Lions, Dolphins joint practice Day 2 observations: OL chemistry building

The Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins were back at it on Thursday for the second, and final, joint practice between the two. As with Wednesday, most of the work was given to the first teamers, leaving limited opportunities for the reserves. However, they’ll get their chance on Saturday afternoon when the two teams meet for the Ford Field preseason opener at 1 p.m. ET.

After offering my observations of the Lions defense on Day 1, I shifted my focus entirely to the offense on Day 2. Here’s what I noticed from practice.

Offensive line 1-on-1 standouts

• Much like Al Karsten noted in his Day 1 observations, it was a near perfect series for the starting offensive line. I had them with wins in seven of their 10 reps, with pushes in two, and the only loss coming to Graham Glasgow, who let Benito Jones slip by him, but still managed to stick with him.
• Penei Sewell absolutely stonewalled Chop Robinson in both of their reps
• Taylor Decker was even more impressive in his two reps against Bradley Chubb. On the first, Chubb had nowhere to go. On the second, Decker showed he’s still got plenty of athleticism with him, shuffling to match Chubb’s speed to the outside.
• Tate Ratledge had one of the more dominant wins of the group, barely giving up an inch to Matthew Butler
• It wasn’t a great series for Kingsley Eguakun, who got blown several yards back by Jordan Phillips, but he did come back with a draw against Zeek Biggers.
• The most surprising standout was relatively-new offensive tackle Gunner Britton, who absolutely handled Cameron Goode. He faced off in a draw the next rep, but it’s also worth noting he repped at both left and right tackle. More on him later.

Physical day running the ball

The Lions opened team activities with a drill meant to dig themselves out of their own zone. Starting at their own 1-yard line, Detroit fed Montgomery for gains of 3 and 6. On third-and-1, it appeared he got stuffed by crashing linebacker Jordyn Brooks after Ratledge was late to pull, but Montgomery bounced off the tackle anyway and was awarded a first down.

Then the Lions flipped the field and ran red zone drills with the first and second teams. Sione Vaki got a lot of looks with the second team and ran with power. He found the end zone on a 5-yard run, but on a two-point conversion, the Dolphins swarmed him in the backfield. Eguakun and Zach Horton blew their blocks on the play. In a later series, Vaki found the end zone again, running behind center Michael Niese, who walled off the defender nicely. Britton was working in with the second-team offense at right tackle—splitting time with Mason Miller—and he had a very strong run to spring one of Vaki’s touchdowns.

Hendon Hooker only attempted a single pass during red zone drills. On a play-action boot, he had...