Detroit Lions Training Camp Stock Report 8/1

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Stock Up!

Cornelius Lucas

The only thing that most fans know about Lucas is that he is a gigantic human being.  At around 6’9″ with ridiculously long arms, Lucas dwarfed every player he stood near.  Rodney Austin is not a small person, but next to Lucas he was just dwarfed in size.

But can he play?  The Lions gave Lucas almost all of their UDFA guarantees to bring him to Detroit, so fans would hope so.  As it turns out, he’s a pretty good Offensive Tackle.  If there was a play he was beaten off the snap, I didn’t see it, the same is true about being manhandled (he wasn’t).  Lucas moves well, has adequate power, and is generally a fluid athlete.  He doesn’t quite use his size or length as well as you’d like, but he’s off to a better start than expected.

Stock Down…

Corey Hilliard/LaAdrian Waddle

As big of a Waddle supporter as I am, he didn’t look very good in the limited reps I saw of him.  Caruan Reid got the best of him twice, and it seemed to take him several reps to calm down.  Once he settled in, he seemed to do better, but that kind of streakiness can kill a QB.

Corey Hilliard wasn’t better.  Taking snaps with the first team, Hilliard was immediately beaten on an inside stunt by Daryl Tapp, then followed it up by blocking himself out of the play.  As much as I want to consider Right Tackle a strength this year, it looks like a potential weakness.

On a related note, Waddle took reps on the left side and seemed to do a lot better.  Still wasn’t perfect, but there is a very real possibility he and Reiff switch at some point in the season.