11 winners from the fourth week of Detroit Lions training camp

Dan Campbell described this week’s training camp schedule for the Detroit Lions as wanting to ramp up Sunday, after a busy week in New Jersey, and that the week would be “circled” while hoping for two competitive practices on Monday and Wednesday.

Sunday afternoon’s practice was just shells (helmet and shoulder pads) and was a less intense practice with many meaningful players sitting out. Monday’s practice was fully padded and included live tackling, pass rush one-on-ones, and end-of-game scenarios. While Wednesday’s practice wasn’t a scrimmage, as originally planned, it was a very competitive practice in shells that included nine-on-sevens (no WR/CB and runs only) and two end-of-game scenarios with the final one being a nine-point deficit situation.

There were a number of notable standouts, starters, and roster rubble players, from this week’s practices to conclude training camp and I’ve put together my eleven winners.

Jared Goff

Goff leads off our winners from this week’s three practices in large part due to the command and precision he displayed at the helm during Wednesday’s practice. I would need to grow an extra hand to count the number of high-level, in-rhythm, perfect-placement throws he delivered in team drills.

On Sunday, Goff led an end-of-game scenario that included a laser over the middle that Jameson Williams plucked from the heavens in between defenders to set up a Jake Bates’ game-winning 64-yard field goal heard round the world. Monday’s end-of-game scenario featured back-to-back feeds to Amon-Ra St. Brown to get into potential game-tying field goal range.

No Sam LaPorta or Jahmyr Gibbs, no problem. Calm, cool, collected, and in command, Goff was on a heater Wednesday (especially after his lone interception) with his best moments showing up in the end-of-game scenarios.

On more than one occasion, Goff showed touch on throws to the end zone, timing, and arm strength to tight windows over the middle, and precision tosses into buckets along the sidelines and in between defenders. His highlights included a quick delivery slant right to St. Brown for a walk-in touchdown that left Jack Campbell and Brandon Joseph in the dust and an end-of-game (scenario) winning 2-point conversion to a diving Williams towards the corner of the end zone with Kerby Joseph in hot pursuit. In addition to those, Goff had at least five other dimes in practice, which was very reassuring to see.

The offense hummed on Wednesday thanks in large part to the telepathic connection with St. Brown

Amon-Ra St. Brown

When Jared Goff needed a throw this week, or the offense needed a point, St. Brown was the go-to player.

St. Brown was consistently winning on routes he flourishes best in, like rub routes, slants, sits, skinny posts, digs, quick outs, comebacks, and corner fades from the slot and in stacked formations. He took over multiple drives with his bread-and-butter and the Goff to St. Brown give-and-go game was trance-inducing, leading to multiple first downs and touchdowns.

Aidan Hutchinson

Willie Hernandez. Jose Valverde. Francisco Rodriguez. The Motor City Closers.

Reminiscent of when Hutchinson ended the Week 11 Chicago Bears game last season with the sack, strip safety trifecta, he ended Monday’s practice with a walk-off sack. With the offense driving in the red zone, with no timeous, Hutchinson beat Taylor Decker and tapped Goff which led to the foghorn blare to end practice and caused a ruckus among the defense.

In a very similar fashion, during Wednesday’s second end-of-game scenario, with the offense down nine points, a minute left, and second-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Hutchinson beat Penei Sewell for the massively clutch sack to force a nearly improbable third-and-goal from the 13-yard line (Goff and St. Brown thwarted the defense’s plans to win the second practice in a row).

Throughout the week Hutchinson was making impact plays, once even making Sewell look like he was playing a game of dizzy bat in pass rush drill. Another developmental leap in Year 3 looks promising.

The Hutch Bunch

Hutchinson played the second most snaps among any defensive linemen and had a ridiculously high 37.4% of the Lions' total QB pressure last season. It’s been widely panned that he could use a supporting cast and the last three practices have further emphasized that reinforcements are here.

Levi Onwuzurike continues to be a shooting comet in this training camp. He was back to creating pressures and affecting the run game from a myriad of line-ups along the defensive front, even standing up in a two-point stance over the offensive tackle at times. He’s been strictly with the first team the last few days. During team drills Wednesday, Onwuzurike had two efficient wins, one via an impressive interior spin move, against Graham Glasgow to force rushed incompletions from Goff.

Given Onwuzurike’s ascension, Marcus Davenport was rotating between the first team and second team all week, however, he’s continued to show he’ll be a forceful asset. Davenport made the mismatch against the second-team offensive line very apparent on Wednesday with one sack from a bull rush, two run-stuffs (outside right and outside left), and what likely would have been at least a quarterback hit on a devastating twist inside.

Josh Paschal was off to the side during Sunday and Monday’s practices and came onto the field later on Wednesday. He entered the practice during the second full team session, with the second team, and immediately recorded a tackle for loss and a would-be sack in consecutive plays. Paschal, like Hutchinson, also ‘called game’ and ended the second-team offenses’ day by getting a fourth down sack in their last end-of-game scenario. However Onwuzurike, Davenport, and Paschal are deployed, the Lions will be getting quality snaps.

With DJ Reader still sideline, Kyle Peko has been the undisputed starting nose tackle. During Monday’s pass rush one-on-one drills, Peko beat All-Pro center Frank Ragnow on back-to-back reps and followed that up by beating one of the backup centers with a hesitation stutter move that left him completely untouched to the hypothetical quarterback.

As a cherry on top, Alim McNeill returned to practice Wednesday and hit the ground running while controlling the point of attack on multiple run plays. It’s not often that McNeill is the fifth defensive lineman mentioned after Hutchinson.

