Well I just returned home from the Detroit Lions practice at Ford Field and I thought I would share my un-expert opinion.
First off, I had a great seat, sitting front row on the 50 yard line.
Few observations:
1. Stafford is so much more polished looking this year.
2. Burleson was one of his main targets all day. Most balls thrown to CJ were deep balls, but the touch is definately there.
3. Chris Houston made an outstanding play to break up a deep ball catch on CJ. Other than him, the secondary looked weak (Delmas was in street clothes)
4. It's obvious that Kyle Vanden Bosch is the leader of the DL, which, by the way, looked very good. The addition of Corey Williams was a good one for a 4-3 D and Cliff Avril looked okay too.
5. Timmy Toone was getting cheered all day. He also burned a corner badly for a TD in the 1-on-1 drills.
6. Jahvid Best makes defenders look foolish in space. He put a nasty move on Suh at one point.
7. The OL was doubling Suh all day. Speaking of them, the OL does look better than last year.
8. A little worried about the LB's outside of Peterson, though Levy didn't participate. Caleb Cambell, also a LB now, is a HUGE man.
9. We are going to have some of the top TE production in the NFL.
10. Drew Stanton looked awful. Thank God they got Shaun Hill as a #2 now. All those people saying Stanton just needs a chance to play and prove himself are wrong. Practice is your chance and his balls had no touch, and he frequently missed open WRs.
Nothing earth shattering here, but good to actually witness a bit of the hype I've been hearing about. Should be an exciting year, and I really think this team is onto something for the future.
Not saying Stanton would have ever been a fulltime Sunday starter, but he had a good amount of potential coming in. An unpolished player like Stanton needs some stability when he gets in the league to help him develop and this is the first year he's had a returning offensive coordinator I believe. I kinda feel bad for him, even though he's a sparty :P
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.