Training camp observation round-up: Lions were ‘the better team’ in joint practices vs. Raiders

The first joint practice between the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders is in the books. Because Pride of Detroit was not on hand at Napa, California, we’re left to rely on the observations of others from Tuesday’s practice.

Here are the most interesting points noticed by beat writers, both from the Raiders and Lions.

Lions secondary hand Derek Carr his first INT

Monday was the first day that Matthew Stafford had thrown an interception in all of camp. Derek Carr lasted one more day in his interception-less streak. It was none other than Darius Slay who introduced Carr to the interception this year:

But it wasn’t just Slay who picked up an interception on Tuesday. According to MLive’s Kyle Meinke, both Teez Tabor and DeShawn Shead picked off Raiders quarterbacks during team portions of the practice.

In fairness to Carr and the Raiders, it wasn’t all good news for the Lions defensive backs. During 7-on-7 drills, Carr was reportedly perfect:

Rough start for Jarrad Davis

The Lions second-year linebacker had been getting rave reviews during Lions camp both for his performance on the field and his extra efforts after practice. But when the Raiders lined up opposite Davis, he was the victim in two early plays at the hands of two different fullbacks:

That second play sounded particularly rough for Davis:

That’s not exactly an encouraging thing to hear about a player that struggled at times last year and is expected to be a key piece to Matt Patricia’s defense in 2018. However, it’s also just two reps. The preseason is still very young.

Up-and-down day for Stafford and the Lions offense

According to Meinke, Stafford went 7-11 during team drills, and his favorite target continues to be Marvin Jones Jr., who pulled down a couple big catches on Tuesday.

Stafford also reportedly missed on Jones a couple times.

As noted by Matt Schneidman, Stafford also threw one pick on Tuesday during 7-on-7 drills after starting linebacker Emmanuel Lamur made an acrobatic catch.

After one of the cleanest few weeks in training camp, left guard Frank Ragnow showed his first signs of actually being a rookie.

There shouldn’t be any real cause for concern at this point. Nobody—especially a rookie—is going to win every rep in camp.

The Lions “looked better” in Day 1

Ted Nguyen, the writer for The Athletic that covers the Raiders and 49ers, believes the Lions came out of Tuesday’s practice looking like the better team:

This is, of course, just one writer’s opinion, and by his own admission it wasn’t by much. Still, this is the first measuring stick we have for the 2018 Lions, and it’s good to know that, at least for a day, Detroit looked better than another NFL franchise with a new head coach.