Two well-coached teams, in the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans, squared off at the tail end of training camp for a crisp, competitive session, both with eyes on a prize bigger than back-to-back division titles.
I set my sights on the Lions defense while Jeremy Reisman provided his offensive observations. Here’s how Kelvin Sheppard’s unit fared against Nick Caley’s Texans. (For the full play-by-play, check out the Pride of Detroit Direct recap video from Thursday’s joint practice.)
First team defensive backs
The Lions’ secondary was finally at full strength with Kerby Joseph back in the lineup. He wasted no time, stealing a C.J. Stroud pass intended for Nico Collins on the second snap of 7-on-7s, instantly energizing the defense. Beyond that, Joseph played sparingly, logging a couple early snaps in each series, and recording and an assisted tackle on Nick Chubb in the red zone. In his place, Rock Ya-Sin paired with Brian Branch at safety.
Branch was his usual disruptive self. He knifed downhill to stuff multiple runs at the line of scrimmage, including a trap play where he stonewalled Chubb inside the Texans’ 12-yard line—just as Alex Anzalone demolished the fullback. In coverage, Branch allowed only two short completions and delivered punishing contact both times. With Joseph and Branch patrolling together, Houston’s only success over the middle or deep came on one 15+ yard Collins grab.
On the perimeter, the starting corners—D.J. Reed, Terrion Arnold, and Amik Robertson—were tested plenty. Collins made plays, and Xavier Hutchinson chipped in, but Detroit’s corners responded with tight coverage, plays on the ball, and enough blanket reps to force throwaways and coverage sacks. They were tested well and will be sharper for the season because of it.
Arnold’s highlight came on a deep shot, running stride-for-stride with Collins before cleanly breaking up the pass near the goal line.
Reed stood out for his cardio on the day, with constant motion-tracking and coverage on crossers, but also for his physicality—blowing up a WR screen and helping in run support. Robertson added a diving interception on a misfire, a handful of tight coverage incompletions, plus a well-timed blitz that just missed.
The lone real blemish came on A 7-on-7 rub route touchdown to Collins where Reed and Robertson crossed wires. Otherwise, the starting DBs looked sticky, competitive, and are very much in the conversation with the league’s best secondaries.
Second team defensive backs
The reserves struggled. Allan George was picked on repeatedly, and Houston’s depth receivers—Hutchinson, rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylen Noel, and veteran Braxton Berrios—all took advantage when they were with the reserves against George, Tyson Russell, Luq Barcoo, and D.J. Miller. Barcoo salvaged his day a little with a tipped-ball interception, and Nick Whiteside flashed with a flying run stop on rookie Woody Marks.
Returning corner Khalil Dorsey saw limited work in 7-on-7s, surrendering a slant touchdown to Higgins as he eases back from injury.
The standout was Avonte Maddox, who had an end-zone interception, a pass breakup on Quintez Cephus, and two forced overthrows thanks to blanket coverage.
At safety, Erik Hallett II started each drive and rotated with Ian Kennelly and Loren Strickland. Hallett was often pulled into run support due to Atlanta’s explosive ground gains. Kennelly’s best moment came on a goal-line fade stop against Irv Smith Jr., while Strickland drew the short straw in slot coverage, giving up a first down to Hutchinson and a touchdown to Noel.
With final cuts looming, the back end of the safety group still feels unsettled.
Linebackers
This was an Alex Anzalone showcase. He smothered checkdowns and short passes to the outside, delivered tone-setting hits in 7-on-7s early, had a disrespectful fourth-down pass break-up near the goal line, made free-flowing tackles in run defense, and generally set the tempo. He even flushed Stroud out of the pocket on scrambles for two incompletions.
Jack Campbell had a peculiar day rotating out for Zach Cunningham after a few snaps of each series, but still made his presence felt with a big hit on Chubb and a crucial pass breakup late in the end of game session. Cunningham was active too, flashing in run defense, forcing a goal-line incompletion in man coverage, and nearly intercepting a Davis Mills pass over the middle.
Derrick Barnes had a quiet, uneven day. He allowed a walk-in Dameon Pierce touchdown in coverage, often lined up standing up over the guard, as opposed to on the edge in obvious passing situations with the three linebackers out there, and did log goal-line snaps at MIKE linebacker (with Campbell on limited reps).
Grant Stuard was boom-or-bust. He was caught over-pursuing a couple times but delivered highlight stops on back-to-back goal-line series, including a TFL with Al-Quadin Muhammad on a nearly well-developed long trap play, and a double-tackle of both the fullback and RB.
Trevor Nowakse had one play where Marks juked past him while trying to contain the edge and allowed a big chunk rush but nothing notable outside of that.
With the third team defense not getting any run it was limited snaps for Ezekiel Turner, Anthony Pittman, and DaRon Gilbert (not entirely sure he saw the field).
Defensive line
Let’s keep in mind that I missed 1-on-1 pass rush between the Texans offensive line and the Lions defensive line, while focusing on 7-on7’s, due to nature of the practice field access.
Aidan Hutchinson was a tone-setter again, particularly in goal-line scenarios where he notched a sack, pressured Stroud into rushed throws, and forced scrambles. Hutchinson also had a pressure on the first play of the end of game scenario. There were a few times I noted egregious holds by right tackle Tytus Howard on Hutchinson that went uncalled. Houston’s quick passing kept sack totals down, but Hutchinson’s constant presence was undeniable.
Marcus Davenport bullrushed his way through rookie Aireontae Ersery on one occasion to force an inaccurate, rushed Stroud throw. He also had one heck of a beastly hustle play where he helped Robertson to tabletop Collins on a tunnel screen. Davenport flashed for me most actually in the end-of-game scenario where he rushed from the interior and crushed Laken Tomlinson like a baseball bat to tomato can on one bullrush. Then the next play, he spun into center Jake Andrews and bopping his helmet clean into the air on forceful impact.
DJ Reader shut down a run for no gain on the first play with Brian Branch. Then he nearly perfectly timed a Stroud short toss for a volleyball spike—all while overall holding up a fortress of solitude for the linebackers in run defense.
Tyleik Williams first flashed in the initial team drill by making a pile, falling to his knee, eating the double team and forcing Chubb to cut back where teammates stopped him for no gain. That set the tone, as he and Reader consistently helped to prevent any successful runs up the middle (A- or B-Gaps). Williams’ most impressive play was a fourth down pass rush, combined with Hutchinson, where he swiftly ripped through to force Stroud to throw a give-up ball incompletion on the final down.
On the second unit, Al-Quadin Muhammad was the standout—disrupting runs and flashing clean backfield penetration even against quality Texans tackles in Cam Robinson and Blake Fisher. Keith Cooper Jr. mixed reps with the first and second teams, showing versatility as both a 4i end and an interior rusher (with the first team in the end-of-game scenario)
Nate Lynn had one high-quality speed rush of Robinson but also got sucked up by the undertow twice, failing to set the edge for long Marks runs.
You’ll notice a majority of long Marks runs I have mentioned have been to the outside and a reason for that is the stout play of Roy Lopez, who held up interior blockers. He also made one play, combined with Cooper, to bring down Dare Ogunbowale for a loss.
Since the third team defense didn’t get any series, Brodric Martin had an opportunity to rotate in with the second team defense and immediately was baited into going up field only to be trapped allowing the Texans to gash them for at least 15 yards on the ground.
Isaac Ukwu and Mitchell Agude didn’t get quite as many reps as Muhammad and Lynn on the day, but they did combine for a shared sack to end a Texans red-zone drive.
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