We’ve hit the midsummer holiday time. Be it the 4th of July or Canada Day, I hope you all are enjoying the slow time on the football calendar.
In conjunction with the Detroit Lions Podcast, we’ve got a mailbag full of questions from the podcast Patreon Slack channel. A couple of these inquisitions come from the end of minicamp week, but they’re still interesting questions and angles to explore.
Here are some of the choice selections from the midsummer mailbag.
What do you see as the most intriguing camp battles going forward and who are sleepers to win said camp battles?
Good question from Mooreski here, and it’s a topic we’re going to talk a lot about in the coming weeks.
The abridged early answer…
Top 3 battles I’m looking forward to watching:
1. EDGE opposite Aidan Hutchinson, the deepest position on the team
2. Kicker. I’m a noted sucker for kicking competitions.
3. Wide receivers beyond Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Josh Reynolds
There aren’t really any sleepers to win spots; it’s more about sorting out what the Lions currently have. I would advise that the Detroit coaching staff is considerably higher on both Kalif Raymond and Charles Harris than the fans seem to be. Cannot stress that enough about Charles Harris — I’ll be gobsmacked if he doesn’t play a significant role.
At kicker, I thought Michael Badgley was one of the biggest winners of minicamp for simply not participating and instead letting both Riley Patterson and John Parker Romo prove they’re probably not the answer the Lions are looking for.
What do you expect from James Mitchell this season? Is he currently behind LaPorta and Wright?
Chad Hale wants to know about second-year tight end James Mitchell, who tends to fall through the cracks of attention. After missing most of his rookie season due to a preexisting knee injury from his college days at Virginia Tech, Mitchell played just 183 offensive snaps and saw only 11 passing targets.
The best way to answer questions about Mitchell is to reflect on those 11 targets. He caught them all. Between that fact and his superior size relative to the rest of the tight end room, I look for Mitchell to be the team’s primary inline tight end. I expect him to play a lot in 2-TE looks and in short-yardage situations. It might not result in a lot more involvement in the passing game, but it’s a role that should at least double his snap count.
As for the TE depth chart, it’s pretty clear that rookie Sam LaPorta will be the top receiving option and the primary flex or motion TE. Brock Wright is more of a utility option, and he and Mitchell figure to be fighting for the No. 2 spot in the pecking order. I would simultaneously bet on Mitchell but not bet against Wright, who consistently overachieves.
How big of a loss is CJ Moore to the special teams units and who will replace him there?
GMart submits a savvy question. Losing safety C.J. Moore to his gambling-related suspension and subsequent release doesn’t mean much to the defense, but it absolutely impacts coordinator Dave Fipp’s superlative special teams unit.
Moore is one of the best all-around special teams players in the league. He was the personal protector for punter Jack Fox, a role which also allowed Moore to execute two fake punt conversions. He aligned the protections, too.
Replacing him will not be easy. One of the functions of having such a young roster is that there just isn’t much in the way of NFL experience in being a special teams specialist.
The role doesn’t necessarily have to go to a safety, though it could very well be a deciding factor at the bottom of the roster choice between Ifeatu Melifonwu, Brady Breeze and Saivion Smith as the final reserve safety.
Options from other positions include LB Malcolm Rodriguez (who was drafted in part with an eye on his special teams value), RB Craig Reynolds, LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin or TE Shane Zylstra. It’s also a path to making the team for an undrafted rookie like LB Trevor Nowaske or S Brandon Joseph.
How often do you see a 5-1 defense compared to 4-2 and 4-3 in the practices?
From TimO comes a question that I’m not technically allowed to answer in detail, or else I won’t be welcomed back to practices in the future. But there are generalities that can be discussed.
Some of it is semantics. There are many times when a third linebacker doubles as a fifth lineman, aligned as a stand-up EDGE with a primary —but not sole —function as a pass rusher. That’s especially true with James Houston in his (extremely limited) reps with the first-team defense.
When the offense went to two tight ends or used fullback Jason Cabinda in the backfield, the defensive usage of the true five-man front increased. One of the most common lineups in minicamp was a first-team defensive line that looked like this:
LE – Aidan Hutchinson
LDT – John Cominsky
NT – Christian Covington
RDT – Alim McNeill
RE – either Charles Harris or Josh Paschal
The gap alignment varied based on the offensive set, notably where the RE and McNeill set up shop. That was definitely more common than a traditional 3-LB base, though there was more of that look too than we ever saw in 2022.
How is Logan Stenberg still on the team?
I toned down the actual question here from Michael P. in deference to Stenberg, who I’ve found to be a good person in my limited interactions with him over the years. But it’s a fair question about an offensive lineman who has been a disappointment ever since being a fourth-round pick out of Kentucky in the 2020 NFL draft.
Some of the reason for Stenberg still being in Detroit has to do with the reality that the depth on the offensive line is (in my opinion) the single biggest weakness on the entire roster. The team simply hasn’t brought in anyone over the 2021 and 2022 offseasons who is definitively better than Stenberg as the No. 8/No. 9 lineman. I do think that’s changed this offseason with the return of Graham Glasgow, the drafting of Colby Sorsdal, the veteran trial balloon with Germain Ifedi, and the seeming increase in dedication by the team to Ross Pierschbacher.
My personal belief is that the joint practice sessions with the Jaguars and Giants are de facto auditions for Stenberg to wind up on one of those rosters in some manner. Be it a trade for a conditional draft pick or a place where he can go after being waived by the Lions during roster cutdowns, that scenario seems more likely than Stenberg sticking for a fourth season in Detroit.
Unless Stenberg can cease his endemic holding in pass protection, a function of him still not consistently moving his feet while engaged, he’s got very little chance of making the 53-man roster in Detroit or anywhere else.
