying to prove yourself. You’re new and you’re just trying to figure out (what you’re doing) drill-to-drill, now we are in pads and you’re trying to make an impression, but you’re also trying to do what your coach tells you to do. So there’s a lot of times — I know for me, I was a little out of control. I was a little out of control. I was on the ground a couple of times and so everything that I thought I was doing was actually making it worse.”
Campbell’s experience was similar to what Lions rookies Colby Sorsdal and Brodric Martin said they experienced Friday.
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Sorsdal, who played FCS-level football at William & Mary, found himself on the ground a couple of times during team drills Friday. Martin, a third-round pick out of Western Kentucky, had a humbling first rep of one-on-one pass rush, when he got little push against backup center Ross Pierschbacher.
“It’s always interesting kind of having a (day off) before the first day in pads cause that, I guess, anticipation,” Sorsdal said. “You’re just like, ‘Oh, I need to go out there and do it,’ and once you get out there and do it you’re not really focused on technique as much as smashing the other guy in front of you. So definitely some times where you’re on the ground, it’s definitely like a shock, but that first nine-on-seven period, once you get over with that you’re like, ‘Man, it’s just football.'”
Sorsdal and Martin weren’t the only rookies to experience what Sorsdal called “welcome to the league, this is really fast moments” Friday. Receiver Antoine Green, a seventh-round pick who had a nice first four days of camp, had a pass bounce off his shoulder pads in team drills, left early feeling the effects of heat exhaustion and was tended to by team and EMS personnel after practice.
The good news for all rookies is things will get better, and quickly. They did for Campbell at least, who said he left his first padded practice telling himself, “I’m awful, I’ll never play in this league” and went on to have an 11-year career.
“There’s so much of it from this physical, but the mental, too,” Campbell said. “You’re trying to absorb and digest the gameplan and all these installs that go in it and then the fundamentals, the details of each play and what you’re — and so then you think too much about all of that stuff, then you forget — you’re taking the right step and you get your head knocked off because you’re, ‘I’m taking the right step,’ but you forget to be physical and just cut it loose and go. It’s just, it’s all part of it.”
Martin said Campbell’s description was pretty close to what he was felt in his first few reps Friday, though he said he’s grown enough in his first three months in the NFL to know he can play in the league.
Sorsdal has made big improvements, too, while making a position change from guard to tackle, though he said Friday was “definitely a wake-up to kind of focus on your technique and remain technical throughout the physical grind.”
“And that’s the jump from college to the NFL,” he said. “Everybody’s fast, everybody’s strong, so it’s about that technique.”
More observations from Lions training camp Friday
• With Friday the first day in pads, practice took on a decidedly more physical tone.
After opening with their usual installation period, the Lions did a one-on-one tackling drill where the defensive emphasis seemed to be on pursuit angles (rather than tackling to the ground), followed by splitting into two fields for a nine-on-seven run drill and one-on-one passing work.
The tackling drill started with a defensive player 6 or 7 yards from his offensive counterpart, who had to beat the tackler to the corner or slip past him with a cut-back. Naturally, coaches pitted two rookies against each other on the first snap of the drill, former Iowa teammates tight end Sam LaPorta and linebacker Jack Campbell, who’ve had a fun back-and-forth going since organized team activities in the spring. Campbell tagged LaPorta down after what would have been a short gain, and LaPorta fared slightly better in their second rep at the drill.
I won’t take you through the entire drill, but Amon-Ra St. Brown made a nice cutback to slip past Jerry Jacobs on their first rep, in an extension of their one-on-one work from Wednesday’s practice, and Jacobs made a nice tackle on St. Brown on the second rep, hauling him down by his feet.
Running back Justin Jackson had two good reps in the drill, making one nice cutback on linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez, Brian Branch did well to not fall for Dylan Drummond’s juke and rookie running back Mo Ibrahim hit Anthony Pittman with a good spin move.
• I made the mistake of trying to watch both nine-on-seven and one-on-one passing; it’s part of my annual training camp reminder to myself that it’s best to focus on only one drill when so much is going on and I’m the only one at camp. A couple plays of note: Kerby Joseph dropped a would-be interception on a rep against Drummond, and Jarren Williams did well to mirror Maurice Alexander on the next step, forcing an overthrown pass.
