Our friends over at mlive.com came up with a pretty good list of all the training camp battles for the Detroit Lions as we get ready for Training camp to start. We here at DJC want to focus on some of the more important ones. While we will closely monitor all of the positional battles of the 2012 training camp let’s be real honest here some are more important than others.
We begin our list at Corner. The only thing we know for sure is Chris Houston will be one of the starting corners. The other starting job is up for grabs with Aaron Berry in the lead. He will be challenged by the myriad of mid to late round draft picks made by this club to improve the overall depth at corner. Whoever winds up missing out on the staring job will get a chance to win the job as the nickel back. The main players are a pair of 2012 draft picks in Bill Bentley and Chris Greenwood, Alphonso Smith, and free agent Jacob Lacey. 2012 Sixth round pick Jonte Green has some work to do to make the roster of this team. It would seem the Lions will cry six corners, so one of these men is gonna be left standing without a chair to sit in come the end of August.
The next most intriguing position battle comes along the O Line. Here we have first round pick Riley Reiff competing for one of the two starting tackle spots. He will be looking to unseat LT Jeff Backus (who is aging) and RT Gosder Cherilus who has never lived up to his potential. It seems quite possible given Backus’ injury history that Reiff winds up playing significant time as a rookie at either spot. Either way if Cherilus should have another unspectacular season the fans of the Lions will be calling for Reiff to get his shot. Let us not forget Cherilus is coming off micro facture surgery and missed the final four games last year.
The last of the important roles to be decided by Training Camp battles for the Lions will be the punter. Sure the punter gets no glory, and often the fans don’t even know the guys name. However, they play an integral part of the success of a team and this year Ben Graham and Ryan Donahue will compete to be the punter for this team.
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