Lions training camp Day 17 observations: Takeaways from each drill
· Yahoo Sports
Entering the Detroit Lions’ final week of training camp, practices are more important than ever. It’s one of the final opportunities for the starters to build chemistry and shake rust. And for the rest of the crew, it’s a chance to leave a lasting impression.
Here’s what I noticed from a lengthy Day 17 of Lions camp.
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There was a lot of injury news, so make sure you’re caught up on all of that here.
11-on-11s, part 1
Screens galore
The Lions offense ran several bubble screens, normal screens, and tosses in this section. Clearly, they are trying to get their playmakers the ball in their hands with a bunch of open space. And with an athletic group of offensive linemen, they can often get blockers downfield in a hurry to take out some linebackers and defensive backs.
Malcolm Rodriguez vs. Devin White heats up
There is clearly a competition brewing for the starting WILL linebacker role alongside Jack Campbell and Derrick Barnes. Rodriguez and White have been sharing first- and second-team reps for the past week or so, and on Tuesday they often shared the field at the same time alongside Campbell in three linebacker sets. Additionally, with Trevor Nowaske leaving practice early, both seemed to get double the reps with the second team. It feels like the staff is intentionally trying to douse both with reps to see who wins.
Rodriguez had a nice sideline-to-sideline pursuit on a toss play, while White shined more later in practice.
Hello, Ben Bartch
Bartch has had trouble staying on the field, leading to him falling out of the starting left guard competition. But on Tuesday, he reminded media why the Lions were hopeful of him. He delivered one of the most punishing downfield blocks in camp, plowing over White on a screen play.
Bartch is unlikely to take the starting job away from Christian Mahogany, but if he can put together a strong week of camp, a good preseason finale, and stay on the field, it’s possible that the position battle continues into the season.
11s, part 2
Sione Vaki bounces back
Early in practice, Vaki got chewed out after failing to finish a run. But in the next set of 11-on-11s, he flashed some of his offensive potential on back-to-back plays. On the first, he absorbed a huge hit from a blitzing Jack Campbell, but he regrouped himself, squared up, and kept Campbell at bay. The pocket stayed clear and Jared Goff connected with a wide-open Amon-Ra St. Brown for 20+ yards.
On the second play, Vaki found the soft spot in the zone between Campbell and White for a conversion on third-and-5ish. After the sequence, Vaki got a ton of love from running backs coach Tashard Choice.
Jameson Williams screen is dangerous
Without getting into too many details, let’s just say that if the Lions can run the kind of WR screen they did in Tuesday’s practice, Jameson Williams is a danger for a house call. That’s exactly what he did on this play, and while it looked for a second like D.J. Reed may catch him, Jamo’s speed is just different.
OL vs. DL drills
Interior offensive line starts to settle in
While the offensive line has to work on chemistry more than anything, I thought the 1-on-1 performance from Detroit’s projected interior offensive linemen was highly encouraging. Mahogany managed the strength of Alim McNeill on his rep, Juice Scruggs absolutely swallowed Tyleik Williams, and Tate Ratledge put Skyler Gill-Howard on the ground.
Then, when they were working on defending stunts, Mahogany and Penei Sewell easily took care of Aidan Hutchinson and McNeill in back-to-back reps. It was more of a split between Blake Miller/Ratledge vs. Gill-Howard/DJ Wonnum, but I would still tip the scales in the offensive line’s favor.
Tyler Lacy is STRONG
About a week ago, Lions coach Dan Campbell noted how Lacy—and Levi Onwuzurike—were likely the two strongest players on the defensive line. On Wednesday, Lacy showed that by just slowly and steadily shoving Larry Borom into the pocket.
Aidan Hutchinson vs. Penei Sewell is cinema
Hutchinson kicked off the rep with his nasty spin move, getting inside of Sewell for the sack. When the two lined up a second time, Hutchinson decided to just give him pure power, and the defensive end was able to get Sewell pretty far back into the pocket. However, Sewell eventually found his anchor, and I gave him the slight win.
Special teams — gunners vs. jammers
3 winners
As always, Vaki stood out as a big winner from these reps, beating Jacob Saylors pretty handily with a nice re-anchor as a jammer, freeing the return man for a nice rushing lane.
In perhaps the biggest upset of the day, I had rookie defensive back Keith Abney winning both of his reps (as a gunner and jammer) against special teams ace Khalil Dorsey. I’m not accustomed to seeing Dorsey lose a single rep, let alone back-to-backs.
Lucky Jackson, who is fighting for a reserve receiver role, also won both of his reps… against struggling cornerback Ennis Rakestraw.
Situational drills
The Lions ran three situational drills. Here are the results of each:
Situation 1 (first teamers):
- Tied 20-20
- 51 seconds left
- Offense has the ball on its own 40-yard line
- 3 timeouts
The offense gained just 18 yards on six plays, but it was enough to get Jake Bates to try a 60-yard field goal, and he nailed it for the win.
Situation 2 (second teamers):
- Tied 20-20
- 51 seconds left
- Offense has the ball on its own 40-yard line
- 3 timeouts
A big 21-yard pickup by Tay Martin immediately put the offense in scoring position, and Bates drilled a 47-yard field goal to win.
Situation 3 (first teamers):
- Offense down 21-30
- Starting on the opponent’s 18-yard line
- 3:31 left
- 3 timeouts
It took a while, but the first-team offense scored on a 1-yard Jared Goff QB sneak. After the second-team offense was forced into a three-and-out on three straight runs, the offense got the ball back down 2 points with 1:42 left on their own 16-yard line. Two Aidan Hutchinson sacks later, a pass slipped through Jahmyr Gibbs’ hands for a game-sealing interception by D.J. Reed.
Now, some takeaways from these drives:
Rock Ya-Sin dominates
Locked in Rock! pic.twitter.com/oiSRuwJVBs
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) August 25, 2026
Ya-Sin started these drills with a nice pass breakup on a wheel route to St. Brown. Then he forced the incomplete pass to Isaac TeSlaa (as seen above) on third down to force the 60-yard field goal attempt. But his best work was done in the red zone against St. Brown. He blanketed the veteran receiver on a post route and gave him hell on another—but was called for defensive pass interference. For the entire day, I had Ya-Sin with a sack and/or pressure and three pass breakups—and I didn’t even watch 7-on-7s.
Aidan Hutchinson calls game
I already alluded to it, but Hutchinson logged two sacks during team drills, probably should’ve been credited with another, and had a pocket collapsing pressure that forced an incomplete pass. This is coming against both Miller and Sewell.
Skyler Gill-Howard with plenty of first-team work
On top of repping against starters in one-on-ones, rookie defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard saw a ton of work with the first-team defense during end-of-game drills, as Detroit clearly trusts him in a pass-rushing role right now. Admittedly, he wasn’t nearly as disruptive as he has been against second-teamers, but it’s still encouraging to see him get that work.
Miscellaneous:
- Jake Bates’ day:
- Makes: 34, 40, 44; 39, 44; 60, 47, XP
- Misses: 49, 49 (again… I think)
- Keith Abney got nearly all of the first-team nickel reps with Christian Izien sidelined. I thought it was one of his best practices, with strong red zone coverage against St. Brown, as well. He forced an incompletion on one play, then followed it up by keeping St. Brown short of the goal line on a 1-yard completion.
- Altmyer is still consistently repping as the backup quarterback, and Josh Dobbs got zero situational drill time.