The defensive line depth and development continue to be one of the best storylines of training camp. Even Reader, during a special teams session on Wednesday, gave Chris Smith interactive instructions on a defensive line technique.

Jack Campbell

Campbell was on a heater during the nine-on-seven drill on Wednesday. Campbell diagnosed the play, flowed with the ball, shot the gap, and stuffed either running back Montgomery or Craig Reynolds in their tracks, right at the line of scrimmage, on three of the first four runs. Much like Roy Kent, Campbell was here, there, and everywhere.

Campbell’s biggest highlight Wednesday came on a third-and-long play during a tied fourth quarter scenario. He dropped back into coverage, robbed a Goff pass attempt, and turned it into a pick-six. The first team period before that, Campbell had a well-timed blitz on the goal line that would have been a sack in a live scenario as he went untouched through the A-gap and ducked to allow Goff to throw the ball. Faster processing and comfortability in space will be key for Campbell’s progression.

Brian Branch

Branch worked alongside trainers on Wednesday but it was two blue-chip-worthy plays during Monday’s one-on-one drills that really stood out. Williams appeared to beat Branch on a slant release, but Branch had incredible recovery and punched the ball out right as it reached Williams’ hands to force the incompletion. Similarly, Branch was beaten by Kaden Davis on a well-set-up comeback route and flashed last-minute hands to pop the ball up, defy gravity, and miraculously intercept it. Instincts, active hands, and second effort on display for both plays.

Kaden Davis

On Monday morning, Dan Campbell talked about the lack of standouts among the wide receiver depth.

“We’re dying for somebody to step up and say, ‘Hey man, I’m the guy. I’m the guy you can depend on,” Campbell said.

Davis had a rep during one-on-ones, on Sunday, where he got a rare clean release against Branch, beat him on a go-route by multiple steps, and made an impressive diving catch at the goal line for a nearly 40-yard completion.

The second team’s leading receiver on Wednesday, Davis had a catch-and-run on a crosser and not long after was featured as the primary target on a play-action bootleg drag route that he turned into a nice gain. Then, during an end-of-game scenario, on the first play with the second-team offense, Davis cleanly beat the newly acquired Essang Bassey for an easy 20+ yard touchdown on another go route. Davis was making big plays with that fourth wide receiver spot up for grabs.

David Montgomery

Similar to a werewolf with the full moon, when full pads come on, Montgomery turns into an imposingly physical freak of nature.

During Monday’s practice, Montgomery went a perfect 2-for-2 against Jack Campbell in tackling drills and scored two short-yardage rushing touchdowns on back-to-back plays during the full team goal-line session. Then, during team drills, he patiently paced himself behind pulling leader blocker Ragnow to record a touchdown and possibly the longest rush for the first team on the day (back-up Zonovan Knight had a dynamite explosive touchdown run with the backups).

Craig Reynolds

Reynolds went from a player during Hard Knocks that offensive assistant John Morton had to step in to vouch for with “I wouldn’t cut him. He’s everything we represent,” to being one of the best, most well-rounded, third running backs in the NFL.

Reynolds caught everyone’s attention on Monday with a handful of plays. He started things off during the one-on-one tackling drill by blowing through Barnes, and by notching two tackles of his own. His highlight of the day was a receiving touchdown as the play action bootleg dump-off option on third-and-goal.

With Gibbs out, Reynolds got valuable first-team reps on Wednesday and came up with two huge end-of-game scenario plays. On a fourth-and-1, with the offense trialing, Reynolds got the conversion and then some on a power sweep left and later capped of the day by leaking out of the backfield for a 20+yard catch-and-run along the left sideline that put the offense in field position to take a few knees and allow for Jake Bates to hit a chip-shot game-winning field goal to end practice.

Backup defensive backs

With a secondary devastated by injury, several depth players had to step up in practice, and they did exactly that

Brandon Joseph, Kindle Vildor, and Khalil Dorsey were fringe roster players, battling for potentially one-to-two spots entering the preseason game against the Giants. All three of them received the benefit of increased experience and exposure by running with the first team defense the last two practices and now there could be a roster spot for each of them.

Joseph carried his interception fortune from the preseason game into the week by intercepting a Nate Sudfeld arm punt on Sunday and then made a diving interception on Monday after Vildor made a heck of a play volleying it away from Peoples-Jones. Joseph ended up being the starting safety opposite Kerby Joseph more often than Ifeatu Melifonwu and C.J. Moore this week.

Vildor may have struggled some with a tight matchup against St. Brown but he did bat away the deep ball to Peoples-Jones, broke up a would-be touchdown at the back of the end zone to Daurice Fountain on Monday, and one corner end zone fade he hung with St. Brown for a big-time deflection during the last end of game scenario.

While Dorsey didn’t make any noteworthy plays that I saw, he seems to be established in the coaches’ minds as well ahead of Steven Gilmore, and was playing with the first team.

Michael Niese

Niese’s placement on the list is similar to the backup defensive backs, in that the coaches clearly are giving him opportunities ahead of other competitors on the pecking order.

Last year’s practice squad center continues to be the only starting right guard while Kevin Zeitler is out with an injury, ahead of Kayode Awosika in the cozy spot next to Ragnow and Sewell.

Niese had two wins during Monday’s one-on-one pass rush drills (one against Mekhi Wingo), and while he could use better strength in the run game, and had his hands full on a few occasions, he did manage some pass protection wins during team drills against Wingo on Monday and even against McNeill on Wednesday.