With one preseason game in the books (a 16-10 loss to the Raiders) let’s talk about some things that we have seen and heard so far from the Lions.

QB: QB Matthew Stafford did not play against the Raiders. He’s fine and I would assume he’ll play a little bit in game 2 and a lot in game 3. All reports from camp say he looks good. The Lions spent the week in California practicing with the Raiders so the coaching staff probably figured he got enough work in against the Raiders during practice when he had the red jersey on. It looks like QB Matt Cassel is currently ahead of QB Jake Rudock in the battle for the backup job. Cassel started against the Raiders, and oddly enough, came back in the game when the Lions got the ball back late down 16-10. He had a potential winning drive going but got sacked and fumbled the ball away. Neither of the backups looked all that great but it was a typical vanilla preseason game.

RB: This Lions offense has a lot of known commodities, but rookie RB Kerryon Johnson is interesting because he is showing a lot of potential in camp. I was at practice on 8/2 and the backs were doing a drill where they were lining up in the slot and running wheel routes. Johnson made some nice catches. The reports say he is doing well with pass blocking, so his ceiling might be higher than we thought. He did muff a kickoff during a special teams drill, but I don’t think he is going to be a return man given his importance to the offense. He showed some flashes against the Raiders, getting a lot of playing time, generating 67 total yards. His best highlight was a 57 yard run on 3^rd and 1 that got called back due to a penalty. Some of this was against backups, but he passes the eye test as far as vision, burst, shiftiness, etc. RB LeGarrette Blount started and had 5-21 on the ground. RB Ameer Abdullah got some early playing time and scored a TD. I think the Lions plan to keep him as a backup, but if a needy team (Washington?) called, the Lions would listen. By the way, I saw more two back sets the day I was at practice than I remembered from last year.

WR/TE: WR Golden Tate took a hard hit to his leg on his one catch against the Raiders, but I didn’t hear anything about an injury. Other than that, not much of note here as WR Marvin Jones and WR Kenny Golladay could both give you good value based on their current ADP. It looks like TE Luke Willson is going to the top tight end, but he will not have much fantasy value. Willson will benefit from the struggles of TE Michael Roberts. Most of the game on Friday night was giving chances to the back of the roster receivers and tight ends so it wasn’t as interesting as the developments at the running back position.

K/DST: On defense, it was interesting to watch CB Darius Slay in practice. He broke up almost every pass thrown in his direction. If the Lions use Slay to match up with opponents’ top receivers, that will be something to keep an eye on, especially in daily fantasy games. Detroit’s run defense looked shaky against the Raiders, giving up 147 yards, and allowing Marshawn Lynch to run for a 60 yard TD that got called back due to a penalty. I’m not sure how many other teams around the league have this, but the Lions have one set of skinny goalposts on each practice field. PK Matt Prater likes to practice on the skinny posts.

Next up for the Lions are games on the 17^th against the Giants, and then the 24^th against the Bucs. I will have more on these games in my next report later this month.

End.