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When the Detroit Lions began OTAs back in May, one of the hot topics was second-year tight end Eric Ebron's continued struggles with drops. This was a knock on him coming out of North Carolina, and we saw it on occasion during training camp and the regular season last year. It was far from the only issue with Ebron's game as a rookie, but that's certainly an area where he has to improve.
Fast forward to the first day of the Lions' mandatory minicamp and the reports on Ebron are much more positive. Not only were drops not an issue, but multiple people came away impressed with Ebron's performance in practice.
Eric Ebron had a really impressive day today. Caught all but one pass thrown to him, and Rashean Mathis broke it up.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) June 16, 2015
Ebron looked good today. Golden Tate on Ebron after practice: "I can’t wait to get him out there Week 1. I can’t wait to show him off."
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) June 16, 2015
The same caveats from the OTA report on Ebron apply to this news as well. Essentially, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions or overreact to news from an offseason practice. It's certainly better to read about Ebron impressing people than dropping passes, but in the grand scheme of things, what he does in the regular season and beyond is all that really matters.