The Detroit Lions held their mandatory team minicamp during the past week at the team’s training facility in Allen Park. I was there for the two days of practices, press conferences and conversations around the grounds. 

Here’s what stands out in my mind a couple of days after Lions minicamp adjourned and the team was sent on summer break. 

Morphing middle-of-field defense shows real promise

Absent the NFL’s most impactful safety duo in Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph, the Lions defense is retooling in the middle of the field. Specifically, they’re not relying on the dynamic safeties, both of whom are injured, to be the primary playmakers. 

Last season, after Joseph injured his knee early and then Branch tore his Achilles late, rookie coordinator Kelvin Sheppard struggled to find answers. It felt like Sheppard lacked confidence, freedom, time–a motley stew of circumstantial issues–to replace the emphasis on the safety position as the defensive focus. Now that he’s had time to evaluate, bounce ideas off his staff and get more creative, it appears Sheppard is germinating some potentially impressive new seeds and defensive roots. 

In two days of unpadded practice, we saw far better cohesion and communication between the outside corners and the safeties. It wasn’t just the starters, either; the second-team defense reflected the same improvement. The front-to-back coordination with the off-ball LBs and safeties/nickel DBs was also sharp. Unusually sharp for this time of the NFL calendar. 

Newcomer Chuck Clark deserves some credit here, but the veteran safety is far from the only one. Jack Campbell continues to emerge as a weapon, even unable to hit due to practice rules. It’s a group with an excellent collective football IQ. It’s already allowed Sheppard the opportunity to implement more diverse, deceptive coverage schemes. Based on how often Jared Goff and Teddy Bridgewater double-clutched on throws and had passes either broken up or picked off, I’d say it’s been far more promising than the more predictable, staid scheme of 2025 (and before). 

Offense is made for big plays

With the important and completely necessary context that the line wasn’t in pads and tackling wasn’t allowed, the offense looked a little different under new OC Drew Petzing and new passing game coordinator Mike Kafka. The early takeaway is that the Lions offense appears more bent on creating big plays instead of grinding yards and wearing out the opposing defense. 

It’s hard to fully explain without giving away some schematic talk that we’re not allowed to fully reveal at this point, but–in general–the offense was more all-or-nothing than it has been recently. It harkens back to the early Ben Johnson era, when the team often lit up the scoreboard but did so relatively inefficiently for such a high-scoring unit. Petzing certainly isn’t afraid to take shots or stress the defense both vertically and horizontally at the same time. But at this early juncture, the ability to grind out long drives or consistently get to 2nd-and-2 or 3rd-and-1 isn’t working nearly as well as the ability to get 33 yards on 2nd-and-8. 

The (hopeful) expectation is that once the pads come on, the remade line will be able to assert itself and foster more of the grinding style. The personnel are certainly capable of making that happen. It leads into the next point…

 

If there’s a need on offense, it’s tight end

Sam LaPorta is a young Pro Bowler, and he remains sidelined as he rehabs from back surgery. That’s a major missing piece, but it shines a light on a dusty corner of the Lions depth chart. The tight end room could use more talent, even after LaPorta returns. 

Perhaps veteran acquisition Tyler Conklin will provide that. He once was an impressive all-around tight end in his Jets heyday, which wasn’t that long ago. Conklin was not present for the mandatory minicamp, and we got no explanation either on or off the record for his absence. Without TE1 and the presumptive TE3, the minicamp proved that everyone else currently on the TE roster is at least one spot too high on the depth chart. 

That includes veteran Brock Wright, who has been a steady No. 2 throughout the entirety of the Dan Campbell era. Steady in an unspectacular way. 

Brock Wright’s last three seasons:

2023 – 13 catches, 91 yards, 1 TD

2024 – 13 catches, 100 yards, 2 TD

2025 – 14 catches, 108 yards, 2 TD

His PFF run blocking grade in all three seasons was at the bottom end of the middle tier of tight ends, too. Wright is smart and crafty, but lacks athletic dynamism. In minicamp, he also lacked reliable hands as a receiver, which exacerbated the issues with the TEs. 

Get well soon, Sam LaPorta. Get whatever is wrong righted, Tyler Conklin. Because right now Petzing’s offense will struggle to operate 2-TE sets, let alone 3-TE sets–of which we did not see a single occasion in two days of minicamp. By merciful necessity… 

Coaching smarter

One of my biggest gripes about the 2025 Detroit Lions, and I’m far from the only one lodging this complaint, was that the coaching staff didn’t adjust to personnel adversity very well. Tight end is a great example; when LaPorta and Wright went out, the offense simply plugged in lesser talents and didn’t make real accommodations for the lesser talent. Asking Anthony Firkser, Zack Horton et al, to perform exactly like LaPorta and Wright was foolish, but that didn’t stop last year’s staff. 

