The Detroit Lions made their defensive position coaches available to the media on Day 2 of mandatory minicamp practice Wednesday, June 17, for the first time this offseason. Here are some highlights of the sessions:
High on LB Jimmy Rolder
Jimmy Rolder made one of the highlight plays on Day 1 of minicamp Tuesday, intercepting a Teddy Bridgewater pass in seven-on-seven drills, and Lions linebackers coach Shaun Dion Hamilton said that was play was emblematic of what the rookie fourth-round pick has done all spring.
“He’s been good,” Hamilton said. “Still has a lot of room for growth, but I’m pretty good with where he is now. I just continue to challenge him day in and day out [because] it’s always a learning curve for rookies coming from college football to the pros. But I’m excited to work with him and it’s going to be a lot of meat on the bone, a lot of things that he can grow coming into training camp.”
Hamilton said Rolder already has shown “tremendous growth” understanding NFL football concepts after starting just one college season for Michigan football.
Rolder has played primarily with the second-team defense this spring, but he could eventually challenge for a starting job at linebacker this fall. The Lions return Jack Campbell and Derrick Barnes as starters, and Malcolm Rodriguez is the favorite to replace Alex Anzalone in the starting lineup for now.
“I can’t wait to see when training camp comes,” Hamilton said. “For OTAs, we can’t get too nitty-gritty out of just protection of the players, so I think that you’ll really see the instincts in not just seven-on-seven, you’ll get to see in the run game and the pass game, see how those are tied together.”
Safety dance
With Kerby Joseph (knee) and Brian Branch (Achilles) still rehabbing from injuries, assistant head coach Jim O’Neil said the Lions used the spring to prepare backup safeties Chuck Clark, Christian Izien and Thomas Harper for multiple roles and evaluate how best to deploy each in the event they’re needed this fall.
“We’ve gone out on days and said, ‘All right, Chuck, you stay left, Izzy you stay right,'” O’Neil said. “Gone out some days and said, ‘All right, all the down-safety defenses, Izzy we want you down, we want Chuck up.’ Then you flip it on them, and then you go back and you evaluate it all.
“Obviously as we get closer to game-planning and stuff, you’re going to put those guys in the best position to make plays. So if Izzy’s better down in the box than he is high, we’re going to try to highlight that stuff with him. But if you get Kerby and BB back at different times, if you’re out there playing with Kerby, you’re going to be down more, if you’re out there playing with BB, you’re going to be high more. So we’re going to play off those guys, too, so it’s important. You just can’t say, ‘Izzy, you’re always down. Chuck, you’re always high,’ and then you get out there and you play with Kerb, it might be opposite. Or you play with BB, and it might be opposite.”
Izien and Clark have taken most of the first-team reps this spring, while Harper started nine games for the Lions last season. Izien also has taken reps at the slot cornerback position, and started games at both slot and safety during his three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With Dan Jackson, a seventh-round pick last year out of Georgia, also back on the field and healthy, O’Neil said, “You might see different guys run with the ones every single day of training camp through the first two weeks.”
“It’s going to be a great competition,” he said. “All those guys have a chip on their shoulder. I expect a hell of a training camp out of all of them.”
WR Isaac TeSlaa impressing
Deshea Townsend has an interesting perspective on second-year receiver Isaac TeSlaa after watching TeSlaa compete against his cornerbacks the past year.
“I think he’s learning how to run routes,” Townsend said. “I’m sure [receivers coach Scottie Montgomery is] doing a good job of just understanding how to use his size to an advantage and not be so full-speed on every play. So you see him adding some repertoire to his route-running game that’s going to make him even more effective because he is, he can run by you and he can high-point it but now when he adds the running the route part to it, it’s only going to make him a better player.”
TeSlaa caught just 16 passes for 239 yards last season but made some of the Lions’ most spectacular catches.
He was relatively unpolished as a rookie after playing his first three college seasons at Division III Hillsdale, but has generated plenty of buzz as the Lions’ No. 3 receiver playing alongside Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams this spring.
Townsend said going against that group has been a boon for his secondary, too.
“That’s what we’re going to see every Sunday,” Townsend said. “You’re not seeing a group that’s going to be better than what you face every day. So if you perfect your craft out here it’s going to help you when it’s time to go [play].”
Tyleik Williams’ time
Tyleik Williams played well in a supporting role at defensive tackle as a rookie, but Lions defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers said Williams could be headed for a breakout Year 2 this fall.
“He’s had a really, really good spring going in and it’s just the transition,” Rodgers said. “The thing is, we got to see when the live bullets. It’s hard to really evaluate it just running around in shorts right now.”
Williams had one sack and 18 tackles in 10 starts last season while playing 40% of the Lions’ defensive snaps. He’s expected to play a full-time starting role this fall next to Alim McNeill after veterans Roy Lopez and DJ Reader signed elsewhere in free agency.
Rodgers acknowledged it won’t be easy to replace the depth the Lions had at nose tackle last season, but he’s bullish on Williams’ upside.
“You had two veteran noses, there’s certain things you didn’t have to coach, it came with the territory and number of years of experience,” Rodgers said. “So now you got a guy that never played the position before so the transition, but has the skill set, that’s definitely a given. So now we got to coach him.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions see ‘tremendous growth’ from rookie LB Jimmy Rolder
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
