Throughout the offseason, the Detroit Lions offense has been under the microscope, and in training camp, it has taken its lumps from its own defense. Against Miami, that first-team offense found its footing and then kicked in the door, looking very much like last year’s high-powered, league-leading attack.
It’s worth noting that the Dolphins were already without edge rusher Jaelan Phillips and then lost Chop Robinson early in first-team drills. Still, this was a promising step for the offense under John Morton and with a new interior offensive line.
Jeremy Reisman already has you covered the defensive side of the joint practices, while he and I provided the full Pride of Detroit Direct recap video. In this article, I’ll take you through the offensive highlights.
St. Brown’s big day
Amon-Ra St. Brown was a supernova. As the Lions’ highlight reel has shown, it was a breathtaking display.
Jameson Williams has received plenty of buzz for his strong start to his fourth season, but St. Brown reminded everyone he is WR1 and, at times, unguardable. He opened one-on-one drills with an emphatic 40-yard touchdown on a go route, started the first-team drill with a 20+ yard catch, scored back-to-back touchdowns in red zone drills, and kicked off the end-of-game scenario with a big shoelace grab.
St. Brown dominated Dolphins defensive backs, winning over the top, making spectacular sideline catches, and carving up the intermediate to deep middle of the field. His passer rating when targeted today had to be a perfect 158.3—especially matched up against cornerback Jack Jones. The joint practice was a good reminder that St. Brown is capable of taking over games like the league’s other elite receivers, creating constant cushion with crisp route running. That performance will go down as one of the most dominant individual practices I’ve ever seen.
Chef Goff
Miami’s defensive backs looked like freshly grilled mahi-mahi as Jared Goff filleted them throughout practice.
He had a telekinetic connection with St. Brown, attacked the middle of the field with confidence, displayed terrific touch, and navigated the pocket like the 10-year pro he is. He dominated in 7-on-7s, red zone, and midfield situations.
Goff also dialed up consistent precision passing to Williams and Sam LaPorta for big gains. Williams turned short crossers into 20–30+ yard plays, while LaPorta proved a mismatch nightmare for linebackers, repeatedly gaining first downs. With Tim Patrick out and Kalif Raymond missing some reps, Ronnie Bell ran with the first team and caught a few short gains from Goff in a muddy pocket.
Goff’s most impressive throws included a rifle to a levitating Williams in the end zone on the first red-zone play, a perfectly pearled ball past Jones’ earhole to St. Brown for a touchdown, and mustering a sideline strike to Raymond after double-clutching in the pocket.
Penei & the pocket protectors
Turns out being a 24-year-old, two-time first-team All-Pro who goes up against Aidan Hutchinson every day makes most other matchups look like a stroll in the park.
Penei Sewell stonewalled Chop Robinson in four one-on-one pass-rush reps, and after Robinson’s injury, Sewell continued to dominate a revolving door of replacements, with Bradley Chubb staying on the opposite side at left defensive end for the most part. In the run game, Sewell consistently set the edge or moved the pile. Rookie Tate Ratledge and Sewell were imposing on double teams, reinforcing that right guard is an ideal spot for Ratledge in Year 1.
Taylor Decker returned and made an immediate impact. Overall, the starting offensive line won their first eight one-on-one pass-rush reps collectively and 18 of 20 by the end, with only Christian Mahogany and Ratledge surrendering one each to Zach Sieler. Decker played about half the first-team reps, battling Chubb well, but pressures from his absence—with Dan Skipper or Jamarco Jones stepping in—were noticeable, with most coming from that blind side.
Graham Glasgow was particularly impressive, shutting down Benito Jones on all three reps with ease. He also looked rejuvenated in team drills, even pulling like Frank Ragnow on more than one occasion, and consistently helped churn out running room alongside Mahogany and Ratledge. The trio had some really nice moments on the ground where all three executed their job.
Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery had gaping holes, being able to hit the second level quickly, run through arm tackles, and show off burst, finding success in short-yardage and goal-line situations.
It wasn’t all perfect for the young interior duo. While they had solid days, Ratledge allowed a sack on a bullrush to fellow rookie Kenneth Grant and was beaten by Derrick McClendon on a swim move in team drills, while Mahogany had a few miscommunications on defensive-line stunts, especially when Skipper or Jones was in, with Sieler causing problems.
Misfortune & mistakes
While the Lions’ cream of the crop rose to the occasion, it wasn’t all peaches and cream. The second- and third-team offenses struggled to find rhythm, only having success on a few big Craig Reynolds plays—including some strong runs and a nifty red-zone receiving touchdown—one tough-nosed Sione Vaki run, and some high-percentage throws to Shane Zylstra.
Hendon Hooker started with the second team, with Kyle Allen rotating in for the third (with occasional snaps with the 2s), but neither looked comfortable. Both quarterbacks were out of sync with their receivers, unable to attack downfield, and struggled in fragmented pockets.
The backup offensive line, particularly Giovanni Manu, also had a rough day. Manu rotated between the second and third teams, failed to win any one-on-one pass-rush reps, and was flagged for a false start. The second day of practice against the Dolphins should be a chance to take one step back, then two steps forward.
Other miscues included two would-be 40-yard touchdown drops by Jameson Williams in one-on-ones, plus fumbles from Montgomery and Vaki.
Finally, the first-team offense didn’t quite end with the bang they’d hoped for. In the end-of-game scenario, they came up short of the end zone and settled for a simulated Jake Bates field goal attempt after marching most of the 54-second clock from their own 30-yard line with two timeouts. The scoreboard technically read 10–10 before the non-kick—it would have been a walk-off game-winner—but the first-team offense would have liked to find the end zone one more time.
