Allen Park — Here are some notes and observations from Wednesday’s joint training camp practice between the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Note: To fully capture this practice, Nolan Bianchi and I split the two fields. I stuck with Detroit’s offense for the day, while Nolan kept eyes on the defense. Each observation will include the reporter’s initials at the end of the bullet point.
▶ In the simplest of terms, it wasn’t a good day for the Lions offense, particularly the passing game, which got little working, beyond short passes to the boundaries. If my notes were transformed into a tag cloud, the words “flare” and “flat” would be two of the largest.
Quarterback Jared Goff lacked his typical poise, putting some balls uncharacteristically in danger. One of those passes didn’t get enough air under it, allowing Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd to make an impressive one-handed interception. He nearly got a second pick off Goff when the quarterback rushed a pass off his back foot when facing a nickel blitz. The ball hit Lloyd in the chest, but he couldn’t hold on for the turnover.
Goff also misfired on one of his few downfield tosses, overthrowing Daniel Helm down the seam after the tight end got quality separation on his route. — JR
▶ On the defensive side of things, the Lions got off to a great start. Jacksonville couldn’t get anything going on the first-team, 11-on-11 segment to start the practice and finished the sequence with a pass that was batted down at the line by defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs. During second-team reps in the following sequence, Levi Onwuzurike made his best play of the day, wrapping up the running back for a loss of three yards. Onwuzurike would also get great penetration later in the day to force a check-down pass. — NB
▶ As expected, Teddy Bridgewater‘s workload expanded in his second full practice with the Lions. Rotating series with Nate Sudfeld, Bridgewater had some sharp moments, including a nice, downfield rollout pass out of play action to Helm. — JR
▶ During seven-on-seven red-zone drills, the trash talk really got going. Cornerback Cam Sutton got beat by Calvin Ridley on a corner route in the end zone for a touchdown, responded by making a terrific pass breakup on Jaguars tight end Evan Engram in the back of the end zone two plays later, then allowed a touchdown on the following play to Zay Jones — prompting the commencement of a long day of trash talk between the Jaguars and Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. — NB
▶ Before Jameson Williams exited practice because of an injury, I got an opportunity to take a closer look at his new pre-practice routine with position coach Antwaan Randle El.
It started with the two standing about a yard apart and shuffling laterally, as they exchanged a pair of miniature footballs (about the size of tennis balls), almost like they were working on a juggling routine. From there, it progressed to a regular-size football, with Randel El pushing it forward like a chest pass in basketball, forcing Williams’ to secure the ball coming at him from different angles.
The two closed the warmup session with the coach, a former college quarterback, firing bullets at the receiver from about 10 yards away, and Williams often being asked to look away, turn and locate the ball as it was coming out of Randle El’s hands.
It wasn’t perfect, but you could see improvement from the last pre-practice warmup. Williams has a long way to go with his hands, but it seems like the Lions are in the process of executing a plan that will get him in a better place. — JR
▶ It’s always tough to really gauge the success of a particular team’s run game in practice. While it’s certainly a good sign that the Lions stopped a good amount of runs for minimal to no gain, the Jaguars also seemed to have more success running the ball than the New York Giants did in joint practices last week. Over certain portions of Wednesday’s practice, Travis Etienne Jr., Tank Bigsby and JaMychal Hasty all had moments where they reached the second level without much resistance. — NB
▶ Things really started to turn up after the seven-on-sevens. After Etienne blew past the Lions’ defense on the first play of 11-on-11, Gardner-Johnson responded by blowing up Etienne on a run for little to no gain. Trevor Lawrence fumbled on a scramble two plays later. Then, as the first teams came back out, the Jags burned Detroit with an 80-yard touchdown pass down the sideline to Ridley; one play later, a violent tackle by Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone started a melee that resulted in a few punches being thrown, including one by Lions safety Savion Smith. — NB
▶ As the Lions continue to weigh a potentially difficult decision for the final receiving roster spot, both Antoine Green and Dylan Drummond got work with the first punt-return grouping. In terms of offense, Drummond keeps on keeping on. He’s efficient and reliable, which is why he’s found himself in the mix for a job as a rookie tryout player. On Wednesday, he added a quality diving catch across the middle on a low throw from Bridgewater to the resume.
Greene continues to battle inconsistency and he had a tough drop in the red zone, initially bobbling the ball before a big hit from linebacker Shaquille Quarterman dislodged it for good.
Green was also the target on a pass into the end zone that was intercepted, but the fault there goes to quarterback Nate Sudfeld, who forced it into double coverage, leading to cornerback Darious Williams undercutting the throw for the pick. — JR
▶ There weren’t really any huge plays from Detroit’s ground game, but there was definitely some encouraging efficiency with most runs going for at least 3 yards and several going from eight to 12. One of the best carries of the day was by Jermar Jefferson, who picked up excellent blocks from tight ends Brock Wright and Darnell Daniels to get around the right edge of the formation. — JR
▶ Romeo Okwara followed up his strong preseason debut with two sacks in Wednesday’s practice. His brother, Julian, who had three sacks against the Giants, was a little more quiet. One of his more notable plays of the day was a pressure on Jaguars quarterback C.J. Beathard that resulted in a throwaway. — NB
▶ Tight end James Mitchell is wasting the positive momentum he had coming out of the preseason opener, dropping two passes during this practice. — JR
▶ Safety Brady Breeze keeps doing little things right as he tries to back-door his way into a roster spot. In this one, he recovered a muffed punt. — JR
▶ The Lions’ starters stifled Jacksonville in the final few 11-on-11 sessions, including one where Gardner-Johnson hit former Lion Jamal Agnew so hard that he forced a fumble and may have broken his own helmet in the process. That was followed up by an interception a few plays later by Malcolm Rodriguez. Amusingly, he had been on the ground when the pass was thrown, but managed to pick off the intended throwaway and return it for a touchdown.
The second-team defense closed things out after a few seven-on-seven red-zone drills, and honestly, it was pretty ugly. Hasty ripped off a huge gain off a screen, Tim Jones caught a bomb of at least 40 yards over cornerback Steven Gilmore, Parker Washington caught a pass for 20 on Chase Lucas, and, on the final play of the day, Detroit cornerback Colby Richardson was flagged for defensive pass interference on a pass that was caught by Seth Williams for 40-50 yards, anyway.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers