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Speaker 2: Everyone, Jeff Risen here going live today. Welcome to the Detroit Lions mini camp wrap up. Been in Allen Park for the last two days. Fun time. I get to watch some decent football. Obviously, not in pads, but I wanted to go over basically what I saw and picked up in the last two days in Allen Park. And, it was, it's competitive. Two days in a row, the rain started just as we were wrapping up the the final player post practice interview, so it worked out pretty well. I am, currently remote. You will see, the the the lighting and background here just it's not great. It is what it is. Don't worry about it. We'll get through it. We are expecting thunderstorms, in the area fairly soon. Hopefully, we can get through that without, this part over here going crazy. The, wanted to go over some of the just bigger picture takeaways to start. And first was you're gonna like more of the past defense based on what I've seen the last couple days. It's not just that the players are different, better I don't know if they're better yet. But one of the things that we're seeing is that there's more mixing and matching of coverage. More zone, more more immediate switches. It's and so one of the big points that a lot of the coaches have talked to, we've got to talk to just about every offensive and defensive assistant in the last couple of days. And it's a very consistent theme that from the offense, they're trying to create a lot of confusion, indecision in the defense with their formations, with their personnel packages, with how their operating plays, sort of being able to do multiple things out of the same look and, also run multiple, like the same play out of multiple looks. And the defense has to answer that by being able to read and react quickly, but they're also trying to do some things, more proactively. And I will say just from a schematic standpoint, I saw more of it from the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side of the ball in terms of trying to dictate what the offense is gonna be able to do or at least showing the offense what the defense wants them to think that they can do. Didn't always work. It just doesn't NFL, it doesn't always work that way. But I was happy to see that Kelvin Shepherd is not married to a four three defense, that he is listening to his assistants, that he's trusting his players. Chuck Clark, man. I'm so happy that we have Chuck Clark. Didn't know what to expect from him. Veteran safety who's been around a long time. I was worried that he might be done. And again, it's not in the past, they're not hitting, so don't know about that. But his mind is freaking sharp. And as Jim O'Neil told us today, he's an alpha leader at the back end of the defense. He he is a guy that they would feel comfortable having the green dot on. Guess he's been here for, like, two months. That's that's what you're getting in Chuck Clark. And I do think that his performance, DJ Reed's performance at outside corner, I think you're seeing the veterans step up and realize, you know what? We've got a lot of talent here, and they do. And we gotta play more like it. So, see if I can keep up with these comments here. I, I will try. Can I show that? There we go. Okay.

Speaker 0: I'll try

Speaker 2: to keep up with that as best as I can. But the scheme is more conducive to, creating takeaways and getting your hands on the ball. It's a recurring theme. Theme. And Dan actually talked about in his press conference before today's practice. I guess, easy to talk about it and prioritize it all 32 teams do. If they do, he's not wrong. But there's a lot more of implementation of it. And I I wanna hearken back to talking to Chuck Clark after yesterday's practice. And he talked about how DJ Reed invited all the defensive backroom over to his place to watch film of the practices so they could get a feel for what the offense was trying to do. And it worked because they got their hands on a ton of passes. They were aggressively jumping routes. They understood, you know, their film study produced results. And I don't wanna say that the film study in the past hasn't been as effective because that's that's being disingenuous. But it really stood out that this group can quickly implement what they saw on film onto the field and and make better things happen than what we've seen. So, the coverage, big thumbs up. Offensive side of the ball. And this is we get this a lot in Lions media, and you're seeing it a lot in in the the national media as well. Drew Petzig is a 13 personnel guy. Y'all, I did not see one rep of 13 personnel in two days, and I asked some other guys who were there who had been there for OTAs, and they're like, we haven't seen it yet. Doesn't mean it's not gonna come, and I do have to put the caveat out there. They don't really have three NFL healthy tight ends right now. Sam Laporta, not practicing. Tyler Conklin was not present. Didn't didn't we didn't hear, by the way, and we didn't get a chance to ask Dan either. They cut us off a little early on that. So tight end one was Brock Wright. Tight end two was either Jackson Meeks or Miles Kitzelman. Not exactly gonna threaten the defense when Zach Horton didn't do that great this week. It's it's your tight end three. And, you know, maybe that changes when the room is healthy, but whole lot whole lot of of 11 personnel. And even some, four wides, much more than we saw even two tight end sets. So do not buy into this mythos that they're gonna run a lot of 13 personnel. May maybe they will, but we're not seeing it now. And this is where they're staging and implementing everything now. Do a couple of the questions here. This is weird. If you're new to VibeCheck in terms of crystals and gemstones, is it more amethyst, ruby, citrine, or another vibe stone? I don't know what that means. My birthstone is sapphire, so I'll go with that. I don't know what that means, though. Same girl, different skirt. So I wanna this was this was a comment from this morning. We chewed on this in the media room afterwards. Media room was fun today, by the way. Bob Loge Loge was there, and Loge had never heard of Gushers candy. By the way, I hadn't either. And Bob tried a gusher, and he very nearly spat it out. It was fun fun side, but we were talking about this very comment. At that time, yeah, there there's there's a lot of that sort of thing going on, where you're you're gonna try to it's the same people, but you're trying to get them looking a little bit different. Same play structure, same basic play, but disguising it, hiding it. That's something that Drew Petzing is really good