This year, it’s already different. Petzing, or more correctly, the offensive braintrust of Petzing, Dan Campbell, Mike Kafka, Scottie Montgomery and David Shaw, attacked largely without the tight ends as more than afterthoughts. Passes that were still being forced to TEs a year ago were instead directed to Greg Dortch and Isaac TeSlaa with the first-team offense, to Malik Cunningham and Jackson Meeks on the depth units. 

It’s true on defense, too. The cornerbacks couldn’t really press as strongly as normal due to the practice restrictions and lack of pads. It’s also not the fastest CB room in the league, particularly with Terrion Arnold still working back from surgery. Instead of asking that CB room to play press-man and log significant man-only snaps, Sheppard and his assistants played more zone. They played more mix-and-match and switched assignments right off the snap than we’ve ever seen the defense do under Campbell, too. As noted above, it did surrender some big plays, but it did a better job of stopping the more mundane. It also created confusion and hesitation in the Goffense, which isn’t easy to do. That’s a positive coaching adaptation and that’s already better than anything we witnessed in 2025 on either side of the ball from that standpoint. 

Player arrows pointing up

Many years ago (circa 2008-09), at an unpadded Senior Bowl practice, I sidled up with a couple of longtime NFL scouts and picked their brains about what I should be watching for in those situations. Movement, attitude, quick mastery of coaching points, communication were all key points, as was sheer athleticism. I’ve been blessed to have more input and opportunities to learn in those practice scenarios over the last 15-20 years. 

With that as the underlying evaluative basis, here’s who I’m more excited/optimistic about seeing in Lions training camp and beyond than I was a week ago:

Peyton Turner. Yeah, I know. He’s quite literally Marcus Davenport redux as an oft-injured pass-rushing EDGE. Fully acknowledging that fact, it’s very easy to see why the Lions found Turner appealing. He’s a little lither and leaner than Davenport, but still presents quite the imposing figure as a base DE. Even without pads, Turner flashed some power-to-speed potential. He’s quicker off the snap and strafes better than Davenport, or Charles Harris, or John Cominsky, or pretty much anyone else the Lions have tried to align opposite Aidan Hutchinson (who looks poised for another All-Pro campaign). 

Greg Dortch. I slathered praise on Dortch after Tuesday’s practice in that day’s Daily DLP, but I can’t oversell what a different dimension the diminutive Dortch brings to the offense. Unlike Kalif Raymond, who was more of a very short X-receiver, Dortch is a water bug of a slot. He’s instantly quick in any direction, both in his routes and once he gets the ball. He’s much more akin to Buffalo’s Khalil Skakir, or former Lions RB/slot Theo Riddick as a weapon, though Dortch doesn’t appear to be as top-end fast. Detroit hasn’t really had that kind of player working with Amon-Ra St. Brown. It could wind up being glorious for the Lions offense. 

Jimmy Rolder: I’ll be straightforward here. Based on his Michigan tape, I didn’t expect much from the rookie linebacker outside of sure tackling in the run game. So when the fourth-rounder looked as fluid, as savvy and as quick to react decisively in space in the pass game, it really grabbed my attention. Rolder moved in my mental roster gymnastics from someone fighting to win the final LB spot on the active 53-man roster to openly pushing Malcolm Rodriguez for LB3 this summer. It’s an infinitely small sample size to work off, but I feel a lot better about Rolder after minicamp. 

Amaris Brown: He’s not often mentioned as an undrafted rookie with real potential to make the 53-man roster, but Brown didn’t look out of place with the second-team defense when given a chance. The cornerback from UNLV (and USF and Kansas State) brings a “my ball” mentality but does so (at least in minicamp) with the right amount of risk aversion. He appears bigger than his listed 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, too. It’s going to be a battle for Brown to even stick on the practice squad, but it looks more feasible than before. 

Anthony Lucas: Lucas plays defensive end with bad intentions. That’s a positive, by the way. It got him into a fracas with giant tackle Devin Cochrane in Tuesday’s practice, one which new coach Dan Skipper of all people had to break up. Lucas throws the massive chip on his shoulder of not being drafted into every practice rep. The door is open for EDGE depth. I expect Lucas to insert as many body parts as he can into that door in training camp, and he’s got the size and potential to make it work in Detroit. 

Nick Whiteside: One of the key members of the Legion of Whom secondary last year, Whiteside demonstrated quick feet, smart use of leverage and fast reactions in both practice sessions. He largely dominated all wideout on the deeper realms of Detroit’s depth chart in coverage. While that might say more about wideouts like Kyre Duplessis (now a former Lion) and Dominic Lovett, Whiteside did what he needed to do to help himself.