The first play of the first 1-on-1 rep early in Wednesday's joint practice between the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins saw Lions veteran wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown beating Dolphins veteran cornerback Jack Jones down the left sideline for a long touchdown.
Unfortunately for Jones and the rest of the Dolphins' secondary, that would be a common theme throughout the two hour practice between the two clubs at the Meijer Performance Center Wednesday.
St. Brown was the best player on the field for both teams. It started in the 1-on-1 period, where St. Brown won all four of his reps vs. Jones with two touchdowns. Then in a 7-on-7 period, St. Brown had two more catches including a long touchdown grab. He added two more catches in the next team period and two more touchdown catches in a later team red-zone period that included the play of practice where he pinned the ball against a defender's helmet and got both feet inbounds for a touchdown.
Simply stated, Miami had no answer for St. Brown as Detroit's offense had their best day of practice collectively as a unit since training camp started.
"It's cool to see a guy who is All-Pro, he's the best, it's cool to see a guy like that continue to go out here every day and do everything full speed and do all his blocking full speed and want to do one-on-ones against everybody," Lions veteran left tackle Taylor Decker said of St. Brown after Wednesday's practice.
"He embodies what our team is supposed to be about. He's incredible."
St Brown is coming off a season in which he caught 115 passes for 1,263 yards and 12 touchdowns. He's become one of the most consistently good receivers in the NFL and arguably the best slot receiver in the league. If Wednesday's practice is any indication, we could be in for something special this year.
"It was a good day," St. Brown said after practice. "Finally get to go against someone else, so that was a lot of fun. Just to go against someone else and compete was a lot of fun."
It's been no secret through the first three weeks of camp that Detroit's defense has won more days than the offense. That hasn't been lost on some veteran offensive players like St. Brown, but on Wednesday, Detroit's offense looked just as dominant as they did last season when they were top in the league in scoring and second in total offense.
"Anytime you are executing, you're catching balls, your run game is going, you're protecting the quarterback and you're scoring touchdowns it always looks good," St. Brown said. "We haven't watched the tape yet but from what I saw out here, it looked pretty solid.
"We feel like as an offense maybe this camp there has been some struggles for us as an offense. But I think that's normal. You got new coaches and different moving parts and you're going against a really good defense every day.
"Things can get tough. But for us as an offense, we know the ability that we have, the playmakers we have, the quarterback we have, the O-line, so it's just a matter of time for us. Keep getting better and improving is the name of the game for us right now."
O-LINE PLAY
Speaking of moving parts on offense, the offensive line is trying to work in three new starters along the interior in center Graham Glasgow, rookie right guard Tate Ratledge, and second-year left guard Christian Mahogany.
Despite the new makeup upfront there's a standard that's been built in that room as one of the best offensive lines in football over the last four seasons and it hasn't changed. That's why it was really refreshing to see Detroit's offensive line pave the way during joint practice. Quarterback Jared Goff was kept clean in the passing game and the big guys upfront opened hole after hole in the run game in team periods.
"Yeah, it felt that way," Decker said after practice when asked if Wednesday's practice felt more like the standard they've set for themselves in their room. "There's always going to be stuff to clean up, for sure, but it did feel that way. I think that's good to see, especially when you have some young guys and you're playing unfamiliar faces to see how they respond. That was good to see that as a whole unit from one's, two's, to three's everybody came out there composed, competed and executed."
EXTRA POINTS
- Lions head coach Dan Campbell seems pretty excited about the competition and developing depth at edge rusher. He specifically mentioned Nate Lynn, Keith Cooper Jr., Isaac Ukwu, and Mitchell Agude when asked about the progression of the position before Wednesday's practice.
- Offensive lineman Keaton Sutherland (knee) and cornerback DiCaprio Bootle (lower leg) left practice Wednesday due to injury.