at. By the way, that's also something that Mike Kafka brings to the table, and I don't wanna I will say that we've probably undersold his influence as well. Took Kafka some doing to humble himself and come to be a passing game coordinator when he'd just been the interim head coach and there was some buzz that he would be the head coach in New York. Clearly, they like what they see there. So that was, on comments from today. Yeah. Couple of other things here. Another question here. If Kirby tries to play and just cannot perform, how long do you think the the lions will wait to pursue the insurance clauses in his contract? They'll wait till after the season. They don't need to do anything until March 5 or whenever the third day of the twenty twenty seven league year is. That's when his options kick in, and they have bonus options at that point. Collect on the insurance until he's until he's been gone and medically retired, and he's not he is not there yet. We got some optimism today from Jim O'Neil, his position coach, and the new associate head coach. By the way, don't ask Jim what that entails because he didn't know. He had fun with it. He thinks that Kirby is gonna be trying to go out there, and, I thought the question was asked of him, like, is where's the dividing line? Like, how often does he have to practice to to be able to play? He said that he he, you know, he definitely does need to practice and show that he can go through practice. He can't just roll out there just on games. I thought that was an important little tidbit. He talked about how, 85% of Kirby might not be better than 100% of Thomas Harper or Christian Izzie. And based on what I've seen this week, I would agree. And that's not a knock on Kirby either. That I I think general with the depth specifically is in such better hands this year. And we did not see Ivante Maddox this week either. He's he's been out with an illness. So, like, they they have better depth at safety than they had in a very long time. Because I'm looking at I'm looking at right now, the starting safeties week one, barring anything weird, are Chuck Clark and Christian Isian. Those are veteran starters. Those guys would start on a lot of other teams. Thomas Harper is your third safety. They had a good off season by all accounts, including my own. Looks looks decent. O'Neal talked about how they're teaching him to play more of the free safety role instead of just being in the box, and, he's taken to it. And he's we did see reps this week where he did indeed take to it. Dan Jackson's coming back. I am less concerned with safety now than I was when I got here. It's still a concern. No doubt about it. And finding the communication between the safeties and linebackers and safeties and cornerbacks is something that's gonna be a work in progress. That way, if they're all 32 teams though, when you've got new players coming in in such a critical position in a past heavy league, I will I will give the Lions their due respect on this. They have been much better at shoring up potential weaknesses, not just there, but also on the offensive line, with the depth than they have been in the past, and I appreciate that. I see some some social media regulars. Hi, Jim. Smart guy. I enjoy interacting with you on Twitter, my friend. But not. Click like if you wanna if you yes. Please click like. Thank you for that. If you wanna prevent Jeff's gout from flaring up. I have not had a gout flare up in a long time. I did, however, drink, like, three beers last night, and I'm kinda worried about how that goes because I I don't drink much anymore. We'll see how that plays out. I do have a dinner to go to tonight too. So, good question on this one from Chip. Does Jimmy Roller have a chance to be the Anzalone replacement this year? Heard so much negativity around that pick during draft time. Probably heard a little of that negativity from me. I'll be straight on that. I saw him play at Michigan, and watching him in real time, I didn't think I was looking at an NFL player, let alone a fourth round draft pick. I'm gonna take their early l on this one, and I'll I'll I'll I don't wanna excuse it, but I will provide some context to why I undersold him. As I've grown to learn from, talking to Michigan people as part of the huge show, talking to guys like Clayton Safie and, Anthony Broom, the Michigan insiders in general, and people also from the NFL side. Michigan was incredibly poorly coached last year, and it showed in their players that are going to the NFL this year. By the way, Derek Moore is another example of that. Roulder is so much smarter and quicker to react now than he was when I saw him play in October and September of last year. He's really smart. He's really quick, light on his feet, gets gets going where he needs to go pretty well, doesn't really buy a lot of eye candy from what I've seen. There were a couple of times where he was the stress point that the offense was trying to pick at. And I think he handled himself pretty well. Don't know if he's gonna be Anseloni. He is not that fast. He is not that, he's not that big either, but he is certainly impressing me more than I expected at this point, to the point where I can see him pushing Rodrigo for that number three spot. If not by the end of training camp, probably by the end of the season. And Dan Campbell talked today about not being held hostage and a lot of consternation came out about that. It's probably not the best phrasing from coach. One of the things that he was talking about was a situation like this where they have a veteran in Rodrigo. They know what he is. They know what he's not. Roeder coming up might not be better than him now, but if we keep giving him the reps and by November, he will be better. And in 2027 and beyond, he will be better. We're gonna go to that. That's what Dan was talking about there. That is absolutely one of the situations that he's talking about. No question about it. You can see quarterback is another one where there are some young guys, Nick Whiteside being one of them, actually, Ennis Rake Straw belongs in this conversation as well. As guys who do have more developmental upside than maybe some of the start. Now they're not gonna the DJ Reed I've seen in the last two days is a starting number one corner in the NFL. I'll repeat that. The DJ Reed I watched the last two days in coverage is a legit number one NFL corner and is exactly what we thought we were gonna get when we signed into that big contract as a free agent. I I saw people pooh pooh ing him on social media like, y'all aren't here, are you? You're really not here. Yeah. He, he erased he erased to slaw from the field. He erased Saint from the field a couple of times. That's not easy to do. He's doing it by the way, he is a press corner. You're not really allowed to press much. Like, I'm not gonna say that there wasn't contact, but it's not they're not in bads. You're not, like, leaning and jamming and jolting the guy. He looked very good. Looked very good. I'm very happy about that. Good question here from Contra Pastan. Lacey still rubbing ahead of Moore. Yes. Lacy looks good, by the way. Tyler Lacy, Lions might have something there. And one of the questions that came up, I I put this into the the Patreon Slack at the DLP beforehand, was, you know, just get and one of the questions that got asked was, you know, give me some young guys who, or or somebody who can who's maybe this year's John Kaminski. I'm gonna say Tyler Lacy can be that guy. Guy who can play as the heavy end, he can also kick inside. He is big, he is strong, he does have quickness off the snap. So I I like that. This is again, to go back to what we're just talking about, Derek Moore is going to have to beat him out. It's not going to be given to him, just as Blake Miller is going to have to beat out Larry Borom. We all expect that's going to happen fairly soon, but Borom they've upgraded o t three with Larry Borom at worst. If he starts the first couple of weeks at right tackle instead of Blake Miller, I'll be a little disappointed to be straight, but I'm also not gonna be worried about it, because it there's a lot of times that I've covered a lot of NFL teams with a lot of different coaches over the years. When this team specifically, when Dan says something, I believe him. I think he's telling the truth. So when he says that they're comfortable having Larry Borom start until Blake Miller's ready, that doesn't need to be interpreted as, oh my god. Blake Miller's not ready. We better have him show like, that that's not that's not what he's saying. That's not that's not the message. The message is is that the guys are gonna have to earn it. Derek Moore held a very lengthy, meeting with the press after practice today. I, unfortunately, was not part of that scrum. I was, talking to somebody else, and you'll get that in a later podcast. But, it was it was nice to see him. He's very he by the way, I I did wind up at the end of that scrum. He's very quiet, soft spoken, not a guy who's a loud talker, which I'm certainly not guilty of. He looks good. He is a little bit bigger than I thought he would be in person as well. Again, I'd seen him play at Michigan, but I wasn't like on the field, you know, on field level. I, for whatever reason, didn't see him at the combine. Longer than I expected. And Lacey sort of fits that bill too. Did not see a lot from some of the other younger guys there. Peyton, this is a great question from f s u noll twenty eight. Thanks for watching. Peyton Turner, dark horse edge to win a job. To win a job, yes. Win a starting job, probably not. I made the comment, this is the first time I'd seen him this week, because he's wearing the same jersey as Marcus Davenport. If you told me that was Marcus Davenport out there, like physically, I'd believe you. I got to see Turner up a little bit closer. He's a little bit, slenderer than than Davenport, but big dude, impressive physical dude, and he is getting reps with the second team. Understand that he has had some cups of coffee with the first team, in place of Lacy and Moore. Yeah. He's got a shot. He was a very impressive power to speed rusher coming out of college. And when he was a first round draft pick, a lot of people thought, good pick? He's just had the same problem with Davenport and he can't stay healthy. If he's healthy, it's hard to see this Lions team giving up on the talent like that because he does things consistently that other guys haven't shown that they can do consistently. Let's see what else we got here. What's the difference between the skill set for the punt returner and kick returner to require different players? This is a very good question. Great question. The kick return is much more like a running back, especially with the way that things are blocked now. In that you want them to be able to react and set up blocks a little bit better, and react off of blocks. And it's also easier to have set blocking plays for a kick return. Punt return, you want a guy who's instinctively elusive and very quick, quicker than fast. Whereas you you kinda want a little bit more speed with your kick returner. They're trying a whole bunch of different combinations there. I will say this now, I will be shocked if Greg Dortch isn't the punt returner. And I will also bet that he will probably be one of the two kick returners that they have back there. But those jobs are very much up for grabs. If Tom Kennedy is gonna make this roster, that's where he does it. Khalil Dorsey has gotten some work back there and he doesn't look bad at it. If a guy like Dominic Lovett is ever gonna make this team and I don't like his chances at this point, that's where he's gonna make it. The, that that good question. I I don't feel like that gets explained very well. So thank you for asking, because I wouldn't have thought of a Terry Gator guy. Very good. Reid looked like CB one for the hand. I agree. People forget how good this defense was early last year. The defense was better than the offense through the first month of last season. You can go back and look. You can go watch. They really were. And then everybody got hurt in the secondary and it all fell apart. Teams figured out what the linebackers were doing. They've attacked the weak points and Ashurst didn't get home as much. By the way, wanted to bring this up because the defensive line coach talked today. And the question was asked by, who asked it? Nolan did. Nolan Bianchi because he was standing to my left in the media scrum. And he asked, you know, do you worry about the the time to pressure? And almost immediate pushback was, no. We don't care about that so much. You said it's not that it's not important, but there's so much more that goes into that. Like, if you're gonna be fast like that, one of the things that happens is that that does open up mobile quarterback lanes because you can react to that quicker. Whereas, you know, if you're being a little bit more delayed, there's just natural condensation in the middle of the field. I'm not sure that I agree with all of that, but it's a fair point and it signals the strategic thing. But he also pushed back, crush the can is not the only way that they're gonna play. I am going to say I will reserve judgment on that until I see them in pads. I did not watch a lot of line play to be straight this week, other than who was playing where. You know, they're not in pads. I do wanna see footwork. You can learn some things from unpadded things. You learn quickness with your hands, quickness with your feet, balance issues. If you're on the ground in non padded line play, probably not a good thing when you're there multiple times. Really not good? Won't give up who that was. There's one on each side of the ball though, and, they are players that a lot of people probably expect to make the team. Yeah. I don't think who is repping where matters. They are changing all the guys that show something a chance to earn it just like it should be. Yeah. I I I kind of agree with that. I will say it does feel like, it feels like some guys are getting a little bit more of a chance early than others. Now that could just be that it's just a two day, it's a smaller sample size. Once we get to training camp where we're here day in day out, I think we get, I have the schedule in front of you, I believe we get two and a half full weeks before the first preseason game. Don't hold me to that though. I don't don't have it in front of me, but that's that tends to be what it is. By that point, we'll have it. By the way, Dan did say today that he's open to the idea of playing starters and veterans in pre season, and I say bravo. I told this to Matt Derry earlier today when I recorded with him. Last year, in week one, the Green Bay Packers were ready to play the Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions were ready to play football, but not playing the Packers. And you could see the rust getting worked off in that game specifically on the offensive side of the ball. I don't want Jared Goff out there for more than a driver to. Jamir Gibbs doesn't have to play. But when you've got a offensive line that could have new starters in four of the five spots, you damn well better get them on the field. And I think that that's where Dan feels too. So I'm happy that he acknowledged that. And also the middle of the field defense where there's gonna be a lot of moving pieces and parts, I'm gonna well, Branch won't be there. Anseloni is gone. Kirby, I'm not gonna count out until I see it. Like, you've got a lot of different pieces there. Roger McCrory is mixing in. I mean, Robertson's gone. You know, somebody's just playing that role now. They need the work. They need the cohesion. I will say that the the communication on the defensive side, specifically in coverage, is better now than it has been at this same juncture, probably in any of the seasons under Dan, and that's a good thing. But, yeah, there there's certainly some sample size opportunity cost going on there, but I I I agree with you. I I agree with you on that. Dan is incapable of deception. Absolutely. He is a straight shooter, and we as media definitely appreciate that. I appreciate it as a man, frankly. Like, don't don't lie to me. I covered the Bill O'Brien Texans. He lied to us all the time. You don't need to. There's no need for that. I love it. Let's see. Lacey repping over more is the same thing. MCDC is not going to be held hostage just because a dude was drafted in round two. A 100%. Agree with that. Yeah. Good question here from from Donald Valley. Is Hutch gonna have his snaps dialed back? Yes. He's still gonna be out there a lot, but 90 I think it was 91.8% of the reps last year, that's untenable. He knows that. The coaches know that. If it's 75%, if it's and I'll go I'll I'll put my Browns hat here on for a second even though he's not there anymore. Miles Garrett never played more than 78% of the snaps in any season while he was in Cleveland. They would give him a drive or two off out of every four or five where he just wouldn't play. I can absolutely see the Lions doing that this year. They are aware that the way Hutch plays where he is 1000% gas, no breaks, every single snap, that you're probably better off playing him 55 snaps a game instead of 70 or, you know, playing him 48 instead of 60. That's they haven't come out and said that yet, but that's it it's very clear that they're they're gonna be going on with that. What else we got here? Just to add on that. Oh, yeah. So Hutch says he plans to take more breaks in the first three quarters, but he is not coming out of the game in fourth quarter in overtime. And that's very consistent with what Miles Garrett did in Cleveland. It's very consistent with what TJ Watt does in Pittsburgh, where he plays plays more than Garrett did, but he still will you will see series. We we saw it last year when we played them. They don't always have their best players on the field all the time. You have to have that depth. It's a long, long season, especially when your buy comes later, you gotta get to that point. That's that's where they're at this year. So, yeah, I would not write off Tyler Lacy in that battle. It's gonna be one of those, one of the projects that I'm gonna be working on. I am I leave for Florida, for AU volleyball with my daughter. We are leaving on Sunday, and I will be down there until the following Monday. So you probably won't get a daily every day, but one of the projects that I'm going to be working on down there, when I have some downtime, probably drinking by the pool, is a 53 man roster projection. And defensive end is going to be one where I got some questions. Linebacker depth, wide receiver depth. By the way, this this is this is a question that came up, a couple of times today. I haven't seen it in here, but that's that's that's it it could be here. I don't know. They signed three wide receivers from the UFL today. They were there. We actually didn't get notification of who they were until after practice. So, like, who's who's 17? Like, who's that out there? Like, we didn't get, like that guy wasn't here yesterday. But we got word on it. I have Emery Hunt scheduled to talk to me tomorrow. We had booked this a week ago to talk about UFL prospects. We're gonna modify that conversation with Emery. You will get this it will probably air on Saturday, maybe Friday, depending on on how some of the things play out. But I will ask him about the new additions at wide receiver. But one of the questions that was asked was why? Why are they bringing in three more wide receivers? Is there dissatisfaction with the bottom of the the wide receiver depth chart? My answer to that is absolutely. If you ask me who the easiest cut from the the wide receiver room is right now, today, Dominic Lovett. Small, not exceptional athletically, and he put a lot of balls in the ground this week. And from what I gathered from talking