The Lions opened the competitive portion of Monday's practice, as they usually do, with one-on-one's between receivers and defensive backs. In no particular order, Daurice Fountain failed to win a jump ball down the sideline, Kaden Davis made a catch on an out route only to have it stripped clean out of his hands and Tre'Quan Smith lost his feet before a pass even arrived.
The lone bright spot among those fighting for the No. 3 receiver job came when Donovan Peoples-Jones, who's showing signs of life, got over the top of Ennis Rakestraw and caught a 40-yard touchdown from Jared Goff.
Earlier in the day, the Lions waive-injured Antoine Green, rendering another potential WR3 done for the season. Asked prior to practice about their depth at receiver, Dan Campbell said, "Yeah, it’s still the same as where it’s at. We’re waiting for somebody to step forward. We’re waiting for any one of those guys to step forward."
Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams are locked in as WR's 1 and 2, though Williams' momentum has been slowed by drops. (He also caught a bomb from Goff in one-on-one's Monday, before they failed to connect in the end zone on an apparent timing issue during a red zone period.) And while Kalif Raymond is another roster lock at receiver, his build makes him more of an offensive gadget/return man than Detroit's WR3. The battle for that spot remains wide open.
This is not an insignificant storyline for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. If St. Brown, durable as he's been, were to go down with an injury, Detroit would suddenly have one of the weakest wide receiver corps in the league. That's partly offset in an offense where Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs are real pass-catching weapons themselves, meaning WR3 is essentially Option 5, but the Lions are rather desperate three weeks into training camp for another receiver to emerge.
"DPJ I felt like has been, since the (first preseason) game, much better. He’s playing faster and I notice it, we all notice it. So that’s encouraging," Campbell said. "Fountain and Tre’Quan and Kaden Davis, we’re dying for somebody to step up and say, ‘Hey man, I’m the guy. I’m the guy you can depend on. I’ll be the same consistent player every day and find a way to make the plays that come my way.”
That guy for the first couple weeks of camp was Fountain, to the point that he was running frequently with the first-team offense. He has the size and length the Lions are looking for behind St. Brown and Williams, "just so it rounds out those three guys that we’re anticipating entering the season with," offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said earlier this month. Johnson also noted that Fountain's "physicality and explosiveness has shown up."
Three days later, Fountain caught zero of three targets in the Lions' loss to the Giants, albeit on a rain-soaked night with shoddy quarterback play. Perhaps more damning on Monday, he failed to come down with a perfectly-thrown pass by Goff in the back of the end zone. The ball bounced off his hands as he tried to get his feet in bounds. It's exactly the sort of play that Fountain needs to make to bolster his roster chances -- and one that Josh Reynolds made with ease.
On the flip side in the preseason opener, Isaiah Williams secured all four of his targets for a team-best 35 yards and earned a shoutout from Campbell after the game. But he was notably absent from the receivers Campbell mentioned on Monday, likely due to his physical limitations.
The Lions would love to see Peoples-Jones, who's just two years removed from a 60-catch, 800-yard season with the Browns, separate himself by the start of the season. Indeed, that was the vision when they brought him back and let Reynolds walk. But Peoples-Jones still has a long way to go, with two more tests looming this week in Wednesday's scrimmage and Friday's game against the Chiefs. Contested catches, particularly in the red zone, are how he can stand out.
Asked about Peoples-Jones before the preseason opener, Campbell said, "So much of it is, alright, who’s going to fill in for Reynolds? Who's going to take that? Is it by committee or is there a guy who is going to step up and kind of become that for us? That’s kind of what we were looking for. He’s a guy I expect more out of, too, and he knows that. Now, he’s working, he wants it, but we just need him to take another step here.”
The Detroit native caught just one pass on two targets against the Giants, but it was the Lions' longest completion of the night, a 26-yard catch and rumble down the middle. Peoples-Jones, like Fountain, has the traits the Lions are seeking at 6'2 and 204 lbs, and some comfort with Goff and the offense after arriving midway through last season. Those should be advantages in his bid for the WR3 job. They need to shine through over the next two weeks.
If they don't, and if Fountain continues to fall back into the pack, the Lions could search for an import to fill the void behind their top two receivers. The battle is ramping up. The winner might still be elsewhere.