{"id":88396,"date":"2025-05-29T16:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/88396\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T16:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:27:14","slug":"detroit-lions-otas-preview-10-players-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/88396\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions OTAs preview: 10 players to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the Detroit Lions<\/a> kicked off the first of their Organized Team Activities that will run through the next two weeks. With it being our first look at the 2025 team together all at once, there are several players I\u2019m eager to see when practices open up to the media later this week. <\/p>\n

Here are the 10 players I\u2019m most eager to see out there on the field: <\/p>\n

QB Hendon Hooker<\/p>\n

The Lions have made it clear this offseason that Hooker will have to go out and earn the backup quarterback job over veteran Kyle Allen<\/a>. While I fully expect that to happen, I am eager to see what kind of jump Hooker has made from what was essentially his rookie season last year. <\/p>\n

RB Sione Vaki<\/p>\n

Speaking of potentially jumps this season, Vaki enters 2025 with a year of experience learning the running back position full-time. While he\u2019s not going to break the top two in the running back room, an underrated positional battle in training camp will be him vs. Craig Reynolds for the RB3 role. <\/p>\n

WR Isaac TeSlaa<\/p>\n

TeSlaa may not be participating in practices<\/a>, but if he is, he\u2019ll be one of the most intriguing players out there. Without a doubt the most controversial Lions pick in the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>, TeSlaa has his first opportunity to go against NFL talent this week, and we\u2019ll hopefully see how the developmental receiver fares. <\/p>\n

WR Jameson Williams<\/p>\n

The Lions are talking up Jamo big time. So much so that offensive coordinator John Morton is predicting a breakout year<\/a>…. after Williams posted 1,001 receiving yards and eight total touchdowns last year. It sounds like the offense is really clicking with Williams, so I want to see if that\u2019s noticeable on the field. <\/p>\n

OT Giovanni Manu <\/p>\n

Manu\u2019s progress could have a huge impact on the future of the offensive line. If he takes a huge Year 2 jump, it\u2019s possible he could make a case for the starting left tackle job in 2026. If his progress is a little slower, then his ceiling may be the primary swing tackle backup job, and that could leave Detroit with a tough decision for the future at left tackle. When we last heard about Manu\u2019s rookie season progress<\/a>, he was night-and-day from how he started the year. <\/p>\n

It\u2019ll hard to judge any progress without live contact and full pads, but even seeing where he\u2019s repping in the depth chart could be telling.<\/p>\n

G Tate Ratledge<\/p>\n

Like with Manu, it\u2019ll be hard to judge how well Ratledge is playing out there given the limitations of OTA rules. But where will Ratledge be playing? Is he going to be a primary center or guard? Is he with the starters or the second team? And if Frank Ragnow is absent, will we be able to come to any sort of real conclusions with Ratledge? <\/p>\n

EDGE Aidan Hutchinson<\/p>\n

We already know Hutchinson is participating and wearing a compression sleeve on his healed leg<\/a>. But what level of participation are we talking? Is he involved in just individual drills or does he have free reign to do everything? <\/p>\n

DT Tyleik Williams <\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to know if we\u2019ll see anything out of the Lions\u2019 first-round pick after being limited in at least one rookie minicamp practice. Williams noted that there\u2019s a plan to take things easy with him and be smart about his participation level. But if we do get a glimpse at him, it\u2019ll be fascinating to see how he does against NFL talent rather than rookie minicamp tryouts. <\/p>\n

CB D.J. Reed<\/p>\n

Reed was the Lions\u2019 biggest external free agent signing under the Brad Holmes era. How will he hold up against Detroit\u2019s talented receiving corps? And will he bring legitimate CB1 talents to the defense for the first time under this regime? <\/p>\n

CB Terrion Arnold<\/p>\n

… or has Arnold made enough progress to be considered the top cornerback on the team? I feel like Arnold\u2019s Year 2 progress is an underrated key to Detroit\u2019s success this year. He certainly gained valuable experience last year and showed some growth by the season\u2019s end. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, the Detroit Lions kicked off the first of their Organized Team Activities that will run through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[146,1262,23208,7,29,147,6,152,8405,1875,9408,151,528,358],"class_list":{"0":"post-88396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions-opinion","10":"tag-detroit-lions-otas","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-front-page","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-of","16":"tag-otas","17":"tag-players","18":"tag-preview","19":"tag-pride","20":"tag-to","21":"tag-watch"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114592065282168106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}