to other media guys, that's not the first time he's done that. This is he is at the situation now where his draft status does not save him. By the way, that entire 2024 draft class is something that's been made pretty clear behind the scenes. Just because you were drafted doesn't doesn't save you. Just looking at Manu, just looking at Wingo, looking at all those guys from that class, Rake Straw, I think Rake's gonna make by the way, I saw Rake Straw today with with, you know, he took his jersey off. He's definitely gained some mass. So good for you, dude. Hope I hope he stays healthy. He's a he's so he's a very easy guy to like and root for. He really is. I know I gave him a ton of crap, but you can see why the Lions like him, and I I can see why I like him in the draft too. Anthony Lucas is a popular one. I would suggest that you follow Will Birchfield because Will got some alone time with Anthony Lucas after practice today. Will's a very good guy, by the way. I enjoy hanging out with him. Best here in the media room too. Lucas is it is a pajama party. No doubt about it, but he does have something to him. He is long. He has burst. Didn't always show that at USC, and you gotta see it consistently, you gotta see it come on with pads on. He had a rep today where he was playing left defensive end, I'm sorry, right defensive, no, yes, left defensive end. Giovanni Manu was the right tackle. And he just whipped him. Like, Manu didn't touch him until he was passive. Like, Manu was expecting to be here, and Lucas sort of did one of these and up and under. And Manu was like, oh. I'd love to tell you that we're seeing more out of Giovanni Manu. Based on everything I've gathered, it's he's he has some work to do to make this team. Again, pads will make a big difference for him because he is a physical player. But, when I'm I'm just gonna tell you right now. When I'm doing my 53 amp projection, he will be on the outside. And I'm gonna guess that most people in the Detroit media who are here will tell you the same thing if they were doing one right now. And that's, that's unfortunate. That's, let's see. I wanna hear for Phil Channing. That would be nice. You know what? He'd like that. You know who else would like that? Tarion would like that. They are still tight. They're guys, man. Tarion said he's 75 to 80% today. He fielded questions nicely. He did not have to, by the way. He stayed longer than he needed to to answer the questions. I give him some credit for that because and I'll say, some of the questions were pretty pointed. I believe it was, it might have been, Rainer Sabin who asked him, you know, do you feel pressure this year in your third year to perform? And, like, he didn't necessarily dodge the question. And he stood there and took it and he he understands that he needs to be better. I look, I'm still a Terry on guy. I liked him coming out. I like what I saw from him. I think he was correct when he talked today that he thought he was playing his best football right before he got hurt. I would agree with him. I think the tape agrees with him, but he's he's gotta do a little he's gotta do more. He knows that. He he definitely knows that. He doesn't really feel pressure though. Now this is another prevailing theme that we've come across. Chuck Clark talked to that because I asked him straight up. Like, first question I asked him in his press conference. Now you're filling in some for some pretty big shoes here in in Brand Branch, Kirby Joseph. You know, do you feel pressure on that? And he looked at me like like I was from another planet, like, pressure. It's football, man. This is what we live for. Like, that's a great answer, sir. Didn't say that. But, you know, and, you know, in in just talking with, you know, I I've gotten a chance to to, you know, walk and talk for a brief second with a couple other guys, and the pressure there's it's not the pressure in the way that I think a lot of us would perceive that they have pressure. I think their pressure is much more about not letting the guy next to them down, rather than trying to exert themselves to be the best, if that makes sense. It's subtle, but it's sort of like, you know, I'm I'm not gonna, I don't wanna be the reason that this team doesn't succeed. And, like, I'm comfortable in what I do. I know what I do. I think the coaches are gonna put me in the position to do the things that I do well. That's been a very prevailing theme through for the Lions as a former student that Cam Sutton was not. I think Chuck Clark will be everything for the Lions as a former suit that Cam Sutton was not. Cam Sutton's a touchy subject. Yeah. Chuck is Chuck's a leader. Born leader. Natural leader. He talked about how, like like, even in, like, pee wee football, he was the guy. He's never lost that. Looks good too. Looks physically good. I my big worry with Chuck Clark was, you know, we're getting a 32 year old here. What does he got left? He looks good. Oh, he really does. You know? Yeah. And this is a good point from from Steven Beffy. If you get a chance to see the area mural interview with TA, it's clear that he's matured. Yeah. He's he's on a different maturation arc than J Mo was, that Hutch was, because Hutch Hutch needed to grow up so when he got here too. I think TA has I think he's benefited a lot from DJ Reed, honestly. I don't think that he benefited a great deal from Cam's Hud. Let's circle back to that. Cam was Cam's an interesting dude. I I liked the signing at the time, but that was one of those cases. And so when they signed him, I presumed when they signed him that he was gonna be CB two, CB three. Didn't expect him to be CB one, and that's kind of the role that he had to play, and he did his best at it. But when you're a, he's kind of a zone corner, when he'll play zone, they've gotten away from that. A lot less schematic misfits. Not that they've ever had a great deal of them, so I dropped my Pepsi cap, But it feels like they have clearer identification for what they want at the positions and are going about it. And health health plays along with that. From Ryan. Oddly enough, I think the thing that I'm looking forward to seeing the most this next season is how Petting and Kafka work together and how that manifests on the field. Yes. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Leads me into another question that I got from the Slack. And I don't remember who asked it, but I remember the question. Which coaches should we be prepared to be losing after this season, whether because they're either getting hired somewhere else or they're getting fired? Well, on the getting hired side, it wouldn't shock me if both of these guys wound up getting hired somewhere else. Now I think Kafka is more likely because Petzing is the OC. He can be the OC long term in Detroit if he wants to be. I'm not sure that he's a head coach. I'm not sure that he wants to be a head coach. Not sure like what like Mark Brunel, another one. He's the quarterback's coach. He might wanna be a passing game coordinator someday. I don't think he has aspirations of being a head coach or being even an offensive coordinator. Could be wrong on that. But some guys are just happy with where they're at. Petting strikes me as a guy who could be that. I can see Mike Kafka leaving right after the season's over for a for an OC job or maybe even a potential head coaching job. Shepherd is certainly one. I think Jim O'Neil is one. He talked today about how he doesn't care about titles, why he will guarantee you his agent does. And being made associate head coach this week, which he was, definitely gives him a leg up if he's trying to get to be a defensive coordinator somewhere else. And he's got the chance. If if the safety room and coverage overall improves the way that we've seen so far, if that persists, he's gonna get looks. Kelvin's gonna get looks as head coach. Kelvin's natural leader. I know people poo poo his defensive performance. That that's fair. You don't hire a coach based on their x's and o's. That's how you wind up with Adam Gase. That's how you wind up with Mike McDaniel. Just tragic mistakes. Hire guys who are leaders of men, who understand how to command a room, who understand how to coach coaches. It's one thing that I think Dan Campbell has improved at, even this off season, coaching his coaches, managing the staff. There's so much more to it than being a really good defensive scheme of mind or an offensive scheme of mind. I think the NFL is coming around to that, by the way. I think you're seeing more guys who are who show more leadership or more dynamic personality. Johnson fits that bill. D'Amico Ryans fits that bill. Robert Saleh fits that bill. See how how it goes for him second time around. You know, the you know, there there there's a lot of coaches that are like that that so I can see that. Scotty Montgomery, maybe. We'll see. That's that's gonna be a fun one. Hearing about the defense getting so many plays on the ball today, I'm curious to how if they are playing more zone. Yes. They are, but it's much more of we're showing man and dropping in the zone. And that, you gotta give the linebackers some credit on this as well. But the outside corners, there was one rep where the lines were in four wide. And I can't go over the exact specifics because I will get in trouble for it, but they basically the defense hid what they were going to do, and it led to Jared Goff throwing a ball directly to a defensive player. It was Dorsey. It's in my notes. Let me look back. That was oh, it was Keith Abney. Abney Abney has looked good, by the way. Didn't really notice him on Tuesday. Today, he was very good. Playing slot primarily, second team defense, yeah. Looked very much like he was should have been playing above that level. He did get burned though. Teddy Bridgewater, wanna talk about him for a quick second as the backup quarterback. Teddy is the opposite of consistent, which is troublesome to Mary, to how Dan talked today about preaching consistency and how the more consistent player will win over a player who might have higher highs but also lower lows. Through the two days, Penny Bridgewater has made the two best throws, like, unquestionably in camp. Like, wow. Like, he still got it. And then but two plays later, it's like, what? What are you doing? What are you seeing? Or what are you not seeing? So we'll see how that continues to play, but, Abney has looked look, every guest I've had in the Daily DLP draft wise has, like, laughed at the fact that he was went to the fifth round. Like, oh my god. This is a second round talent. Well, today, he looked like a second round talent. Again, the pads aren't on. You gotta gotta keep that in context. But, yeah, that was that that that's a good one. He's he looks like he's a keeper, which is gonna make that back end of the defensive backroom interesting because that is an area where Khalil Dorsey is a special teams captain to captain b, they can't keep everybody. And that's that's gonna be one of the positions where there's a crunch, especially if Rick Strahd is healthy and continues to play well, which would be a fun fun problem to have. A couple of the other notes from winners for the week, I gotta give it to Trevor Nowaski. He had a great pass defense yesterday. I talked about it in yesterday's daily, where he's running full speed to his left, the pass is behind him to his right. This is a Bridgewater throw, and he reached out and swatted it away. Great play. So today, they ran a play on special teams, and he is blocking for Vaki. And Vaki has the ball and is running, and Nowaski pecked him. Wasn't just running with him, he pecked him, and Vaki wasn't holding back. Nowaski might not be the greatest in coverage, but when you can run like that, they're gonna find a spot for you, certainly on special teams, if not on your defense. He's he's he looks good. I wanted to give one to him. Jack Fox, holy crap, put on a display today. Actually, both the specialists, I'll get I'll get to to Bates in a second. They were doing punt return drills and, like, downing punt drills. Fox is punting from his own 45 and own 40, somewhere in that range. And he probably kicked 20 balls. I think two of them flew into the end zone. I guess remarkable control. And, like, so what he's doing, he's kicking to the right on one rep, kicking to the left on the next rep, so they can keep him going pretty quick. It's ridiculous. At least half of them were downed inside the five. One of them went out of bounds. It was Dorsey who was actually down there, and he saw that the ball was going to bounce. He was in perfect position to get it. He was standing with his heels just in front of the goal line, and went out of pounced just in front of him, and he actually like clapped, like, yes, like really, really impressive. So Jake Bates ended mini camp today, nailing a 64 yard field goal. A little bit of wind at his back, but it was good from at least 70. 