Pride of Detroit
Some standouts from Detroit Lions’ Monday practice include Tyleik Williams, Marcus Davenport, and Isaac TeSlaa.
The Detroit Lions held their first night practice on Day 10 of 2025 training camp in an effort to shake things up a bit and get the players accustomed to a changing schedule.
Ahead of practice, coach Dan Campbell updated the media on Ennis Rakestraw and Dan Jackson, who were both injured in Sunday’s practice. Rakestraw is still being evaluated, but Jackson was unfortunately placed on injured reserve.
Additionally, Terrion Arnold and Dan Skipper continue to miss practice, while Kenny Yeboah returned, all as expected. Brodric Martin was a surprise absence, and we did not receive an update from the team on his status.
With short yardage and goal line drills on the docket, we saw a very physical practice, and as a result, we saw a handful of players banged up, with three players needing to leave the field early. According to the team, Pat O’Connor is being evaluated for a leg injury, Dominic Lovett is being evaluated for an abdominal injury, and Jamarco Jones is being evaluated for an ankle injury.
Erik - While Lions first-round pick Tyleik Williams is still developing his pass rushing skills (he lost his only one-on-one rep to Tate Ratledge), his run defense is showing up more and more in camp every day.
In third-and-short drills, Williams showed terrific strength and lateral movement by pushing the pocket against the first team offensive line and contributing to a stop on David Montgomery. In 11-on-11s, Williams again caught Montgomery in the hole and stopped him for a minimal or no gain. Then, in the second set of 11s, Williams made clean stops against Montgomery, limiting him to gains of just two and four yards.
It can be very difficult to identify who is making plays in the trenches while watching practice from field level, yet it was very easy to see Williams stand out on multiple plays, which illustrates how good a day he truly had.
Jeremy - While TeSlaa struggled during 1-on-1s against a physical Avonte Maddox, TeSlaa shined with a heads-up play during team drills.
A play-action pass from Hendon Hooker to Tom Kennedy found the veteran receiver with a lot of room in front of him. Kennedy also had TeSlaa as essentially a lead blocker, and the rookie receiver went head-hunting. He absolutely crushed cornerback Nick Whiteside, springing Kennedy for the easy score. The block was so head-turning that TeSlaa was getting most of the celebrations with his teammate, not Kennedy—who scored.
During the most recent “Inside the Den” episode, we saw clips of TeSlaa turning and finding people to block during the Senior Bowl. Safe to say that aggressive mentality is still around.
Erik - The Lions have had a string of poor luck with injuries at offensive tackle,...
