Detroit Lions minicamp Day 3 injury updates, participation report
The Detroit Lions closed out mandatory minicamp on Thursday with a relatively short practice. Based on what we’ve heard from the coaching staff and what we’ve seen all week, the Lions appeared to have gotten through all three practices without major injury—outside of receiver Maurice Alexander sporting a cast for the past two days.
So there are only minor changes to the final participation report from Thursday’s practice, but a couple of notable updates about Hendon Hooker and Levi Onwuzurike.
Note: As a reminder, this is not an official injury report. The Lions do not provide an injury report, so these categorizations are based on my own personal observations.
Not practicing
QB Hendon Hooker
RB David Montgomery
WR Trinity Benson
WR Maurice Alexander
TE James Mitchell
OT Connor Galvin
G Kayode Awosika
LB Malcolm Rodriguez
CB Khalil Dorsey
DB Chase Lucas
Most of the familiar names stayed the same for Thursday’s practice. However, cornerback Khalil Dorsey was out, leaving the Lions even more shorthanded at outside cornerback.
That said, there were some signs of progress among a couple people in this group. Chase Lucas was running near full speed with trainers for a good portion of practice. Additionally, Hooker continued to throw passes after practice. We wrote about that next stage in his ACL recovery here.
Reporters caught him getting this work in on Thursday with Trinity Benson, who remains sidelined during practice with a knee injury:
Rookie #Lions QB Hendon Hooker getting some throws in after practice pic.twitter.com/K2w261uQyN — Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) June 8, 2023
Limited practice
G Halapoulivaati Vaitai
C Frank Ragnow
OT Taylor Decker
DT Levi Onwuzurike
EDGE John Cominsky
CB Emmanuel Moseley
CB Jerry Jacobs
S Tracy Walker
Frank Ragnow remains out of most drills, but when the team did some 11-on-11s at the end of practice, the entire first-string offensive line was playing out there together, including Ragnow at center and Halapoulivaati Vaitai at right guard. Now, it was really more like a 7-on-7 drill, as the defensive linemen would essentially stop once they reached the offensive line, but it was still good to see the entire crew out there.
I elevated Levi Onwuzurike into this group because even though he was the only one without a helmet, he continued to go through some positional drills. Here’s video of that from Wednesday, and it was more of that again on Thursday:
Took this video of Levi Onwuzurike at Lions practice yesterday. He's 91, goes through the drill here after Christian Covington.
We get asked about him hourly by fans. This is as good as he's moved since he got hurt on the 1st contact rep of '22 training camp. pic.twitter.com/HVGw6mVAyT — Jeff Risdon (@JeffRisdon) June 8, 2023
Jerry Jacobs again sat during full team drills, so here’s how the Lions handled their first-team defense during 11-on-11s in the secondary:
CB: Cameron Sutton
CB: Will Harris
NCB: C.J. Gardner-Johnson
S: Ifeatu Melifonwu
S: Kerby Joseph
Back to practice:
CB C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Gardner-Johnson was back after dealing with an illness on Wednesday. He continued to get reps at both safety and nickel cornerback, but with a heavier emphasis at nickel.
Source: Pride Of Detroit
