As an ode to our good friend Kent Lee Platte, who officially resigned from Pride of Detroit on Wednesday after receiving a great opportunity with Pro Football Network, I thought I would honor him by recreating his awesome stock reports from training camp. Of course, I’m not nearly as amazing nor detailed as Kent, so I won’t be giving you a report for all 80 players on the team. But it’s a good time to reflect on what we’ve learned from the first two days of padded practice, and this seemed as good of a method as any to do it.
So here are five players that are trending up, and four players that are trending down.
Stock up: Jonah Jackson
It wasn’t clear if the Lions were going to give their third-round pick a real chance at a starting job given the shortened offseason, but the former Ohio State guard has been locked into first-team reps so far at practice. The fact that they’re also giving him backup center duties shows just how much faith they have in him. He’s only proven them right so far, looking extremely comfortable at both interior positions.
Stock down: Jeff Okudah
We’re nowhere near panic mode with the Lions’ third overall pick, but if you were hoping for reports of an interception a day for the Lions rookie cornerback, it has been a disappointing start for you. It’s a big step from college to the pros, and even players with as clean of a tape as Okudah will have some growing pains. But this quote from Desmond Trufant sticks out to me:
“This position, at some point, somebody’s going to make a play on you, but how do you react to that? Are you going to come back and make another play or are you just going to continue to let it roll?”
The next couple weeks of Okudah’s career may be crucial. If he bounces back and shows why the Lions took him so high, he’ll likely grab that starting role from Amani Oruwariye. If he lets early struggles get to his head, the Lions may wait a bit to show him off.
Stock up: D’Andre Swift
Keeping with the rookie theme here, Swift looks poised to take the starting running back job out of the gate. Not only has he looked impressive at camp, but as our own Justin Simon noted on Thursday, things aren’t looking particularly good for Kerryon Johnson. Already getting maintenance days one day into padded practices can’t be great for Johnson, as it shows the team’s lack of faith in keeping him healthy.
Stock down: Austin Bryant
This was supposed to be a breakout season from Bryant, after injury stole most of his rookie season. Instead, he’s the only remaining player that still hasn’t been able to even go through conditioning drills with the team as he remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list. Losing time after missing basically all of training camp last year is a big hit to the edge defender, and it looks like the Lions may have already found their starting jack linebacker with Christian Jones.
Bryant needs to get back on the field, and he needs to get on it fast.
Stock up: T.J. Hockenson
If there were any doubts about Hockenson’s ankle, they’ve been pretty much been put to rest by now. Though he says he still feels it, he also says he’s at 100 percent. And if his play on the field is any indication, it’s not limiting him in any way.
Hockenson hasn’t been dominant at camp through two practices, but he pulled in at least one touchdown that I saw, caught a nice one-handed grab during a non-padded practice, and came in looking hella buff. The Year 2 hype is back on.
Stock up: Amani Oruwariye
The Lions’ 2019 fifth-round cornerback came into camp as the team’s starting cornerback opposite Trufant, which is already a significant accomplishment for the second-year player. Not only is he currently ahead of Okudah on the depth chart, but he’s also ahead of veteran corner Darryl Roberts.
Oruwariye looked comfortable, though unspectacular, during Tuesday’s practice. I didn’t see any big plays Oruwariye made, but he also didn’t give up any.
Stock down: Logan Stenberg
While Jackson has been shining, Stenberg has proven he may be a long-term project for Detroit. The Lions’ fourth-round pick got a significant amount of reps at backup center on Tuesday, and he airmailed at least two snaps. I also saw him get blown backwards on a rep, as well.
Granted, this is all new for Stenberg. He has little-to-no experience at center, so it will naturally take some time. However, any expectation that Stenberg would earn a starting job sometime in his rookie season should be tempered after two practices.
Stock up: Jalen Reeves-Maybin
I missed Reeves-Maybin’s huge Day 1 of practice, but based on Matt Patricia’s comments, it was a monster day. Patricia isn’t one to dog his own players publicly, but he is also typically pretty muted with his praise. That wasn’t the case with Reeves-Maybin on Monday.
“He’s made tremendous strides for us, I would say, let’s just go back to the end of last season. I think one of the things he really was able to do toward the end of the season was kind of go and take command of the defense, be able to get the calls out, the communication, turn around and recognize the offense, make sure we get the tight end call, look at the backfield set, get in run stunts then get into the coverage and identify all that. There’s a lot that goes on for a linebacker, and I thought that at the beginning of the year to the end of the year, he made huge strides with that from the mental standpoint of the game.
Really, going into camp right now, and it’s obviously on a limited basis, but just starting with special teams, we have obviously the changeover in some things special teams-wise and really from some fundamental technique stuff that we’re doing that he has handled tremendously. It’s been really awesome to watch him get some of the footwork that we’re doing down and really be able to use that and teach off of it.
He just continues to grow as a player and I would say one of the things that’s great, and this transfers into defense – the game seems to just be slowing down for him a little bit. It doesn’t seem that there’s too many people moving and then the game is going by too fast. I see that he just kind of recognizes a lot more and he plays with a lot more patience right now.”
At this point, I may even consider him off the roster bubble.
Stock down: Bo Scarbrough
It appeared Scarbrough came up limping after colliding with Reeves-Maybin on a one-on-one rep during Tuesday’s practice. For the rest of the day, he did not appear to participate much.
Injuries during training camp can be devastating, and that could especially be the case for Scarbrough, who now has real competition at the power back position after the Lions signed Jonathan Williams earlier this week. Williams proceeded to pound in the rock from the 1-yard line later in practice during a full-contract “live” drill.
While Scarbrough is a huge fan favorite after a promising 2019 season, Williams should be viewed as legitimate competition. He had himself a pretty impressive 2019 season as well, rushing for 100 yards in back-to-back games for the Colts.