Allen Park — Here are some notes and observations from Wednesday’s joint training camp practice between the New York Giants and Detroit Lions.
Editor’s note: These shared practices get a little chaotic. To maximize our coverage, colleague Nolan Bianchi contributed to the observations. He spent the day watching Detroit’s offense, while I kept tabs on the defense. To keep things organized below, our initials will be tacked on at the end of each of the bullet points.
▶ Wide receiver Denzel Mims was back at practice, wearing a full sleeve on the left leg he injured last weekend. Unfortunately, he probably needed a few more days to heal because he exited with a limp after running down the field on kickoff coverage.
Not practicing for the Lions were Jonah Jackson, Frank Ragnow, Craig Reynolds, Darrell Daniels and Trinity Benson. — JR
▶ With no Ragnow or Jackson, the Lions put Graham Glasgow at first-team center while alternating Darrin Paolo and Kayode Awosika at first-team left guard. The interior-line play saw a predictable drop-off in performance, as Detroit struggled to run the ball inside for much of the practice. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs did, however, have a decent amount of success running outside and off-tackle. — NB
▶ Detroit’s defense drew hearty praise for their performance the previous day, but the Giants made some clear adjustments and controlled their half of Wednesday’s practice.
That efficiency started early, with New York’s quarterbacks completing their first 10 passes during a seven-on-seven segment in the red zone. For what it’s worth, most of the throws were short tosses and would have yielded little yardage after the catch, but tight end Darren Waller was able to come up with a touchdown grab, using his long limbs and overall size advantage to box out safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
The Lions finally stopped the reception parade when safety Kerby Joseph had an excellent breakup on a pass intended for Darius Slayton in the end zone, essentially running the route and undercutting the receiver. — JR
▶ Slayton bounced back just fine, hauling in consecutive touchdowns. The first was a 30-yarder down the seam, followed up by a route adjustment to beat Joseph for a 2-yard score after quarterback Daniel Jones was forced to step up in the pocket to escape edge pressure. — JR
▶ Two unlikely suspects caught a case of fumble-itis on Wednesday, as Amon-Ra St. Brown fumbled once and Montgomery — who’s never fumbled more than twice in a season — lost the ball two times, including an instance where Giants safety Dane Belton punched the ball out and stole it with one fell swoop of the fist. — NB
▶ Marvin Jones has continued to look strong since returning to practice. Aside from a full-extension, toe-tapper early on, he caught a nice touchdown pass in seven-on-sevens and then, during team drills, stole a touchdown ball away from former Lions cornerback Amani Oruwariye, who likely did not have an enjoyable return to Detroit. Oruwariye struggled mightily over his two days in Allen Park. — NB
▶ Riley Patterson remains the clear leader for the kicking job. The teams worked on both field goals and kickoffs, and he was the only one to kick for the Lions, making 7 of 8 field goals, with his lone miss sailing wide left from 51 yards out. He compensated for that one with makes from 48, 52 and 53 yards.
It is increasingly obvious that Patterson has improved his leg strength. That showed up on kickoffs, when he was putting excellent hang time on his efforts, with several carrying well into the end zone. — JR
▶ The day started well enough for backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld. He came out of the first set of seven-on-seven work a perfect 3-for-3, with a touchdown pass to rookie tight end Sam LaPorta. Sudfeld and Jones also connected for a fantastic catch along the sideline on the first play of 11-on-11.
But, when asked to throw the ball downfield, it was not the quarterback’s day. Starting with his first incompletion — a woefully underthrown ball to speedster Jameson Williams — Sudfeld struggled to find any touch while putting air under the football. Williams, who Lions coach Dan Campbell was hoping would get a ton of work during these joint practices, didn’t receive another target the rest of the day and had just two total. — NB
▶ It wasn’t all bad for the defense. A small group of players stood out with their performances. Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez made multiple appearances in the notebook with solid run-gap assignments and a pass breakup in the end zone on a fourth-down play.
Another contender for playing time at linebacker, Derrick Barnes, capped a good week of practice, stepping in front of a pass that he’s going to be kicking himself for not intercepting.
Finally, cornerback Cam Sutton made some nice plays. He recovered to break up an underthrown deep throw intended for Slayton, dove to knock away a sure-fire touchdown toss in the red zone and physically steered Isaiah Hodgins out of bounds on an attempted fade pattern. — JR
▶ UDFA rookie Mohammed Ibrahim had a couple of loud runs inside, but it wasn’t necessarily because he had great holes opening up in front of him. The 5-foot-8, 203-pound Ibrahim showed off every bit of his strength when he ran over Giants safety Alex Cook with authority near the end of practice, only to violently meet him again in the hole two plays later — he went down that time — before running for a touchdown the following play.
Running back Jermar Jefferson appeared to suffer a lower-body injury early in the day, leaving practice after limping off the field. — NB
▶ Overall, the Lions had too many busted coverages, particularly during red-zone work, resulting in several wide-open touchdown receptions. In previous observations, we’ve praised how well the unit has been communicating pre-snap, but the Giants’ high-paced tempo seemed to cause some uncharacteristic breakdowns. — JR
▶ Practice closed with more red-zone work, pitting the corresponding offensive and defensive groups against each other. The Giants’ first-team offense needed just one play from the 10-yard line to get across the goal line, taking advantage of one of those aforementioned coverage busts for a Waller touchdown.
Detroit’s top offensive grouping responded with a touchdown of their own, overcoming a false-start penalty in the process. The scoring strike came on second-and-goal from the 6, when quarterback Jared Goff connected with St. Brown on an out route, beating the coverage of cornerback Tre Hawkins III. Montgomery played a key role on the play, picking up a blitzer out of play-action.
Another coverage bust put the Giants’ second-team offense in the end zone, wasting a good stop by Rodriguez on first down.
Detroit’s second-team offense appropriately capped their disastrous day, with two penalties and what appeared to be two sacks. Still, they almost salvaged things facing fourth-and-18, but Gibbs couldn’t get both feet in bounds on an otherwise beautiful catch near the sideline on a wheel route. — JR
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers