Here are some observations from Day 13 of Lions training camp in Allen Park on Sunday.
The most notable development out of Sunday’s practice was Tate Ratledge’s move to the first-team center position. While Ratledge wasn’t at center for the full practice — Juice Scruggs also took reps at center — he took a healthy majority. When Ratledge was at center, the team deployed Ben Bartch at left guard and Christian Mahogany at right guard. When Scruggs was in at center, Mahogany and Ratledge played guard.
The practice was sloppy for the offense, in part because it started to pour halfway through. By our count, Ratledge had two botched snaps, and Scruggs had four. One or two of them might’ve been on quarterback Jared Goff; it was kind of hard to tell in the rain.
Part of the moving and shaking stems from the fact that, as Lions coach Dan Campbell mentioned on Saturday, they have no idea who their “best five” are with Cade Mays on the shelf. Prior to his injury, they only needed to figure out one spot (left guard) along the offensive line, with two clear favorites for the job: Mahogany and Bartch.
Now the situation is exponentially more complicated: While Seth McLaughlin played well at center in Thursday night’s preseason game, he likely doesn’t have the preferred size; Scruggs was dealing with a soft-tissue injury before returning to practice this week; Ratledge has never played the position before. Even if Scruggs was the clear front-runner for the gig, they’d likely want to hammer down a contingency plan before going into the season. It’s clear the Lions are invested in preparing Ratledge to play center if it comes down to it.
It was another monster day for defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who put a scare into the hearts of everyone in attendance when he ran over Penei Sewell, knocking the offensive tackle square into quarterback Goff, causing everybody to hit the ground. Hutchinson is having an even better camp than he did a season ago, when he was coming off a severe leg injury. It’s all systems go for Detroit’s star pass rusher.
Rookie edge defender Derrick Moore had a handful of first-team reps. His highlight of the day was when he came screaming off the left edge, got his helmet ripped off in the process, and attempted to chase down Goff, who forced an incompletion to Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Edge defender Ahmed Hassanein added another sack to his practice resume when he beat offensive tackle Larry Borom while working with the second team. Hassanein made Borom his enemy for the day, as the two were seen chirping back and forth after a rep, ultimately meeting helmet-to-helmet, which fired Hassanein up.
One of the team’s mid-camp additions, defensive lineman Ben Stille, has shown up on a daily basis. He and rookie edge defender Anthony Lucas arrived at the quarterback for a sack on the last play of practice. Earlier in the day, Stille sniffed out a screen and swatted it away for the incompletion.
Cornerback D.J. Reed, who returned from a groin injury on Saturday, was limited during team periods, opening the door for Ennis Rakestraw Jr. to take some first-team reps. I don’t recall Rakestraw giving up many completions until the end of practice. Against Rakestraw, wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa made his only catch in team periods on the day, climbing the ladder to high-point a throw from Goff on fourth-and-12 during a situational drill.
Rookie cornerback Keith Abney II took first-team reps after a solid preseason debut and was in tight coverage on an incompletion in the end zone to Tom Kennedy with six seconds left in a situational drill. Abney also went two-for-two in the reps we saw during one-on-one periods against Kennedy; on the first, he did well to use the sideline as an extra defender, forcing the receiver into a box.
Kicker Jake Bates had an extremely rough day, even before the elements changed the dynamic of practice. He went 2-for-4 on his first set of kicks, hitting from 37 yards and missing twice from 52 before putting home his third attempt. On a three-kick set in the pouring rain, long snapper Hogan Hatten and holder Jack Fox combined for a rare misfire that resulted in an aborted attempt. Bates then went 1-for-2 on a pair of kicks from a distance that was not entirely clear, since it was on the other side of the field amidst a downpour. In his final set, Bates went 2-for-4 again, hitting and missing from both 35 and 40 yards.
Linebacker Erick Hunter made multiple splash plays on the day, recording a tackle-for-loss and a hellacious pressure on a blitz up the middle.
Cornerback Roger McCreary didn’t have any pass breakups that I saw in team periods, but it feels like he’s slowly starting to turn things around. He was getting beat with frequency during the first half of camp, but was in the area for a number of incompletions on Sunday. McCreary was the Lions’ highest-rated coverage defender against the Bengals on Thursday night, per Pro Football Focus, allowing zero catches on a pair of targets.
Rookie defensive lineman Tyre West, who’s had a quiet start to training camp, made a pair of plays on Sunday. He batted a ball at the line of scrimmage and recorded a tackle-for-loss against running back Raheem Blackshear.
Blackshear is making the most of his opportunity as running back Jacob Saylors nurses an ankle injury and had a few nice runs on the day. During a red-zone period, quarterback Luke Altmyer rolled left and found Blackshear, who hung onto the ball through a big hit from McCreary.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Lions training camp observations: Tate Ratledge takes reps at center
Reporting by Nolan Bianchi, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Nolan Bianchi, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
