Lions Uncaged DB Scouting Report

I went to the Lions training camp at Ford Field today hoping to see for myself if the defensive backs were as bad as some of the sports radio folks had them made out to be. I'll tell you, I was very disappointed in their ability to see talent.

Throughout the practice, the DB's did footwork/press coverage drills, one-on-one coverage drills against the wide receivers, and finally, the full team scrimmages. Since these are professional athletes, everyone was good at the footwork stuff. The real interesting part was the one-on-one drills. During this period, I got to see how the DB's coverage skills were, and how they reacted when a ball was in the air. Chris Houston appeared to be the most talented DB while preforming this drill. More than once I saw Houston either knock down the ball, or prevent his guy from getting in good position to catch a pass. The best part was, his guy also happened to be Calvin Johnson a few times. The other starter, Jonathan Wade, while I hate to admit it, looked rather average. Ever since Wade made his comments about wanting to have a great season I had been looking forward to seeing him in action. During the one-on-one drills, Wade didn't really get beat deep to many times, which is definitely good. His real problem appeared to be reacting to quick routes. While these are some of the hardest routes to cover, guys like Darrelle Revis always seem to be in position to make the play. The guy who really looked bad was Marvin White. He looked just like William James last year, never attempting to make a play on the ball. I swear, every time there was a deep ball, White would just stare at the receiver and plan what to do when the guy caught it, instead of trying to not let him catch it in the first place.

My favorite part was when the offensive seven ran passing plays against the DB's and linebackers. This part of practice showed how the DB's were reacting together. From what I had heard from the guys on 97.1 The Ticket, I was expecting Stafford to be bombing the Lions secondary into submission. Instead, I saw an awful lot of time in the pocket and short passes. You know what this means? This means that the DB's were covering all the deep and mid routes and forcing Stafford to go short. For the most part, when passes like that happen, you just witnessed a victory for the defense. While I am praising the DB's here, do not think that Stafford did not play well. He looked good. I literally do not remember seeing any balls hit the ground from a Stafford pass during any of his drills that he did.

I know I didn't really dissect the play of many individual players. What I really came away with was just the difference that I saw between last years secondary, and this years group. Last year, opposing quarterbacks just bombed the Lions DB's because of the kind of William James play I was mentioning earlier. This year, when the DB's gave up a big play, it was because Stafford actually made a sweet throw, or he diagnosed the coverage and knew locations that would be uncovered. Basically, the 2010 defensive backs obviously are not perfect and they can use some work, but they look phenomenal compared to last year. 

Towards the end of the practice, during the team 11 on 11, Stafford saw a man deep, it was Calvin Johnson. Stafford reared back and threw a bomb down the sideline. Calvin turned his hips, and streched his 6'4 frame to the sky, looking to make a 40 yard reception. To his dismay, and probably everyone in the stadium, the ball was deflected by the defensive back. While the crowd settled down from the excitement, number 23, Chris Houston trotted back to the huddle, probably quite pleased with himself having just jumped against one of the best receivers in the league. When I saw this, I suddenly had so much more confidence in Houston and what he could bring to the team. I sure hope the rest of the secondary try to reach the level of play that I saw from Houston today. If that happens, we should not have to worry to much about being dominated by the air any longer.