68 to 70. Definitely cleared the crossbar by that much. And it was it was fun to see, because the offense did not do great getting him in the position for that. That was the second team offense led by Teddy. He threw a pass, wasn't wasn't wasn't prime Teddy, unfortunately. He made Cedric Wilson on a quick out that they were trying to get, with no timeouts. And he threw it so low that Wilson had to go down to the ground and get it, and he got touched down. So the clock would have run out, But they let Bates kick it anyways, and he freaking nailed it, and it was pretty sweet. Yeah. There was there was a there was an interception in that drill in the first team as well. Where's that at? In the notes here. Oh, McCreary McCreary Roger McCreary gave him some negative attention yesterday. He was much better today, and that's what you like to see. And that was one of the reasons why I said, it's one day. You don't wanna overreact to one day. Well, we've doubled the data points now. He's batting 500. We'll get in the training camp and we'll see how that continues to progress. Today, he looked like the guy that they were expecting to replace at meek when they signed him. Now he'll battle Abney, he'll battle some other guys for that job as well, but today was much more encouraging on that front. So that's good. Yeah. We'll bring this one up because this is this is a good one, from Terry Gator. For our current defensive personnel, player personnel, and are there advantages to being cover one versus two, maybe a nickel or five two with down distance, and also hybrid man and zone or one or the other? Yeah. And all of the coaches have talked about being more multiple on defense. And I know that that sends a shiver down my spine, probably does yours too because that was Matt Patricia's favorite word. It was. Most for him meant, multiple ways that you can beat us. That's hopefully not the case anymore. But, yeah. You're gonna see more hybrid looks, and you're gonna see with guys like Maddox, Izzy, and Harper to some extent, can all play as a slot corner, but also function as a safety in that role. And Branch does that when he gets back. And that allows them to to be in nickel package more and do more out of it. And the cross training that that Chuck Clark was talking about, that Jim O'Neil was talking about, about how they're gonna have it where you don't know which safety is gonna be lined up where when just from when you come out of the offensive huddle. As good as Kirby and Branch are, you know that if they're gonna be, you know, one high, one low, you know, Kirby is high. You know, Branch is low. They're gonna be able to mix and match things more. And I do think that also plays into doing zone versus man more. So, yeah, you're gonna see more multiple looks out of that, at least based on what we've seen so far, and that's important. Couple of other winners that I had. Jabari Small as a backup running back. Look, I think the first three running back spots are taken. Gibbs, obviously. Pacheco, yeah. One thing I will say about him, he is, he's not as, like, upper body bulky as David Montgomery was, but they do have a lot of other similarities, aside from that. The other thing I I will notice and and I I noted this and, it was backed up by somebody else. He's not as fast as Montgomery. They've given they've given up some speed there, And Vaki will be number three. That's his job to lose. Again, he is on this team for specialties more than he's on this team for running backs, but it's very clear in talking to to to to to choice and watching the running but the running backs were working out right in front of us today, in the positional drill. So we got the very difficult to see him not making the team. But if they keep four or and if there is an injury or something, Small can catch the ball and he can do more than just outlet, like he can actually run more than just your basic route. And I thought he's had a couple of good days. Again, they're not tackling. One of the primary functions of running back and linebacker is tackling versus making tacklers miss. You can't evaluate that when they're not in pads, but, he kinda jumped up to me, as somebody that I should probably consider as a stronger candidate to at least stick on the practice squad, which is where he was last year. Another former UFO guy. Willie Cunningham has had a dude catches the ball. Sounds like trite and condescending, but if you're a wide receiver, your primary function, catch the ball that's thrown to you no matter where it's thrown. Malik Cunningham does that. A lot of the other guys that he's competing with for depth roles, not doing that. He got some second team reps and has looked okay. So he and he has size. So I'm I feel better about Malik Cunningham now than I did, going over here. I guess, just a few more minutes here. I gotta wrap this up. But, yeah. I just feel like our wide receivers are ball catchers. They yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Jameson Williams, likes catching the ball so much that he caught one twice today. It was actually worked out great too. So this was in the red zone or the two minute drill where they're trying to come back, and the ball is high. And I'm sure the lines will put this one on the highlights because it was it was pretty sweet. It was from my vantage point. It bounced off of his hands, but because it did, it changed what the defense reacted to. And Jago, like, quickly went and then recaught the ball and brought it down. And I wanna being for the benefit because if he caught it here, he was gonna get drilled even in a noncontact thing. Like, it it was I don't wanna call it a hospital ball, but it was one of those where he's gonna catch it and he's going to be down right away. And when he did what he did, unintentionally, it allowed him to get the ball much closer to the end zone, and facilitated a touchdown on the next play, where Goff hit Saint in the back of the end zone. Just ridiculously good throw. Goff in the red zone, man. He's fun. Goff hasn't been perfect, but he's been pretty damn good. But, yeah, sometimes we lose sight of that, like, and this is something that I have as a draft evaluator. If you're a linebacker, don't miss 20% of your tackles. If you're an offensive tackle, don't get beat on more than 8% of your pass rush sets. If you're a running back, don't run into your offensive lineman in front of you. If you're a wide receiver, if the ball can be caught, you catch it. It seems simple, but sometimes sometimes we get away from that. I think back to the oh, god. I've covered some bad football teams, y'all. The 2018 Cleveland Browns. Well, this was a team that was winless the year before. They had two wide receivers. Like, they're always open. Neither one of them could catch the damn ball. These were depth guys. I wound up not making the team, but, like, what are we doing here? Don't see a lot of that with this Lions team, thankfully. No fights today, Anthony Lucas and Devin Cochran