Allen Park — Here are some notes and observations from Friday’s Detroit Lions’ training camp practice.
▶ The Lions conducted their first padded practice of the season, but before we get into that, let’s talk about a couple injured players.
First, how quickly defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson has bounced back after what initially appeared to be a devastating, potentially long-term knee issue has been remarkable. He’s still not formally back on the practice field after the scare, but he’s making clear progress during side sessions with the training staff by running sprints and cutting without issue. And that lingering limp he had earlier in the week is all but gone.
Moving on to Marvin Jones Jr., he remains on the non-football injury list with a minor back issue. But it probably won’t be long before he’s activated based on how well he was moving during his own side work with a trainer. The veteran receiver was flying around through some speed and agility drills and shouldn’t take long to get back to full speed once he gets the green light to return.
▶ Rookie safety Brian Branch returned after missing Wednesday’s practice with a minor foot issue and continued to flash. In an early tackling drill to open practice, he showed outstanding lateral agility mirroring the two cuts by receiver Dylan Drummond, who has regularly had success shaking defenders in one-on-one situations.
Moving to one-on-one coverage work against receivers, Branch won two of his three reps against veterans Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond, getting pass breakups on an out route to Reynolds and deep ball to Raymond before conceding a hotly contested dig route to the latter receiver.
Branch also saw some first-team reps as the nickel in seven-on-seven work later in practice.
▶ Another young cornerback I wanted to highlight is Steven Gilmore, an undrafted free agent and younger brother of two-time All-Pro Stephon Gilmore. The baby brother has shown some of his older sibling’s playmaking prowess. The one thing Steven Gilmore does really well is break on the ball, using an explosive first step and his length to knock away a throw from Maurice Alexander during one-on-one work.
▶ As you might expect, Amon-Ra St. Brown was uncoverable in those head-to-head reps, getting the best of No. 1 cornerback Cam Sutton twice and also reminding Gilmore he has a lot of room to grow by gaining easy separation on an out route.
▶ The important gunner positions on punt coverage remain a wide-open competition. Some of the contenders include Ifeatu Melifonwu, Starling Thomas V, Antoine Green, Trinity Benson, Chase Lucas and Branch, but none stood out during their reps during the first practice in pads.
▶ It wasn’t a good day for Green, who got worked over by Denzel Mims on both ends of a special teams drill. He was tossed to the ground by the veteran receiver while trying to beat a block and then whiffed when the roles were reversed. Green also dropped a pass while wide open in the middle of the field.
Green eventually left practice early and was being checked by on-site medical personnel after the physically demanding morning, which included high temperatures and equally high humidity.
Returning to Mims for a moment, the former second-round pick has almost no special teams experience on his professional resume, with just three snaps in three years on those units with the Jets. But given his size, speed and overall athleticism, I’m interested to see what more he can do after that pair of impressive reps.
▶ One more observation from special teams work, there was a rep where Malcolm Rodriguez was matched up against one of roster’s top specialists, Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Rodriguez was blocking and lost his footing early but recovered to get the angle and slow up the accomplished veteran, which earned a pat of respect as the two returned to the group.
▶ In one of my personal favorite drills of camp, the offensive and defensive linemen went head-to-head in pass protection. Through the first wave, the starting offensive line posted a clean sweep, before Aidan Hutchinson got an arm over right tackle Penei Sewell to get the outside edge for a win.
Isaiah Buggs also came up a surprising win against center Frank Ragnow, winning with an explosive first step and blowing past the Pro Bowl blocker. We also got a look at the newfound quickness and explosion of a slimmed down Alim McNeill when he left rookie Colby Sorsdal in the dust.
Another impressive defensive rep came courtesy of second-year man Josh Paschal, who used violent hands to knock Germain Ifedi off balance before gliding into the backfield.
And even though they weren’t clear victories, rookie defensive tackle Brodric Martin’s power was apparent via his push into the pocket, particularly with how easily he drove bac veteran Ross Pierschbacher.
▶ Rookie linebacker Jack Campbell made a nice hustle play late in practice, tracking down running back Craig Reynolds from behind, punching the ball free and recovering the fumble.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers