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Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say after Sunday's training camp practice. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)
On CB Chris Houston: "He wasn't held out. He was out there working. We just limited his reps. We limited a decent number of guys today. A lot of them are nursing some little things. Not enough to keep him out of an entire practice, but also not enough for you to want to push through an entire practice. He's fine."
On S Louis Delmas not being on the field: "We'll see. Hopefully we can get him on the field tomorrow."
On elevating CB Darius Slay to the first team: "There were some guys in the first couple preseason games that we wanted to get more reps. He is not the only guy that has been changed in the rotation and things like that. We really don't have depth charts right now, but we do have rotations. He's getting some good reps and that's because of his play in the preseason games. The greatest reward is the opportunity to do more."
On what makes Slay stand out: "He's patient in his press technique. His man-to-man coverage is good. There are still a lot of things like a lot of the rookies. There are still a lot of things that he's still working on and trying to improve on. Particularly his man-to-man skills have been good."
On the team's practice following Thursday's game: "I think we have always practiced well. I don't think that going into that game had anything to do with not practicing well. This team comes out to work. Today was a work day. This might have been our heaviest load of training camp. Wasn't your full pads and there wasn't quite as much contact. Most of our contact was offensive and defensive lines, but there was good hard work today. You have to learn from mistakes that you made. You have to find ways to improve in the areas that you need to improve. I said yesterday, we have a long way to go as a football team. We're making progress and we need to take a step this week."
On CB Chris Greenwood getting first-team reps: "He was in the rotation. It was dependent on what group was out there. I wouldn't classify it as first team reps. We did a lot of different periods in practice today, I just put it that way. He's back on the field. He's still probably not 100% but he's close. Jonté (Green) has been out there for a few days now. Chris now just getting back, he made a couple of plays. He's got a lot of ground to make up in a short amount of time to do it."
On if DE Ezekiel Ansah's Senior Bowl participation helped him with the pro game: "I think so. I think the experience for those guys down at the senior bowl is, they get NFL coaching and they go against top tier competition. I think that helps prepare you, more so than guys that don't get to play in that game that come from a college environment. I think the effects of that wear off pretty quickly once he gets here in the training camp. It might help him the first couple of days, but at the point we're at now they're all on an equal footing whether they played in the senior bowl, junior bowl or whatever else."
On if T Kevin Haslam is similar to where T Corey Hilliard was when he first came to the Lions: "I think that's a pretty good comparison. He's a good athlete. He's in a system that's pretty familiar in a lot of ways to him. Like we said yesterday, just getting some of those guys on defense I think the same can be said for Kevin. To get a young veteran like that at this point in camp, particularly you have a couple more weeks to look at him it's helpful for everybody. For him and for us."
On if a first-team offensive line will be set soon: "Again, I don't think we have ever set any time tables. We want people that will be consistent over the course time. We're going to see a lot of different schemes in the preseason from blitzing 46-type team in the opener, three-four team, four-three team. We're going to see a lot of different looks and things like that. There's going to be a lot of chances to evaluate those guys. Those guys all play well together. They get a lot of mixing and matching in training and things like that. We'll have plenty of time, once we do get it settled, to get their feet under. Everybody's sort of used to playing with all those different groups. I mean everyday it looks a little bit different out there and that's for a purpose."
On if this is the last real test for the first team: "I don't think so. I think we have plenty of time to make those decisions and these guys are being evaluated. They were being evaluated yesterday, today, tomorrow, preseason games, all that is part of their resumes and part of their body of work that will be used to make those decisions."
On the emphasis on tempo and where the team is in regards to tempo: "We have New England coming. New England is a fast paced offense. We have a lot of tempo to do, we haven't done very much of it in the preseason. I think that it's always beneficial. It makes you communicate quicker and think quicker. It's over training. You're sort of training at a speed that may seem slow. We do a lot of different periods like that. You probably heard me saying that the first day of training camp and you'll hear me saying it during the season. It's just something that we always talk about."
On if the efficiency in the run game has been limited due to the number of defenders in the box by the first two opponents: "Yeah. I think it is what it is. Everybody has a different agenda going into preseason games. Particularly, it makes it a little bit more difficult to work on things you want to work on. Same thing in training camp here when we're in competitive periods, defense is getting ready and we're in a lot of hard eight man boxes and things like that it isn't necessarily what the offense would see in the game consistently, but it's something we need to work on defensively. We're used to it. You still have to be able to run the ball effectively. Particularly in the end of the games when you're trying to close the game out it's always going to be eight boxes and good run defenses. We have to pick up first downs against that. Efficiency, you know we have to pick up first downs and be able to control the clock in those situations. Particularly late in the game."
On last year's passing game having an impact on the offensive line this year: "Our average per rush was up last year over the year before. However we move the ball, we're going to try to move the ball. Offensive line stuff, you're not just judged on how you run block or how you pass protect. You have to be able to do both. Whatever the game situation calls for you have to be able to accomplish. I think we're much improved on our offensive line. We have added some guys into the mix. We have good competition. I think we're going to see good results from those guys."