ALLEN PARK -- After resting his arm for almost a week, Matthew Stafford sure looked sharp in his return to Lions practice on Tuesday morning.

Stafford opened the day by throwing four touchdowns on five plays during goal-line drills that pitted the tight ends against linebackers and defensive backs. T.J. Hockenson was on the receiving end of two of those scores, while Logan Thomas and Austin Traylor caught one apiece.

Stafford also connected with Kenny Golladay on a touchdown during a “got-to-have-it” situation in the red zone, where the offense has just one opportunity to score before moving on to another drill. Golladay was blanketed by Justin Coleman on the play, but Stafford stuck the ball into the perfect spot.

He later added yet another score to Hockenson when he threaded a bullet through heavy traffic.

Stafford did not take many chances downfield, but sharply executed what he was asked to do in his first practice in a week. He sat out both workouts over the weekend, plus had regularly scheduled player off days on Friday and Sunday. He did not participate in the exhibition loss against New England on Thursday, nor the walk-through the day before.

Before that, Stafford missed just one practice since 2012, and that was on the day he signed the richest contract in NFL history.

Coach Matt Patricia said the break had been planned for months, designed to give the 31-year-old quarterback a breather between joint practices with New England last week and Houston this week. On Tuesday, Patricia declined to talk specifically about how Stafford’s arm was feeling after the break, or what the team was looking for in his return to the field.

“With everybody having a player day off yesterday, too, I think the big thing for me is just to get everybody going,” Patricia said. “Just got to get moving after a player day off, but they’re still very active with their bodies. We call it active recovery, from that standpoint, that they’re doing something to flush out muscles and making sure they’re staying hydrated and stretching and all the rest of it.

“It’ll be good for everybody to get out there, including Matthew to get out there and just get running around and loosened up and get ready to go before we get on the plane. So just same for everybody today.”

Here are some more observations from practice:

-- It was get-away day for the Lions, who will practice with the Texans in Houston on Wednesday morning. They went only about 90 minutes and were without pads.

-- Matt Patricia said he was going to use the get-away day to run through some “odd ball” situations in practice, such as the Wildcat. You never know when stuff like that will come up, and with a mobile quarterback no one’s ever seen before coming up in Week 1 (hello, Kyler Murray), well, you can understand why they devoted some practice time to it. I just didn’t expect the first-team offense to be the ones running the Wildcat looks. Team rules prevent me from disclosing the particulars about plays and formations, so I’ll just leave it at that so I don’t get my behind chewed out in Houston.

-- Josh Johnson has been in camp for only four days, so I don’t want to jump the gun or anything, but consider me a believer that he could actually win the No. 2 job. Tom Savage was the favorite for the gig, but suffered a brain injury in the loss against New England on Thursday night. Johnson was signed to fortify the numbers at the position, but sure looks like he could be more than a camp body. He alternated with David Fales on the second team today, and looked in control out there, even though it was only his third practice with the Lions. That includes lofting one touchdown pass to Jonathan Duhart in the corner of the end zone, then putting just the right amount of touch on another TD pass to Tommylee Lewis. He did throw a pick to Amani Oruwariye as well, but still looks better than Fales to me. And if the Lions are concerned that Savage’s history of brain injuries could leave them vulnerable behind Stafford at quarterback, I could see Johnson winning the gig.

-- Safety Tracy Walker dropped one would-be interception, and even dropped down and gave himself some push-ups for it. He didn’t make the same mistake twice, picking off David Fales just a few minutes later.

-- The usual suspects were out, and I wouldn’t expect to see them in Houston. That includes guys like Jarrad Davis, Teez Tabor, Snacks Harrison, Austin Bryant and Da’Shawn Hand. But I did see Hand running on the side with a trainer today. He wore the brace he’s been sporting for weeks on his left arm, but removed it when he was leaving the field. Sure seems like he’s trending in the right direction.

-- Receiver Marvin Jones did not participate in team drills for a third straight day, meaning he hasn’t put in a full day of work in a week. Patricia said Jones is just getting some veteran rest.

-- One intriguing name to watch this week: Mike Daniels. He said last week he had been cleared to practice with Houston, but still has not even returned to individual drills with the Lions. Based on how Detroit usually handles injuries, I would be surprised to see Daniels participating in one-on-ones or team drills with the Texans, despite what he said last week.