Lions 3rd-round WR Isaac TeSlaa proving he's not a project after all
Through the first half of the Lions preseason and nearly a month of training camp, TeSlaa is quickly proving to be much more NFL-ready and high-end talented than the consensus thought he'd be.
TeSlaa is moving up in a deep Lions wideout room. He's not going to threaten All-Pro Amon-Ra St. Brown or speedy emerging star Jameson Williams, but TeSlaa is indeed getting first-team reps ahead of solid vets Kalif Raymond and Tim Patrick at times. And the mop-haired rookie, who grew up a Lions fan in the Grand Rapids area, is making the most of those reps.
The first thing that stands out from TeSlaa's performances in camp and in Detroit's first two preseason games is his ability to catch the ball cleanly away from his body. Everything gets caught in his hands, not trapped to his chest or shoulder. His size (6-foot-4) and strength makes No. 18 a huge target. TeSlaa showed that in a recent joint practice against Miami,
For a guy who only caught 62 passes in 25 games at Arkansas, the polish in his route running is much more advanced than many expected. TeSlaa can vary his stride and change speeds pretty well for a long-legged guy, and his ability to align in the slot--where Arkansas primarily deployed him--or outside allows him to impact the defense in more ways than a typical third-rounder.
But it's the blocking where TeSlaa has truly won over his Lions teammates. "No block, no rock" is not some clever slogan in Detroit; it's the facts of life in Dan Campbell's offense. And TeSlaa has proven he blocks like a tight end already. In Wednesday's practice, an annoyed Dolphins CB Jack Jones got frustrated with TeSlaa pushing him around in the run game and knocked the rookie's helmet off. TeSlaa didn't blink and kept going after Jones, to the great appreciation of WR coach Scottie Montgomery and his Lions offensive mates.
It's tough to say how many targets TeSlaa will get in the regular season. The Lions offense is loaded with receiving talent aside from St. Brown and Williams, with a great receiving TE in Sam LaPorta and two excellent running backs in Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. The mere fact that TeSlaa is pushing to join that mix right away and isn't some Day 2 developmental project has been a very pleasant development for Detroit.
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