New Lions wide receiver Denzel Mims also got good separation against rookie Starling Thomas on a comeback route, and in nine-on-seven, I wrote Benito Jones’ name down three times for his play in the middle of the defensive line. Jones played well as a backup at times last season and I still think there’s a role for him this fall, even with the addition of Martin behind starters Isaiah Buggs and Alim McNeill.
• The one-on-one pass rush drills later in practice are always a draw on the first day of pads, and there were some good matchups to note. Aidan Hutchinson and Penei Sewell split their two reps, with Sewell stonewalling Hutchinson (and staying with Hutchinson’s spin move) on their first rep, then Hutchinson knocking Sewell’s hand down to beat him wide the second time they squared off.
Taylor Decker held his own against two long-arm rushes by Romeo Okwara, then hopped in for a third rep against Charles Harris, when he didn’t allow a pressure. Graham Glasgow, taking first-team reps at right guard, did not give much ground against McNeill or Christian Covington, Jonah Jackson was immoveable up front, and Buggs and Ragnow split their two reps, with Buggs slapping Ragnow to the side on their second-go round to get some push up the middle.
Among the backups, Josh Paschal showed a nice inside move against Germain Ifedi, James Houston beat Obinna Eze inside, offensive lineman Matt Nelson was too long for rookie Zach Morton, Sorsdal couldn’t stay with McNeill and Martin knocked Logan Stenberg back with a long arm on his second rep.
• The Lions had two 11-on-11 periods Friday that were void of any big plays. David Montgomery took a handoff on the first play of the first team period and had a nice run off the back of Sewell and LaPorta. LaPorta caught a pass from undrafted rookie Adrian Martinez later in the same period when he snuck out the backside of the same formation when it appeared Khalil Dorsey overpursued a run fake.
Campbell got some work with the first-team defense and made a would-be run stop on a play that Harris seemed to do a nice holding the edge, and the rookie forced and recovered a fumble later in practice what seemed like 20 yards downfield on Craig Reynolds.
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• Halapoulivaati Vaitai worked second-team right guard in his return to practice after sitting out Wednesday with a sore back. Vaitai took about half the reps with his group in each period before giving way to Kayode Awosika.
Also on the injury front, C.J. Gardner-Johnson has progressed to light running and shuffling in the Lions’ rehab group in his return from a knee injury. Jameson Williams (hamstring) was sprinting full speed. Williams and Marvin Jones both look ahead of Gardner-Johnson in their return to action, though the Lions might want to proceed cautiously with Williams for a few days to as not to cost him anymore practice time down the road.
• Denzel Mims said he never played much special teams with the New York Jets, but he seemed like a natural in the Lions’ one-on-one special teams period, tossing Green to the ground. The Lions used Thomas and Ifeatu Melifonwu as their top gunners Friday (albeit with the second-team punt unit), and gave Chase Lucas and Trinity Benson second crack at the job. In his return after a one-day absence due to injury, Branch, who had been playing on the top punt cover team, did not take gunner reps as part of the full unit.
• Lions owner Sheila Hamp and husband Steve made their first appearance at practice Friday, on the first semi-open day of camp. Friday was a friends-and-family day, so a lot of players brought their significant others and children on the field.
• Green walked off the field with trainers late in practice and seemed to be suffering the effects of a muggy day. He re-emerged after practice and was surrounded by team and EMS personnel as he sat in an ice tub to cool his body temperature, with what appeared to be a thermometer in his mouth.
Temperatures were in the mid-80s for most of practice, but Sorsdal joked that he had to ring out his tape he sweated so much, and even coaches such as Campbell, Aaron Glenn and Dre Bly came off the field soaked in sweat.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s too hot, it’s just not much wind, it’s real humid out here,” Houston said. “It’s kind of like South Florida, but South Florida, we get the wind. Just got to get through it. I guess it was good for the first day of pads to get your breath under you, feel the pads and not really be able to breathe so much.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.