Detroit Lions OTA recap: Day 2 highlights, photos, analysis

Day 2 of Detroit Lions organized team activities is in the book, and, again, the Lions media was locked out of practice. We’re, again, left to imagine what happened for the majority of practice, seeing as only those inside the organization really knows what’s going on.

That being said, we’re again going to dissect what little resources we have. Per usual, the Detroit Lions released a short highlight reel of Tuesday’s practice along with a gallery of 40-some pictures.

Again, I will preface this post with the following: We are only getting a very small piece of the puzzle with these resources, and the Lions are only showing us what they want us to see. In other words, there are likely a lot of things going on at practice that the team is purposely keeping under wraps. Therefore, we should be taking any and all of our observations with a grain of salt.

It’s also very early in the offseason program, so positions and roles are very likely to change throughout the course of the next three months.

All that being said, there’s not a whole lot else to talk about, so let’s take a look at what we noticed from Tuesday’s practice.

Ragnow position update

The biggest question remains where Lions first-round pick Frank Ragnow will play in 2018. If our limited resources are any indication, Ragnow may be headed to play guard. Again, in the highlight reel he is seen working with the first-team offensive line at the left guard position, while Graham Glasgow maintains snapping duties.

Interestingly, Ragnow is also seen playing right guard with the second-team offense in this picture. Versatility is drastically important for interior offensive linemen so that the team isn’t too shaken up when the injury bug inevitably hits. This also simply gives Ragnow the opportunity to get more reps in, which is drastically important for a rookie. So there’s no reason to be alarmed at this point.

But considering Ragnow is one of the most photographed players throughout the first two days of OTAs and we still haven’t seen a single sign that Ragnow has played center this week could mean something. Of course, it could mean nothing, too.

Luke Willson is catching a lot of passes

This could just be selective editing by the Lions’ crew, seeing as Willson was one of the more popular free agency additions, but the new Lions tight end seems to be heavily featured in these highlight reels.

In Tuesday’s video alone, Willson catches two passes, including one in which he absolutely destroys Steve Longa in coverage (at the 54-second mark). The man making this catch is actually Levine Toilolo. We regret the error. Thanks to commenter Carolina Pride for catching the mistake.

One more semi-interesting note on Willson, he appears to be in on special teams duties on a punt coverage drill, per the final photo in Tuesday’s gallery.

Lions receivers may live up to the hype

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about the Lions’ receivers and mentioned they may be one of the best units in the entire NFL. Tuesday’s highlights showed exactly why that may be the case. First, here’s Kenny Golladay going full-extension on this catch and making it look effortless:

And take a look at this impressive adjustment from Teo Redding on a poorly thrown ball by Jake Rudock:

Again, we’re talking about a very sanitized snippet of practice, so obviously we aren’t going to see any drops or anything like that. Still, it’s good to see the Lions playmakers out there making plays.