Lions minicamp Day 1 observations: DB film hangout leads to big day from secondary

Right now, the Detroit Lions’ secondary looks much different than the unit from 2025. On the back end, newcomers Chuck Clark and Christian Izien have taken nearly every first-team rep this spring. At cornerback, D.J. Reed is back with a healthier hamstring, but opposite him has been a rotating cast of Ennis Rakestraw, Rock Ya-Sin, and even occasionally Khalil Dorsey. In the slot, Roger McCreary has replaced Amik Robertson—but he did us in the media the favor of taking his number.

Getting on the same page is critical in the secondary, and after working out some kinks during OTAs over the past month, Reed took on the responsibility of being a leader and invited all the defensive backs to his house this past weekend to go over some film and share some tips with each other.

“He just reached out to the group message,” Clark relayed after Tuesday’s practice. “He was like, ‘Yo, I’m having film (session), a little food at the house. Y’all come over.’ I’ve seen that at different places before, and I respected it.”

Clark said those discussions surrounded certain routes they had seen before, while the entire group shared their strategies of how they watched film with each other.

That film session paid off on Tuesday. Thanks to that session, the Lions secondary was all over the place during Tuesday’s practice. Detroit got a ton of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work in, and by my count the defense tallied three interceptions, probably should have had two more, and added on a few other pass breakups.

“There were actually some things that happened today that just naturally came with our conversations that happened over the weekend,” Clark explained.

Let’s get into it with our observations from Mandatory Minicamp, Day 1:

Pass defense playmakers

I teased it at the top, but let’s get into specifics. First, the three interceptions:

1. Rookie linebacker Jimmy Rolder. Dropping into zone coverage during 7-on-7s, Rolder high-pointed a ball from Teddy Bridgewater, and took it the other way. It was an impressive athletic play from the rookie linebacker and a promising development given his scouting profile showed that coverage was underdeveloped. It’s worth noting that Bridgewater’s next throw was on a very similar looking play, but this time Bridgewater put plenty of air to get it over the linebacker’s (Malcolm Rodriguez’s) head for a completion to Dominic Lovett. Later in practice, Rolder followed up that rep with blanket coverage on tight end Thomas Gordon, but the receiver made a nice contested grab for minimal gain.
2. Undrafted rookie CB Aamaris Brown picked off rookie quarterback Luke Altmyer during an 11-on-11 simulated drive. Altmyer hesitated and threw over the middle late. That allowed Brown to jump the route of running back Jabari Small for the interception. Brown did get there early, though, and may have drawn a flag if officials were in attendance.
3. Safety Chuck Clark. Clark put an end to a situational drill from the first stringers by intercepting a pass from...