TE Shortage: The Lions are facing a severe tight end shortage at the moment. Eric Ebron, Cole Wick, Tim Wright and Khari Lee all sat out practice Wednesday due to injury. The team signed free agent tight end Andrew Price to boost their numbers at the position. All the injuries gave a player like undrafted free agent Robert Tonyan some valuable reps on Wednesday, and an opportunity to impress. –*Tim Twentyman

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Air drill: Rookie defensive linemen Alex Barrett and Jeremiah Valoaga stayed on the field after practice for several minutes to work on pass-rush techniques. They practiced against air, without a dummy. As Barrett explained, the drill was designed to improve footwork and hand placement when facing bigger offensive linemen. – Mike O'Hara

Fun with a dummy: The Lions used a remote control tackling dummy at practice for the first time I can remember this training camp during a special teams portion of practice. The dummy is on wheels and is remote controlled. Special teams coordinator Joe Marciano had a little fun with it after the period concluded, when he took the controls and drove it toward some media members walking behind the end zone on their way to watch individual drills. Marciano peeled it off right before contact. He had a good laugh about it. – Tim Twentyman

Good and bad: Defensive back Johnson Bademosi made a good catch while covering TJ Jones, but the play would not have counted from start to finish in a regular game. At the start, a defensive player was offside. The play continued, and Bademosi made a twisting catch in the left corner of the end zone – only to land out of bounds. – Mike O'Hara

Getting comfortable: Greg Robinson seems to be settling into that left tackle spot in place of Taylor Decker. Robinson was pretty good in Sunday's preseason opener, and he was very good during one-on-one drills with the offensive linemen on Wednesday. Robinson showed off his athleticism in one rep by literally throwing 6-foot-6, 275-pound defensive end Jeremiah Valoaga aside.

Triple duty: A three-play sequence showed how tight end Darren Fells is bound to have his versatility used more often than was the case in his three seasons with the Cardinals. On the first two he lined up in different spots as a blocker. On play three he broke over the middle as a receiver but got tied up with a defender and couldn't quite come up with the ball. – Mike O'Hara

New rushers: The loss of Kerry Hyder Jr. means there's an opportunity for someone to step up and take on a bigger role opposite Ziggy Ansah. On Wednesday, it was veteran Cornelius Washington and undrafted rookie free agent Alex Barrett splitting some first-team reps on the left side. – Tim Twentyman