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Lions defensive line coach Kris Kocurek has some options.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions opened the offseason with a lot of questions about their defensive line. Especially in the middle.

A week into training camp, it is beginning to look like a possible strength of the team.

Haloti Ngata and Tyrunn Walker were re-signed to start at tackle, and they've overpowered the interior offensive linemen throughout the first week of practice. Especially Walker. He's been a handful, using his trademark bull rush to overwhelm guys like Laken Tomlinson.

But we already knew about those guys going into camp. The real surprises have occurred among the reserves, with veterans like Khyri Thornton really popping.

Thornton originally joined Detroit in the middle of last season, and was solid, if unspectacular. He finished with five tackles in six games.

But he's looked like a new man in training camp.

On the first day of pads, when linemen began locking horns in one-on-one drills, Thornton beat centers Travis Swanson and Graham Glasgow. The following day, he beat right guard Larry Warford and also battled him to a draw.

On Thursday, he beat Warford once again.

Determining winners and losers of those drills -- where a single offensive lineman tries to prevent a single defensive lineman from getting to a hanging bag that simulates the quarterback -- is sometimes a judgement call. But this reporter has not seen Thornton lose a one-on-one matchup yet.

And people around Allen Park are raving about him, on and off the record.

"I can tell you this, he's a powerful man," coach Jim Caldwell said after Thursday's practice. "He's been a load. He's been impressive. He was impressive this spring. He's impressive once we got pads on. He's really been playing well."

So what has sparked his training camp surge?

How does 30 pounds sound?

That's the weight Thornton has lost, and not since the end of last season either. Not even since the conditioning program.

"Right after OTAs," he said.

Wait, Thornton has lost 30 pounds since June 9?

"Yessir," he said.

That's 30 pounds. In 56 days.

"I feel a lot better," said Thornton, who is now listed at 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds. "I wake up feeling a lot better. I used to feel sluggish coming in here, but dropping that weight, I move a lot better. I get a lot more reps. I'm at a lot higher velocity."

A higher velocity, at 315 pounds? No wonder he's wrecking people in practice.

"I feel 110 percent better than I did during OTAs," he said.

Thornton gave the credit to Sarah Snyder, who was hired this offseason by Bob Quinn to be the club's first full-time nutritionist.

And if Thornton translates his practice performances to the regular season, there's no question that investment will have paid some early dividends. Because he already looks like a new player.

"I used to like, well, some of everything," Thornton said. "I'm more of a chicken man, no matter how it is -- fried, baked, anything. I'm a chicken man. But now it's mostly ... fish and fruits and vegetables and things like that. No carbs."

Thorton has caught the eye of coaches, but he's not the only defensive tackle to put a hurtin' on the offense. Free-agent pickup Stefan Charles has been a handful for guys like Travis Swanson and especially Tomlinson, so much so that Tomlinson took a swing at him on Monday.

And that's saying nothing of A'Shawn Robinson, the well-regarded second-round pick, or Caraun Reid, whose progress last offseason was well-documented.

Along with Ngata and Walker, that's six players who have shined at one point or another in camp, and we still haven't gotten around to Gabe Wright, whom the Lions traded up to select in the fourth round of last year's draft.

"We're going to be beasts," Thornton said. "We're going to be monsters. That's all I can say man. We're going to be beasts, and we're going to be monsters."

It's hard to say how much of this speaks to how good the defensive line is, and how much the offensive line has struggled. That's a question that will begin to be parsed out next week with the preseason opener against Pittsburgh.

For now, what once looked like a possible hole in the roster has looked like one of the deepest position groups in camp, and that's never a bad thing.

"We'll wait and see," Caldwell said. "It's early yet. I mean, there's talent there, there's no question about it. We have depth there at this point. But we'll wait and see."