Detroit Lions Have Two Players Skyrocketing Up The Depth Chart

all right training camp day eight I'm not I'm not sure exactly what it is when you're watching this video hopefully you're watching this instead of watching the Bears second unit go against the Texans second unit in the Hall of Fame game and most likely their third and fourth units uh but anyways we have two people that are absolutely standing out that have kind of separated themselves and are quite frankly a surprise one on the defensive side of the ball and one on the offensive side of the ball on the defensive side of the ball it's a surprise but how good he's playing is even more of a surprise like you could expect it but you kind of forgot about him on the offensive side it's someone we've talked about on this show but not someone that we ever expected to do anything honestly even make this team I thought he was a long shot to make this team now it looks like not only is he going to make the team but he's the favorite to be a starter in the wide receiver quarter so let's go ahead and talk about who these two players are first on the defensive side of the ball we have Levi onar now it's not that big of a shock that he's playing well if his back is healthy this is a second round pick remember this is a guy that we drafted ahead of Al mcneel this is the player that we wanted on our team even more than we wanted Alim mcneel and Alim mcneel is playing his way into being a $0 million defensive tackle coming up in this next cycle and Brad Holmes even said Al mcneel is the next guy that we're looking to get his deal done but what about Levi and uzar would Al mcneel even be getting those shots if anuar had been so good from the beginning so here's a crazy quote and I want to show this to you by the way if you don't you can follow us on Twitter all right Sports Talk Detroit and we do more on YouTube I'll admit that but it might be nice to follow us on Twitter just to get some updates there as well Lions new guard Kevin Zer when asked for his thoughts on the defensive line zeitler said I think we're going to have 2 20 plus million doll d tackles soon all right so what do you mean like reader's not making 20 mil right so who are you talking about there when followed up with him to ask who he was talking about he said Al mcneel and Levi on wuque so he is thinking that if he stays healthy if he is able to play enough steps that Levi and uzar will be a good enough defensive tackle this year that he will warrant a $20 million contract in the off season and yes it will be in the off seon because when you look at his contract for Levi on wer what you see is that he is in line to I mean he's it's the end of his rookie contract let's just put it that way way all right this year he's making 1.7 million so sorry that went over to there I'll get it back for you all right 1.7 million his cap hit is 2.5 so actually that's what he's making is almost 2.6 million that's his rookie contract he's about to sign his second contract he's going to want to get everything can we afford to pay both him and alen mcneel that no no we cannot but you never know if he plays well you might be able to get him in that 10 to 15 range you give McNeil the big contract and there you go but let's not put the cart before the horse here what I'm excited to see is that you have a veteran guard who's been in this league for over a decade and Kevin zitler and he is saying that he believes because he's going against him in practice every day and Levi and uzar we've gotten the reports that he has been playing with the starters every single day like he is the first guy out there with Al mcneel they're the one two punch as DJ reader continues to rehab that torn quad so they're out there together if he can actually be that good we will have three phenomenal defensive tackles and when you're able to rotate your defensive tackles without losing much that depth is an unbelievable asset it's unbelievable and what I like about Levi and werri is that he can yep he can hold up against the run and he can Rush the pass remember when we drafted this guy he was the guy who we all loved in the interview because he said I just like to mess stuff up he said it with more colorful language all right but that's what he likes to do as a defensive tackle just get in there and mess things up and that's exactly what he will do all right for this team now that's the defensive side of the ball who we looking at on the offensive side of the ball we've already talked about him on this channel but we're going to learn a little bit more about him in this one and it is Doris Fountain wide receiver so let's do a deeper dive into exactly who this guy is all right let's do a deeper dive into who this dory's Fountain guy is because maybe he's good maybe he's good so here's what we know in receiver drills today yesterday actually based on what I'm reading this article the Lions ran three- man sets with two blockers and a ball carrier St Brown Williams and the third wide receiver Doris Fountain when the first team offense Tak a field in 11 personnel which is three receivers one tight end and a running back it's been St Brown Jameson Williams and Doris Fountain he's there he's been consistent from the beginning of the camp until now from everything we're hearing from multiple beat