The second day of Detroit Lions’ joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars finished up the two matchups in advance of Saturday’s exhibition game at Ford Field. A sunny morning turned blustery as practice progressed with a cold front tracking quickly into the Detroit area, but the rainy weather held off for the entirety of practice.
Thursday’s practice was not in full pads or full contact, which makes it difficult to evaluate line play and pass rush/protection. The officials on the field were pretty lenient on allowing would-be tackles, letting plays run longer than typically happens in those situations.
Here’s some of the news and notes live from Allen Park on Thursday, August 17th.
CJGJ all day
After a mixed bag of a first day against Jacksonville, Lions DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson had an outstanding second day. Playing both safety and in the slot, his coverage skills and playmaking panache were on full display.
In early drills, Gardner-Johnson showed blanket coverage on Jaguars WR Zay Jones on two separate reps. No. 2 then picked off Trevor Lawrence on a play where the Jaguars QB overshot his intended target by several yards.
“CJGJ” wasn’t done, however. In later team drills, he got a hand on another Lawrence pass and nearly hauled in what would have been a spectacular INT. Lions CB Jerry Jacobs was guilty of an illegal contact penalty before the pass, but the range and closing ability Gardner-Johnson showed was exceptional.
Overall, the Lions first-team pass defense was sharper on Thursday than Wednesday, though Lawrence was also not as on-point as he was the prior day.
WR attrition means opportunity
The Lions practiced without three wideouts: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Denzel Mims. It left a void that several other wideouts need to fill in a chance to either make the team or move up the depth chart.
As was the case for much of Wednesday’s practice, it was Kalif Raymond who best seized the opportunity. Filling St. Brown’s customary slot role, Raymond was once again very effective in working crossing routes and combo routes and using his speed to separate quickly. Raymond was clearly Jared Goff’s preferred target.
Josh Reynolds earned the Lions offensive play of the day. On the first play of one set of team drills, Reynolds exploded past Jaguars corner Tyson Campbell down the left seam. Goff hit him in stride with a perfect pitch-and-catch for a long touchdown. Reynolds isn’t known for his speed but he took advantage of one count of hesitation by Campbell and struck paydirt.
Undrafted rookie Dylan Drummond saw a few first-team reps, reflecting how well he’s performed this summer. Drummond stood out on the second-team offense. Catching everything thrown near him, Drummond had one rep in particular that stood out. He sat in the middle of the Jaguars zone between the LB (DJ Coleman) and safety (Kaleb Hayes) and made a beautiful catch away from his body on a laser shot from Nate Sudfeld, who alternated working with the 2s with Teddy Bridgewater.
Trinity Benson returned to action and made a sweet shoetop catch along the sidelines. Marvin Jones had one sliding effort bounce off his hands on what was probably Goff’s worst throw of the day, but the coverage was good and both throw and catch required a high degree of difficulty. Jones was effective working in the hurry-up offense late in practice.
Defensive area for concern
On Wednesday, the Jaguars passing offense found a lot of success attacking the Lions defense with a blend of quick-hit routes that varied between the sideline and the middle of the field. That was true of the New York Giants in last week’s joint practices, too.
The Jaguars weren’t as effective at hitting the sideline throws on Thursday, but the middle-of-the-field defense from Detroit was a weak point. Backup QB C.J. Beathard was sharp in carving up the Lions’ second-team defense with a mix of short and intermediate throws. The coverage coordination between the LBs and safeties remains an area where Detroit’s defense needs to improve.
Jacksonville’s offense deserves some credit here, too. Rookie TE Brenton Strange made a fantastic catch over Lions rookie DB Brian Branch on the right hash. Branch was in good position, but a great throw away from his coverage by Lawrence and an athletic catch by Strange beat him. Christian Kirk also had a nice snag in tight coverage where he aggressively went after the ball instead of waiting for it, which would have resulted in at least a PD–if not an INT–by Kerby Joseph.
Quick hits
–We got a quick taste of the kicking battle while the penultimate team drills were taking place on the other practice field. Both Riley Patterson and John Parker Romo had one miss among five kicks. Patterson was wide left from what looked like 48 yards (it was difficult to see the exact yard marker) and Romo was wide left from five yards shorter. Both were attempted from the left hash with a gutsy wind blowing right to left. At the end of the team drills, Romo missed from 58 into the wind.
–Graham Glasgow filled in at center for Frank Ragnow, with Halapoulivaati Vaitai manning RG. The two rotated first-team reps at RG on Wednesday when Ragnow was active. After practice, Glasgow downplayed the divergence of skills needed between playing guard and center.
–A general observation that is more about the Jaguars D than the Lions RBs but was notable: cutback runs on the inside and delayed handoffs did not work, period. But when David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs or Craig Reynolds were able to hit the hole at speed, they found a lot of success. Jaguars LBs might be the fastest group the Lions see all year.
–RB Devine Ozigbo made his mark as a receiver. On one rep he caught a designed rollout/swing pass from Bridgewater and put a wicked ankle-breaker move on a Jaguars DB. Ozigbo’s quick transition from receiver to runner has stood out in both practices.
–There were a couple of minor dustups between the two teams but no all-out punches or fights, though one late scrum on the Jaguars sidelines after the Lions D blew up a swing pass got very crowded, very quickly.
–Didn’t note anyone for either squad leaving the field for an injury, which was one of the primary points for the teams agreeing to an unpadded practice.
