TEEZ TABOR
Ht/Wt: 6-0, 201
College: Florida
Experience: Rookie
Outlook: Tabor was selected in the second round of this year's draft to add depth at cornerback and compete for playing time on the outside.
View photos of Teez Tabor during the Detroit Lions training camp practice on July 31, 2017.
The Lions return starters Darius Slay and Nevin Lawson, so Tabor will need a good training camp and preseason to unseat an incumbent like Lawson.
Tabor was a first-team All-SEC selection the last two seasons with a knack for getting his hands on the football. He had 14 pass breakups and four interceptions as a sophomore, and another four interceptions and six pass breakups this past season as a junior. He defended 28 passes total his last two seasons in college.
There are still questions about his long speed he'll have to answer in camp, but he has above-average ball skills, and he should play well within five yards of the line of scrimmage when the pads come on later this week.
He's in that group of players that includes DJ Hayden and fellow rookie Jamal Agnew fighting for playing time in camp.
Practice report: Tabor was pretty good in one-on-one drills against the receivers Monday.
He had pretty good coverage, but allowed a catch on his first rep on a quick out route to rookie receiver Michael Rector.
His next two reps, both against rookie Dontez Ford, resulted in incomplete passes. The first one was good coverage that forced a high throw on an out route and the other was on sticky coverage deep down the field on a go route.
In team drills, Tabor was one of the corners on the outside for the second-team defense. He was paired with Adairius Barnes on the opposite side with Hayden in the slot. No passes went Tabor's way that I saw in the team drills.
Quotable: "Man, those guys are good," Tabor said of the different variety of receivers he's having to go against every day in practice. "There's nothing like having good work in practice.
"It's like having a good sparring partner in boxing. When you have a real good sparring partner in boxing, when you get to the real match, you're well prepared. Second to none we have a lot of good receivers."