did get into a fight yesterday. Two of them actually, Skip broke it up, which was kinda fun to see after Hank Fraley had led off his pre practice press conference, but Skip, you can't get involved in fights. Coaches don't fight, and he played peacemaker. Yeah. I I hope that once training camp starts, I get to focus a day or two specifically on just the offensive line. We'll see, see how that plays out, but it's tough in unpadded practices watching line play. Again, other than footwork and reactionary quickness, yeah. The first part of today's practice was half speed walk through install on some things. And, unfortunately, we're not allowed to talk about schematically what they are, but it was much more about getting people out after pre stamp motion what they did, and as the stamp came. And that is that is definitely a Drew Petzing thing. That is, by the way, a Ben Johnson thing. Ben was big on that. You're going to see more of Ben Johnson back into this offense with Drew Petzing. And I'm not saying that that Petzing is Johnson because they do have different minds and different backgrounds. But the idea that anything can happen on any play is much more back in play now than it was last year. And whether it was John Morton or Dan Campbell, You know, there was a comment earlier that Dan's incapable of deception. Well, it kind of plays into and he was talking about the press conference, but it kind of plays into the field like and I know he's the master of going for it on fourth down and, you know, gadget plays. But by and large, like, they were what you see was what you got. And I think you're gonna see much more window addressing. And and the they're much more capable this year of impacting the Brian Flores defense, of making good defenses question themselves more. And I'm hopeful that what we saw on defense in the last couple of days schematically translates into not being as easily to be easy to be manipulated or as easy to identify how to attack. That's that's the hope. That's all we can hope for because there is talent on this defense, y'all. I know a lot of you were down on this defense. It's early, but it's nice to see that the talent can play. And didn't always come the other last year. It's not always gonna come the other this year. There's gonna be I haven't gone I did go through and play the schedule game, and I got to twelve and five. There are going to be two or three games this year where they give up thirty, thirty five points and probably lose at least one of those games. There will also be a couple of games this year where the offense doesn't click for whatever reason. Goff has a bad day. Jameer is limited by a high ankles for some some the the line just isn't right. It's gonna happen where they're gonna lose a game 22 to 16. They might lose they might try to win a game 17 to 12, something like that. But by and large, I think this is a team that's gonna be in a lot of 33 to 28, 35 to 27 games, and they're gonna win more of them than they lose. And I will not back away from that. This this is a very, very good football team. Understand somebody came out and said that, you know, top to bottom, the the Lions roster is as good as any. I don't I don't disagree with that. They're by the way, they're ready for that expectation differently than they were a year ago. I think that that's that's a subtle mindset change. I think last year, they got a little bit carried away with it, that maybe our talent can just carry us, and that they didn't do enough to foster the things that they're gonna try to do to win games again. That hunger, that that, you know, relentlessness. Didn't really feel that with the twenty twenty five Lions for a variety of reasons. So far, it's back, but it's also June, June 17. Yeah. Appreciate this. Thanks for, for being our eyes at the facility. Love these live streams. And we're gonna try to do more live streams, obviously, once we get back into the season. But training camp training camp recaps are they're prime for life. And it appears that where I'm at now, which is where I where I will be, my forward operating base camp in Michigan, it appears the Internet is good enough to handle it here, which I'm grateful for. So we might try to do these more often. I might try to get somebody to come over. Russ Brown does not live terribly far away from me here. In fact, we've, he grew up in this area. Bischoff isn't far away. Sandman is not far away. Would love to get him in, and we can sit together and sit on this here couch. And, well, Andy's pretty big, so we might not be able to fit next to each other. We'll try to do things like that, where we do these these sorts of things. And and hopefully, Chris is able to come up for some for some training camp stuff as well. You will get me on training camp. I am taking a trip, with my son. My son plays basketball at Michigan Tech. They're going on an international trip, from the the week of the second preseason game, end of the week at the third preseason game. So I will actually be in absentia for a little bit of that time. Hopefully, the guys can cover some of that, while I'm gone. Next week, I like I said, I will be in Orlando next week. So you will not get a daily from me every day. Gray has threatened that his home studio where he he just relocated will be ready. I'm talking to Russ already about doing a show. We'll record a couple ahead of time. I know. Look. I'm one of those people. I get really antsy and uncomfortable when I'm not working, especially over a week. So I'm sure you will get one or two or maybe even three dailies from me while I'm down in Orlando. I might be hoarse. I also might be deaf because if you've never been to an indoor volleyball tournament, the one in Orlando has, I believe, it's a 116 courts in one venue. All of the courts have 20 to 25 teenage girls on them. They're all screaming all the time. There are whistles. It's cacophonously crazy, and I tend to get a little edgy. So it'll be fun. I appreciate you all joining me for this this, mini camp recap. Get back with you again. Again, I'm interviewing Emery tomorrow. We're talking about the UFL guys we signed and maybe other UFL guys that we have not signed yet or that are still out there. Emery did cover the UFL. He's also cover the CFL. Maybe we'll get on him about that. I do have a couple of other other things coming before we leave. But, thanks guys. I appreciate it. I love going live. It's great. You're the best. Thank you thank you so much for liking and subscribing, telling your friends, telling your enemies, telling your frenemies. I really do appreciate it. Jeff Friston signing up. Be good to one day, everybody.