reporters and he continues to get more and more and more opportunities a week ago day one two 3 four of Camp when they were running 11 personnel when they were running three-man sets all right that third wide receiver was sometimes Fountain but most of the time it was Antoine green now dor Fountain is the one who was taken over and he is the one that is cons consistently playing with the ones and you're going to hear a quote here from Ben Johnson in just a second but before you get there there the beat writers are talking about how much athleticism he athleticism he's been showing his ability to jump and come down with contested catches get the ball has been phenomenal so I was like well is he that athletic and we've talked about this a little bit and the answer to be completely honest is yes he is all right he has an R of 8.0 won he was a fifth round pick out of Northern Iowa 6 years ago where has this guy been he's played like six offensive snaps for the Indianapolis Colts back in like 2021 or something like that all right his speed is fine 4.5 it's not like burner speed but it's more than serviceable all right his height is good he's 6'2 all right um based on other things he's 200 he's even more more I think he's 210 lbs so we're going to talk about that but look at this vertical jump has one of the highest vertical jumps ever by a wide receiver ever one of the biggest broad jumps by a wide receiver ever what does that mean why are vertical jump and broad jump important it gives you a bigger range a bigger catch radius for your quarterback think about Kelvin Johnson big bodied could jump out of the gym could jump off the field that is you get a little bit of that like the the broad jump and vertical jump is similar to what we saw with Kelvin Johnson I'm not saying he's Kelvin Johnson get out of here with that his playing height and playing weight as listed is 6 to 210 pounds so what about the two guys that he's going for on that receiver spot you have Antoine green 62 200 we all think of Antoine green as a big bodied receiver dor fountain's actually bigger Donovan peoples Jones I thought for sure it was like 63 64 he's 62 204 dor Fountain is the biggest of these wide receivers all right so let's talk about Ben Johnson we got to hear from him for the first time all right uh just today and here's what he said we need in that third wide receiver spot all right he said we need it's an out the second outside receiver knowing that J MO is the number one outside receiver St Brown's working the slot he said we need need smart we need reliable okay and if we had to be picky we want a little bit of length dor Fountain has the length all right we're going to talk about klie framan here in a second so with that being said we're charting every single day who's the most reliable mental errors who's catching the ball who's dropping the ball these guys see it Rees Fountain dorice Reese Fountain has certainly come on so far in training camp his physicality his explosiveness has shown up Antoine green is still pushing along here we see growth from the springtime we just need to see the consistency that we've been hoping for from him second year Receiver right 7th round pick Donovan peoples Jones dpj has made some big plays for us he had a big block just the other day in practice that we took note of and we know what khif Raymond is the competition is healthy those are a few names but everyone is in it at this point okay everyone's in it at this point that's not true all right the four guys that are up for that spot he mentioned Antoine green Donovan peoples Jones Kylie framan and Dory Fountain and by process of elimination we can say kie framan isn't it if you have to use him in a pinch you absolutely can of course you can but they want to use him on the field they'll have some fun stuff with him he'll get snaps a lot of them will be if St Brown can't go if he's hurt at some point because you don't drop off a ton you drop off a lot don't get me wrong but it's not a ridiculous amount from St Brown to Kylie freman he's the perfect guy to have backup in the slot and that allows him to continue to do the other things that he's good at punt returns um Gadget plays things like that Donovan peoples Jones he's on a oneye $2 million contract like you you don't owe anything to him it's not like he's a guaranteed roster spot so the way I look at it is if things continue to go the way they're going are you going to give it to the young buck and Antoine green or are you going to give it to Doris Fountain this is a team that wants to win a Super Bowl right now this is a team that is in their Championship window they're giving it to the best player all right Antoine green still has two more years on his contract he can grow into that next thing all right he can continue to grow into it dorce Fountain can have a great year with us and maybe we can't pay him next year I don't know right but Doris Fountain is a guy who's been around the league for six years he was on our practice squad all of last year if he can be a more explosive version of Josh Reynolds look out what if we actually improved by not resigning Josh Reynolds so there's a defensive guy for you there's an offensive guy for you cannot wait to see what happens this year all right thanks for watching we'll see you on the next one