Undrafted Randy Phillips makes quick impression

ALLEN PARK — Safety Randy Phillips, an undrafted rookie, was a guy the Lions kept an eye on since the draft.

They wanted to make sure his shoulder injury healed before they signed him.

He attended the Lions minicamp at the end of June as a tryout and he did nothing to change management's view. Finally, on Wednesday Phillips signed with the Lions. It was a little overshadowed by another rookie, Ndamukong Suh. On Friday, Phillips caught the eyes of everyone else when he was elevated to practice with the ones (the potential starters). Coach Jim Schwartz said not to read much into it because they are short on safeties due to the injury to Louis Delmas.

Still they like Phillips. And even though he missed the first four days of training camp, Schwartz said he was not really behind.

"He's smart, he has experience playing a lot of the schemes we play and picks things up very quickly. He's a bright guy so he was never really behind, that's a tribute to him,'' Schwartz said.

"He came in minicamp, got up to speed there, kept his mind in it, and when he got the opportunity he was able to show himself right away," Schwartz added. "That's rare that guys can do that, but he's shown well these couple days. But again we're talking about a couple days. Let's look at a continual period of time."

Phillips said he was not that surprised to be lining up with the ones.

"I've been working hard and just trying to find my way, finding my way led me to where I am, just practice, trying to practice hard and just doing what I'm doing,'' Phillips said.

Phillips played for secondary coach Tim Walton when both were at the University of Miami.

"I know him, I know that he expects hard work, expects me to put extra time into the playbook to know everything and expects me to know multiple positions, knowing that, I stay on top of all of that," Phillips said.

Schwartz agrees that it's a positive that Phillips has worked with Walton, but it only goes so far.

"(Does it help) knowing the schemes and understanding what's being asked of him? Sure. Does it help him as far as the competition and where he is on the depth chart? Absolutely not," Schwartz said. "There's always going to be a familiarity, you speak the same language and you understand what a guy wants.''



(themorningsun.com)