Lions Training Camp: Versatile Secondary Gives Defense an Aggressive Edge

Efficiency is high in Detroit’s practices already, as a player-led group is building with some intriguing defensive pieces.

Good start to my camp trip in Allen Park, Mich., a short drive west of Detroit. My takeaways from Lions camp …

1) One particular area where there could be a tangible difference is in the flexibility defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn will have on the back end, with Cam Sutton, Kerby Joseph, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and second-round pick Brian Branch among the pieces with the malleability to move all over the secondary. That should give Glenn a green light to be aggressively creative in playing mind games with quarterbacks.

2) Even at this early juncture, there’s a real efficiency to how the team is working—something that Dan Campbell, Jared Goff and Brad Holmes pointed out to me in a sitdown we’ll have up on the site soon. It is maybe the best indicator of where the program is heading into Year 3, and it shows how the players have truly taken ownership of what’s been built under the leadership of Campbell and Holmes. And yes, Campbell is still doing up-downs with the group.

Entering his third year in Detroit, Goff is coming a season in which he finished sixth in the league in passing yards :: Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY NETWORK

3) On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Derrick Barnes, a 2021 fourth-rounder, will be one to watch when the pads go on Friday. Detroit knew it was taking on a project when it took Barnes two years ago—he’d toggled between defensive end and linebacker as a collegian, so he was a bit raw coming out—and there have been lumps taken along the way. But his athletic ceiling was there all along, and it looks like he’ll have a chance to emerge as a difference-maker in the fall.

4) The Alabama rookies both have gotten up to speed quickly, which lines up with the reputations Branch and Jahmyr Gibbs had pre-draft. Branch, again, should be able to find a role with his ability to play multiple spots. And the Lions do see Gibbs as having an Alvin Kamara-ish skill set, with his ability to play like a receiver and still run inside when needed. It’s a comp that is informed a bit, too, by the fact that Campbell spent four years with Kamara in New Orleans.

5) And, finally, a camp darkhorse for you: Undrafted rookie corner Starling Thomas V, out of UAB.