Penei Sewell’s move from right tackle to left tackle has gone the way the Detroit Lions hoped, and his position coach says the only hiccup came at home in the offseason. “He has definitely transitioned smoothly over there. I wouldn’t say a rough start at all for him. It was just getting used to it,” offensive line coach and run game coordinator Hank Fraley said on Tuesday.
Fraley said Sewell told him that when he first went home to work on the switch, “he got down in a right-handed stance and realized, oh shoot, I got to flip this to the left.” Fraley added: “It’s no surprise to me or probably people that know who he is, because the work ethic he has. He’s trying to be a perfectionist and that’s what he does.”
Fraley and associate head coach and receivers coach Scottie Montgomery met the media as the 3-2 Lions came back from their bye. Detroit hosts the 4-2 Green Bay Packers at Ford Field on Sunday, October 25, at 4:25 p.m. ET (11:25 p.m. Cairo), its first NFC North game of the season.
Mays back, Scruggs “a heck of a job”
Center Cade Mays, who broke his wrist early in training camp, is set to make his Lions debut against Green Bay. Head coach Dan Campbell has said the staff is still deciding whether to rotate him with Juice Scruggs, who has played well at center in his place. Fraley did not commit either way. “We’re going to see how it goes,” he said. “He looks good. They did a good job with the training staff. It’s nice to get him back, because it also helps the depth of the line, bringing more guys in and guys with experience.”
Asked whether a player should lose his job to injury, Fraley said he got his own start that way, and pointed to Scruggs. “If you just look at Juice’s opportunity, he’s done a heck of a job in there,” he said. “So we want to play the best five.” He joked that he would play six or seven linemen at a time if he could. “That’s what I like, our competition, our depth. And having Cade back now and what Juice has done, it only strengthens us as a unit.”
Ratledge’s pad level
Fraley said second-year right guard Tate Ratledge is playing faster. “The speed of the game has slowed down for him,” he said. “He wasn’t thinking out there. He was responding to looks.” He said Ratledge trained back at Georgia in the offseason on the things the staff asked him to fix, and that “his pad level is showing up better. Pass protection is pretty stout. Not trying to jinx him, knock on some wood.” He added that Ratledge “still hasn’t hit his ceiling.”
He explained what pad level means at this level with a wrestling comparison. In college, he said, a lineman can stand tall and still move a smaller defender. “You get to this level, he’s just as strong, maybe stronger, better, and his leverage is under you,” Fraley said. “If you can get a yard of movement at this level on your own, you’ve done something special.” With Ratledge, he said, “it’s not always perfect. We’re striving for excellence. But when he does it right, it’s been pretty.”
On left guard Christian Mahogany, who won his job back, Fraley said competition should push everyone, but that he wants players to push themselves. “What are you doing when nobody’s looking?” he said he asks his room, and his own kids. “Just because you were the starter a year before doesn’t automatically make you the starter in the next year. You got to keep earning that.”
Fraley also told the story of his own first snap in a game for the Philadelphia Eagles, against the Rams, after an injury opened the door. He said he and Donovan McNabb fumbled the snap. “It wasn’t a feel-good story, running off, being booed at the Vet,” he said. “Andy Reid looked at me and just said, you better get it right. And then ever since, I could only go up from there.”
Montgomery: Goff “so in command”
Asked whether this is the best he has seen Jared Goff run the offense, Montgomery agreed. “I would agree with you 100% about complete operation,” he said. “He’s just so in command and so in charge, not only of what we’re doing schematically, but our players and how to coach them up, get them to where he wants them to be, talking to the back in protection right before.”
Montgomery said what stands out now is Goff working through all of his reads. “He’s doing a fantastic job of progressing this year,” he said. “He’s probably been the best that I’ve seen it.” He said Goff has demanded that backs and receivers carry out their fakes on the same tracks as in the run game, so that play action and the run game look the same. The staff tests it on film by putting a run, a run-action pass and a bootleg next to each other. “If we can get somebody to say, oh, that’s the run, oh, that’s the naked, and they’re all wrong, then we’re doing things the right way,” he said.
Montgomery said Amon-Ra St. Brown was upset with himself after ball-security problems in the win at Arizona, including on a punt return, and that the coaches found a few things they think they can adjust. “When you put the ball on the ground, it’s not just the fact that you had that play, but it’s almost a missed opportunity for the whole team and not just yourself,” he said.
Ratledge “is the protector”
Montgomery was also asked about a clip that circulated over the bye of Ratledge coming over to stand up for Jameson Williams. “He is the protector out there,” Montgomery said. “He is a little bit of that bully element, not just because of his size, but his physical demeanor is the way that he takes care of his teammates.” As for what was said, he laughed it off: “That is up to the imagination.”
On the Packers, Montgomery said the secondary is “one of their stronger suits on their entire team,” pointing to a three-safety system with Xavier McKinney in the middle of the field and Javon Bullard at nickel. “When you’re able to do that with the kind of level of football IQ that they have, it presents great issues for us,” he said. He also praised cornerback Keisean Nixon for “staying close to people” and “doing a good job with his hands without being illegal.”
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