Day 3 notes and observations

Day 3 of Detroit Lions training camp is now in the books.

Friday saw the arrival of Lions’ friends and family in the stands, the first day where anyone besides Lions employees and media was present at camp. Alas, pads will not come on for the players until Monday, but we still got to glean quite a bit from the sun-soaked morning session.

Here’s what I saw, heard and noted in Friday’s practice in Allen Park.

Top observations from the first day of Detroit Lions training camp

Lions training camp notebook: Day 2 top observations

Red zone offense

Much of Friday’s session was spent in positional work, meaning a limited amount of offense vs. defense reps. The primary focus of those more competitive drills was in the red zone.

Jared Goff was sharp throughout the session. Early in the session he hit wideouts Josh Reynolds and DJ Chark on the same quick-hit seam route just between the underneath LB and safety closing from up high. It takes a confident and accurate throw and Goff delivered, much to the chagrin of defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.

Goff to D’Andre Swift was effectively unstoppable inside the 10. The duo connected on a great corner fade where LB Chris Board was in great position in coverage but couldn’t quite get a finger on a perfect pass.

Amon-Ra St. Brown struck paydirt by torching AJ Parker with a nasty inside jerk move. St. Brown celebrated by pretending he was surfing.

The defense did get some wins, notably a fantastic PD from safety DeShon Elliott on a great, quick read. Cornerback Will Harris made two straight breakups on the exact same route, a quick-out to the goal line. The first time he got a little lucky when Goff was a count late pulling the trigger to Josh Reynolds. The next attempt went to TE T.J. Hockenson and Harris was all over it.

The reserve offense was well ahead of the backups on defense throughout the drill. There were two noteworthy exceptions: a sack by rookie DT Demetrius Harris on a gorgeous under-and-up move, and a well-executed A-gap blitz from LB Derrick Barnes. The receivers and tight ends consistently won their battles on just about every rep.

2-minute drill

Practice ended on the field with the starting offense on a 2-minute drill against the starting defense. The defense was the better unit in this one.

Goff had some issues finding open receivers, with the defense rolling coverage nicely to take away his primary option. Standing behind…