Jamo for the win: The last situational period of practice gave the offense the ball at the 48-yard line leading 23-20 with one minute, 53 seconds on the clock. Both the offense and defense had two timeouts. The objective was for the offense to get a first down and run out the clock.

After a Jacob Saylors run on first down for no gain, quarterback Jared Goff dialed up a home-run ball deep on second down to wide receiver Jameson Williams who got a step on cornerback Rock Ya-Sin. Goff dropped it right into Williams' hands who almost scored before being called down at the one-yard line. Three kneel-downs from there ran out the clock with the defense owning just one timeout after using one on the Saylors run on first down. It was a win for the offense.

McLaughlin debut with first team: With Cade Mays out of the lineup for the foreseeable future with a wrist injury and Juice Scruggs rehabbing a soft tissue injury, second-year OL Seth McLaughlin took first-team reps at center on Monday. It was McLaughlin's first reps against Alim McNeill and Tyleik Williams in team periods, and there was a bit of an adjustment there as both defensive linemen won some reps early. I thought McLaughlin settled in as practice went on.

"They are great players," McLaughlin said of McNeill and Williams after practice. "They are going to get me better so I'm excited to go against those guys."

Takeaway day: A couple things defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard emphasized this offseason were limiting the explosive plays and increasing takeaways after the Lions' 19 takeaways last season ranked just 19th in the NFL.

Sheppard will enjoy Monday's practice tape as the defense recorded four interceptions during team periods. Safety Chuck Clark and cornerback Nick Whiteside (with an assist on a tip from Clark) got two off Goff. Safety Dan Jackson and cornerback Christian Izien each got one off Luke Altmyer.

Punch drill: Every time linebacker Jack Campbell gets around the football, he's trying to punch it out. It looks like that's become contagious among defenders. Wide receiver Tom Kennedy made a catch over the middle on a short crosser in a team period with cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. in close pursuit.

Rakestraw caught up to Kennedy and placed a perfectly targeted punch right on the football and knocked it out of Kennedy's arm. Altmyer was right there for the recovery, but it was a nice play by Rakestraw.

Bates report: It was another solid day for kicker Jake Bates. He had eight field goal attempts throughout the course of practice and made six of them. He connected from 39, 39, 46, 47, 51 and 54 yards. His two misses came from 47 and 51 yards.

TE production: Tight end Sam LaPorta had a nice afternoon, making a key third-down catch over the middle and notching a touchdown grab. In fact, LaPorta and Brock Wright had back-to-back touchdown catches in a team red zone period. Tight end Thomas Gordon also had a touchdown Monday. We could see a sharp increase in the use and production at the tight end position in Detroit's offense.

Positive energy: It's fun watching second-year edge rusher Ahmed Hassanein during practice. He brings so much energy to everything he does. There was a great special teams rep Monday where Hassanein and Gordon went one-on-one. The two started toe-to-toe with the blocker's hands inside on the shoulder pads. The object for the player being blocked was to disengage and hit a dummy 20 yards downfield.

Hassanein was the blocker first and locked up Gordon pretty good for a win, letting him know about it after the rep. Then it was Gordon's turn and he did the same to Hassanein, keeping him blocked well until the very end to win the rep. Hassanein made it a point to run over to Gordon give him a high five and a light headbutt to show his approval for the effort.

Quick hitters:

• Ya-Sin was strong supporting the run from the cornerback spot. I had him down for two tackles for loss on Monday.
• With Avonte Maddox not practicing Monday, it was Clark and Thomas Harper playing most of the safety reps with the first-team defense.
• Jahmyr Gibbs put a shimmy and a shake on Whiteside in space to get by him on the outside for a short touchdown run in a team period. Gibbs in space one-on-one must be terrifying for a defender.
• Watch out for rookie cornerback Keith Abney II as a blitzer. He really seems to have a knack for it. He had a big tackle for loss shooting a gap the other day and recorded a sack Monday.