Pride of Detroit
Observations from Day 6 of the Detroit Lions’ 2025 training camp include notes on
The Detroit Lions welcomed the general public to Allen Park on Monday, as the team once again strapped on their pads and took the field for Day 7 of training camp.
The Lions continue to cycle players in and out of practice, with some exiting early and others returning to play. For the second straight practice, Kerby Joseph missed, and was joined by Amik Robertson on Monday. However, Sione Vaki and Ian Kennelly did return, albeit with limitations, as did a few of the other players who returned on Saturday. For all the information, make sure to check out latest training camp injury report.
With several injured players returning from injury over the last two practices, we are beginning to see them slowly worked into their roles.
Alex Anzalone was splitting some starting WILL reps with Zach Cunningham, and Al-Quadin Muhammad was splitting some second team EDGE reps (behind Marcus Davenport) with UDFA rookie Keith Cooper. Ennis Rakestraw also split some reps with Rock Ya-Sin, who was in on team drills for D.J. Reed.
Other replacement roles in the secondary include seeing Avonte Maddox at first-team safety with Joseph out, and Erick Hallett repping at first-team nickel with Robertson out and Maddox at safety.
The Lions continue to roll with Graham Glasgow at first-team center and Tate Ratledge at right guard, while it was Kingsley Eguakun’s turn at second-team center. We also saw the Lions give Derrick Barnes some second-team MIKE reps for the first time in camp, which means he’s repped at all three linebacker spots.
Once the Lions opened team drills, one-on-ones kicked things off, as they do in most padded practices. Sam LaPorta continues to just dominate defenders in these open-field drills, this time taking it to Brian Branch. The first rep, LaPorta dropped a spin move on the Pro Bowl safety, then hit him with power on the second rep. Both times, Branch got a hold of LaPorta, but the tight end is just too strong—which is saying something against Branch.
Montgomery has been equally as impressive in these drills, getting the best of Jack Campbell twice, giving him a 3-to-1 edge in their overall battles.
“David, in my opinion, is one of the hardest backs to tackle just because he can put his foot in the ground and his one-cut and his burst is insane, and he can also run you over,” Campbell told the media last week. “He’s one heck of a player and I’m definitely glad he’s on our team, for sure.”
We also saw a few other players with at least two convincing wins in this drill, including Craig Reynolds over Dan Jackson, Derrick Barnes over Shane Zylstra, Rock Ya-Sin over Jakobie Keeney-James, and Loren Strickland over Jackson Meeks—with Strickland even forcing and recovering a fumble. We saw all the winners in this section had a very strong...
