Trinity Benson made minimal impact in his first season with the Detroit Lions last fall, but two plays in Monday’s practice showed why the Lions remain optimistic Benson can be a weapon for them this fall.
In the final team period of the day, Benson beat Amani Oruwariye on what appeared to be a simple go route against single-high safety coverage.
Jared Goff overthrew Benson, but Benson got enough cushion on Oruwariye that the Lions’ No. 1 cornerback felt the need to grab Benson’s shoulder near the end of his route to try and slow him down.
A few plays later, playing with Tim Boyle and the second-team offense, Benson put his sub-4.4 speed on display again when he dusted safety and converted cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu on a deep corner route.
Boyle’s pass was off target, making the Lions 0 for 2 on bombs to Benson. But on the first day of pads, Benson’s playmaking ability seems apparent — if he can get on the same page as his quarterbacks.
“Everyone at this level is fast, so it’s (all about) chemistry,” Benson said. “So just being where you need to be and the ball just being there when you get there.”
To that end, Benson spent some time after practice running deep routes for Goff. (DJ Chark, who promises to be the Lions’ top deep-threat weapon to start the season, also ran extra routes with his QB).
Goff and Benson worked sparingly together last season after the Lions acquired Benson in a late-August trade, and Benson was not a part of Goff’s California throwing workouts with Lions receivers this summer.
Asked about that at the start of training camp, Goff said he simply “had a couple guys in town” and that wasn’t meant as a slight to Benson or anyone else who was not there.
“I love Trinity,” Goff said. “He’s done a great job. I told him in the spring I thought he had a great spring. Similar to (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, just seeing him kind of mentally take that next step of understanding coverage and understanding where he’s supposed to be in. And it really comes with understanding the offense. Like, where are you supposed to be on this play? Who are we trying to affect? What am I trying to do with the ball versus what defense? When receivers can understand that it changes the game. And he’s getting there as well.”
Benson is no lock to make the 53-man roster, but I’d peg him as the fifth or sixth receiver to start the season behind St. Brown, Chark and Josh Reynolds (who have pretty consistently run with the first team) and Kalif Raymond.
Jameson Williams will return from his torn ACL at some point this fall and Quintez Cephus leads the other receivers competing for jobs, but not many players on the Lions roster offer the big-play ability Benson can.
“They’re going to connecting,” Benson promised Monday.
As mentioned, Monday was the Lions’ first day in pads, which always amps up the intensity a notch.
More observations from Monday
• One-on-one pass rush drills are always must-see on the first day of pads, and the Lions’ first-team offensive line lived up to its billing as a unit with top-10 potential Monday. I counted nine reps by the Lions’ starting offensive line — everyone went twice but Taylor Decker — and nine wins by the offense.
Decker walled up Charles Harris in their only matchup, though he was complementary of Harris after practice, saying Harris’ nonstop motor has made him a better player.
“I love having him on the team,” Decker said. “He doesn’t say a word out there in practice. He’s the quietest guy, he plays super hard, he’s consistent. He’s not dirty. He just plays hard. He’s a good teammate and he’s going to make me better and hopefully I can make him better.”
Harris, for what it’s worth, has had a nice camp and looks poised for another nice season.
• Rookie first-round pick Aidan Hutchinson has been a camp standout so far, but he had a modest performance in one-on-one drills. Right tackle Penei Sewell kept Hutchinson at bay in both their reps (and Hutchinson jumped early on the second one), and Darrin Paulo did a good job moving his feet to stay with Hutchinson in Hutchinson’s third rep near the end of the period.
Hutchinson beat Paulo with his first step, but Paulo recovered nicely, sliding his feet to cut off Hutchinson’s path to the quarterback, then staying with his spin move.
Hutchinson did make one standout play in the Lions’ nine-on-seven run drill, getting outside blocker — I’m not sure if it was a tight end or Decker — to destroy a run play. He also was the recipient of one of the biggest blocks of the day, a chip block by T.J. Hockenson that sent him to the ground in team drills.
• Sewell had the biggest block of the day, annihilating Jeff Okudah on a bubble screen that drew “oohs” from the crowd. Asked about his block after practice, Sewell said, “That’s just football. I don’t know what happened. I got to go watch the film.”
• Back to one-on-one pass rush drills, Harris beat Dan Skipper easily in his second rush of the day, and Austin Bryant and Jashon Cornell followed with wins for the defense. Bryant got low to beat Matt Nelson, and Cornell was too quick for Logan Stenberg on their only rep. Rookie linebacker James Houston showed off his pass rush skills as well, beating Obinna Eze with an inside move in one of his two reps.
Among the backup offensive linemen, I thought Evan Brown had the best day.
• I didn’t watch much of the one-on-one receiver/cornerback work because it was on the far field during nine-on-seven run, but Savion Smith had a nice jam to win a physical rep with Josh Reynolds at the line of scrimmage and Kalil Pimpleton beat Juju Hughes deep and caught a quick slant on Chase Lucas.
Smith is an interesting one to watch. He’s big, long and has done some good things in his battle for a job at outside cornerback. I’m not sure if he can make the team. One of Okudah or Will Harris likely will start opposite Oruwariye, Bobby Price is a solid special teams player (and continues to work as a No. 1 gunner) and Mark Gilbert also is vying for a job. But I seem to write Smith’s number down for doing something that catches my eye every day in practice.
• Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn mentioned Houston and Malcolm Rodriguez as two players he was anxious to see with pads on, so maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Rodriguez got a sneak rep (at least one that I saw) with the first-team defense.
Rodriguez was a tackling machine at Oklahoma State who should contribute on special teams this fall. If Derrick Barnes or Alex Anzalone falter, however, it’s possible Rodriguez works his way into the linebacker rotation.
More: Two Day 3 draft picks making favorable impression on Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell
Saturday’s observations: How Jameson Williams is staying engaged, Jeff Okudah ready to hit
On Monday, Rodriguez was not a factor in the one first-team rep I saw him get, when Josh Reynolds made a nice over-the-shoulder catch along the sideline. But he destroyed a screen pass to Craig Reynolds on the next play, weaving through traffic to make a tackle-for-loss.
• A couple final notes: The Lions ran a box tackling drill they’ve done several times under Dan Campbell, where an offensive and defensive player line up diagonally from each other, 10 yards a part, and the offensive player has to beat the defensive player out of the box. The drill wasn’t quite live tackling Monday, though there were a couple instances of the defender taking the offensive player to the ground.
Amon-Ra St. Brown hurdled Kerby Joseph in the drill, much to the crowd’s delight. Jermar Jefferson ran over AJ Parker, Anthony Pittman made a nice stop on TJ Hockenson and D’Andre Swift showed off his short-area burst to get by Chris Board.
• Pittman is such a good special teams player. He excelled Monday in a one-on-one blocking drill meant to simulate the first few yards of a punt rush and cover downfield. Josh Woods did a good job disengaging from Shaun Dion Hamilton in the same drill, and Josh Johnson opened my eyes by staying in front of Tom Kennedy, one of the quickest players on the team.
• The Lions had another nice crowd, drawing about 1,200 fans on a weekday and two days, two days after about 2,500 fans showed up at Saturday’s workout. The organization is expecting another large crowd at Saturday’s practice at Ford Field.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.