ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions didn’t have pads when they returned to the practice field on Sunday afternoon, but they did have Darius Slay.

Detroit’s star cornerback participated in all individual drills, and even got some first-team work opposite Rashaan Melvin. It was his first day of work since the club moved him to the non-football injury list for the start of camp.

Coach Matt Patricia said he wanted to gauge the fitness of Slay and Snacks Harrison before allowing them to participate in practice following contract disputes that kept them away from the team for the entire offseason program. Slay wound up missing the first eight practices of camp, while Harrison has yet to return.

Slay said after the scrimmage on Friday that while he might be one of the best cornerbacks in the league, he still values the work and was excited to return to the field.

“I need all that (work) 'cause it’s good reps,” Slay said. “(Training camp is) just long, but it’s good reps so everybody needs it. We all need to get our feet wet.”

Detroit is expected to have one of the best defenses in the league this year, although four of its biggest stars -- Slay, Harrison, Trey Flowers and Mike Daniels -- have missed huge chunks of camp. Harrison remains on NFI while he works his way back into shape, while Flowers is coming off a shoulder injury and Daniels is still acclimating himself to Detroit after signing here last week.

Defensive tackle is a fairly straight-forward position in this scheme, and Harrison was the No. 1 interior run defender in the league last season, so there’s little rush on that front. Same goes for Flowers, who knows this scheme from his days in New England, although Patricia does want to get him some work before the season opener next month.

“He understands a lot of the defense and he can already have an advantage from that standpoint,” Patricia said. “Even guys that are just coming in, if they are guys that are picking it up pretty quickly from the mental part of it, that’s not really an issue. It’s really just about being physically ready to go and making sure that we’re doing everything appropriate for the player, and for all those guys, that when they step on the field they can compete at a high level.

"They need practice. We all need practice. We all need to get better. We all need training camp. In a lot of those cases, everybody pushing as hard as they can. We’re just trying to be smart with it and not do something too soon.”

Here are some more observations from practice:

-- It was common to hear Matt Patricia barking at players during camp last year. He seems to have backed off some in his second camp, but was clearly frustrated with something early in practice today. He called both the offense and defense over to his ATV, shouted at players for a few seconds, then sent everyone for a lap around Allen Park. Then he parked his ATV by the final turn and resumed yelling at players as they headed for the homestretch. Don’t know what set him off exactly, but it did happen after Mike Ford intercepted a pass from Tom Savage.

-- The Lions have run two- and three-receiver sets throughout most of camp. When they have split out four players, one has always been a running back or tight end. On Sunday, we finally got a look at a four-receiver set, which included Jermaine Kearse joining the big three of Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones and Danny Amendola. Maybe that means something, maybe it doesn’t. I thought Kearse had a great shot of making the team at the outset of camp, given his experience and contract, but he just hasn’t done a whole lot in the opening weeks of practice. He’s been better of late though, including making really nice grabs over Mike Ford and Andre Chachere today.

-- No receiver has been better than Marvin Jones. Not Amendola, and not even Golladay. Jones is coming off a knee injury that limited him to nine games last year and held him out of team drills this year until the start of camp. But man has he been tough to handle since returning. He caught that 5-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford in the scrimmage on Friday, then turned in another good practice Sunday. He caught a deep ball over Andre Chachere during team work and beat Rashaan Melvin a couple times too, including on a toe-tapper along the left sideline. It’s early, sure, but the early signs do point to Jones being ready for a bounce-back year.

-- Matthew Stafford had Jones for a third time against Melvin, with Jones creating separation on a come-back route. But Stafford just missed him wide-left, and the ball sailed out of bounds. That’s inexcusable. That’s a throw an NFL quarterback needs to make, and it wasn’t the only one Stafford missed. On a third-and-10, he missed Danny Amendola on a simple out route 15 yards downfield. He also overthrew Amendola when the receiver got a step behind Jamal Agnew on a go route. I had some deja vu on that one, after Amendola beat Agnew deep during one-on-ones last week, but Stafford overthrew him then too. He also threw another interception on Sunday, his fourth in a week, although this one came on a fourth-and-10 as time expired, so he was in a position where he had to make something happen. Still, the thing he made happen was a Rashaan Melvin pick in the end zone. Stafford just lacks consistency right now.

-- Tracy Walker might have added another interception for the defense too. Tom Savage was trying to hit Brandon Powell, who was moving toward the right sideline with Jamal Agnew trailing in coverage. But Walker flew across the field and used that long frame of his to spear the ball as he fell out of bounds. I couldn’t tell whether he would have been in bounds or not, it was that close, but either way it really speaks to this guy’s athletic profile. He’s just so long, and he’s going to surprise some quarterbacks this year with it. He also had a pick last week when he jumped a route by T.J. Hockenson.

-- Da’Shawn Hand and Mike Daniels are still sitting out, but both were doing stuff on the side during practice on Sunday. Especially Daniels, who has been putting in some good work lately -- including dragging a sled behind him during some sprints today -- and seems close to practicing with his new team fully. Hand is much further away, but it was good to see him doing some sprints up the hill.

-- Matt Patricia took a moment before practice to extend his condolences to those affected by the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend. “When things like that happen, it just makes me sad,” Patricia said. "I’m sad for everybody involved and my heart goes out to all the families. Obviously, we’ll just hope everything kind of keeps getting in the right direction. Obviously, I’m just really sad. A sad moment.”

-- Calder Hodge, the 14-year-old double amputee who kicked off Detroit’s scrimmage with a touchdown pass to Marvin Jones, was back in Lions camp on Sunday. Several Lions players stopped to say hello, including Jones and Amendola, and then even Martha Firestone Ford herself paid him a visit. She signed a football for him and then gave him a hug before leaving the field.