Friday open thread: What was the biggest surprise from the Lions’ first open OTAs?

Thursday the Detroit Lions finally unveiled the curtain behind the 2018 team. For the first time all offseason, the media was invited to watch the entire team participate in full football drills. It was our first opportunity to both see some of the Lions’ newest players in action and get a peak into the mind of head coach Matt Patricia and his planned schemes for the team.

Some of the things we heard from the media on Thursday wasn’t all that surprising. Frank Ragnow continues to get reps at left guard, which is what we noticed all week in the Lions’ official highlight reels. Devon Kennard got plenty of looks as an edge-rushing linebacker, as many speculated.

But not everything went as expected. So today’s Question of the Day is:

What was the biggest surprise from Day 3 of Lions OTAs?

My answer: I was pretty surprised to see both LeGarrette Blount and Kerryon Johnson splitting the first-team reps almost exclusively.

Don’t get me wrong, I expected those two backs to lead the Lions in carries in 2018, but I didn’t expect them to immediately jump ahead of Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick, who have been in Jim Bob Cooter’s offense for years now. At this point in the offseason, I thought they may bring a rookie like Johnson along slowly, letting him learn and watch reps from the second and third team, before eventually promoting him during training camp.

But the Lions’ move to make him a part-timer with the ones shows an immense amount of confidence in the former Auburn back, and that has to be promising, even if we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from one OTA practice.

Your turn.