Detroit Lions Training Camp Joint Practice Against Houston Texans Observations: Dan Campbell was right about he said Saturday

An even day for the Lions and Texans

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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Detroit Lions cornerback D.J. Reed (4) practices during training camp at Meijer Performance Center in Allen Park on Thursday, August 21, 2025. Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions just had their last joint practice of the year against the Houston Texans, and this pretty much wraps up training camp as a whole. The Lions have their game against the Texans on Saturday, and then that’s it. Cut downs are on. Here are our biggest observations from the day.

Dan Campbell was right on Saturday when he said turnovers would start bouncing the Lions’ way

They had four interceptions on Thursday. Kerby Joseph, who’s back on the field now, got one. Luq Barcoo got one off a tip, Amik Robertson snatched one before it hit the ground, and then Avonte Maddox grabbed on in the end zone. Not bad at all.

The Lions had some turnovers of their own, though. Calen Bullock picked off Jared Goff in the end zone when he was trying to get Amon-Ra St. Brown another touchdown, and Darrell Taylor caused a sack fumble on Kyle Allen. Goff also had a fumble that Will Anderson caused when he beat Penei Sewell and swatted it out of Goff’s hands.

The Grant Stuard kick return experiment should probably end

The Lions have never really gotten anything out of this. He did have one kick return touchdown in joint practices against the Dolphins last week, but that was called back for a penalty. The other experience has been short returns and that fumble in the Hall of Fame game. Then there was the fumble on Thursday against the Texans. He is a great linebacker and a good special teams player, but returns might not be his thing. We did get to see another return from Dominic Lovett on Thursday, and we can say that returns definitely might be his thing.

More drops than we’re used to seeing

There were two drops on what would have been sure touchdowns on Thursday. The first was Tim Patrick, who dropped a pass in the red zone with nobody on him and nobody in front of him. He would have walked into the end zone. The other was Kalif Raymond, who dropped a short pass that he would have turned around and taken all the way to the house.

Then there were two Sam LaPorta drops. They weren’t going to be touchdowns or anything, just thought that was pretty unlike him. He had some really nice grabs outside of that.

Kalif Raymond had the play of the day over Jameson Williams, in my opinion

There were two big highlight plays on Thursday. The first one was a 36-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Williams, who did Jamo things and got a ton of separation. The other was Kalif Raymond, who caught the ball and was dead to rights on a tackle from Christian Harris, and then he juked Harris with swiftness and ran it into the end zone. I look forward to seeing that one again. Update: Turns out Williams was out of bounds on the touchdown. So Raymond wins.

That Gibbs guy is pretty good

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Jahmyr Gibbs, but he’s pretty good. In all seriousness, Gibbs looked so good on Thursday. He had back-to-back touchdowns where he just kind of outran everyone to the edge and went right in. Don’t worry, David Montgomery got in the end zone, too. Although I will say that we saw a lot more Gibbs on Thursday. That lends itself to the idea that they’re going to use him more in 2025.

No more movement in the backup quarterback battle

Hendon Hooker had some nice throws in 7-on-7 action and even hit Jackson Meeks for a nice touchdown. But Kyle Allen had the more notable day with nice throws on the move to Tom Kennedy, a big touchdown to Dominic Lovett. It wasn’t expected that Hooker would go out and win the job back this week, but there was hope that he would have a productive week. Which he did on Monday and Tuesday. Thursday, there just wasn’t much that made him stand out.

D.J. Reed had a standout day

It seemed like every time C.J. Stroud threw an incompletion, Reed was the guy by the receiver who didn’t catch the ball. There were pass breakups, but there was also just good suffocating coverage that wouldn’t allow receivers to get in position for the ball. Everyone gets beaten in the NFL, but Reed just isn’t having it most of the time.

Injuries

Starting center Graham Glasgow left practice early and is being evaluated for a lower leg injury.

Emptying the notebook

  • There were no fights in this one, but Taylor Decker and a Texans defender had a little chippy shouting match with some light shoving.
  • Tom Kennedy had a really solid day. He made some big catches in this one.
  • Terrion Arnold had a really nice PBU on Nico Collins in the air.
  • Goff hit St. Brown in the back of the end zone with a play in 7-on-7’s and then did it again in 11-on-11’s. Thought that was cool.
  • When Glasgow went down, the Lions didn’t slide Ratledge over; they put Kinglsey Eguakun in at center. Makes you wonder if Eguakun could get the start in Week 1 if Glasgow misses any time.
  • Marcus Davenport might have destroyed Storud if this were a live game. He rushed inside on a play during the 2-minute drill and was right in front of Stroud and had to pull up. It forced an incomplete pass, but it would have been a sack live.

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