The Lions have spent most of training camp singing the praises of Sione Vaki. Turns out Vaki can sing himself.
After Vaki flexed his pipes in front of the team for his rookie skit -- he broke out the school song from the movie 'Lean on Me' -- Dan Campbell offered the following review on Wednesday: "The performance was ‘Eh,' the voice was pretty phenomenal. It really is. Maybe he'll sing for you guys sometime. You need to ask him.”
Vaki has done everything asked of him so far, which is part of why the Lions liked him so much coming out of Utah. The former safety is a running back, pass catcher and return man rolled into one. The more he touches the ball, the more he seems to strain a defense.
"It’s going to take a little bit just as a pure running back, but here's what you like: he’s got a skillset," Campbell said last week. "He’s a very good athlete, he did play some defense in college -- played a lot before he was a running back -- so you really feel like ‘OK, this kid can help you on special teams.' And then as he’s growing at running back, are there other things we can do with him down the road on offense? Can we package him a little bit? We’ll see.”
That was last Monday. Five days later, Vaki was the Lions' best offensive player in their preseason win over the Chiefs. He was especially dynamic in the passing game, with four catches for 60 yards. At one point he lost his facemask and hardly noticed. Vaki said that one of the pieces of his helmet had "melted off and then I guess I just hit the ground too hard."
“I didn’t know until Nate (Sudfeld) looked at me crazy in the huddle, and I was just like, ‘Oh.’ I was feeling the breeze a little extra," he said.
In an already loaded offense, Vaki is lurking. There aren't many touches to go around in a backfield led by David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, with Craig Reynolds entrenched as RB3 (although Reynolds did leave Wednesday's scrimmage with a lower-body injury). And Vaki still has some learning to do in regard to reading his blockers and hitting the right holes between the tackles, on top of handling his duties in pass protection.
“As far as the run game, all I’m trying to do is get my pad levels down," he said. "Then just trying to, as coach Scottie Montgomery likes to say, make them dirty. Just trying to see the hole, make a decision, stop chattering my feet and just run full head of steam."
It's the pass game where Vaki can potentially make an impact out of the gate. His quickness in tight spaces makes him dangerous when he has the ball, as he showed against the Chiefs. Of his 60 receiving yards, 44 came after the catch. The Lions are looking for hands they can trust when defenses take their top options away, especially with a rather thin receivers room. Vaki has the versatility to emerge as another weapon.
“Just being able to be a resource to the team, not a liability," he said. "So I’ll repeat it again: wherever they see fit, I’ll be there.”
Vaki, 23, admitted that it's a challenge to gain the trust of the coaching staff, "but in a good way. Just because everyone expects a lot of you. Ben Johnson expects perfection, so it’s good to try and go out there and perfect your craft every single day.”
Whether he's hitting holes or the high notes.