Tag: Detroit Lions

Lions’ RB Zach Zenner returns: Five things to know

Healthy after snapping 2 bones in his back

ALLEN PARK >> Zach Zenner said he was actuall a little nervous for Wednesday’s practice, his first since the Lions re-signed him on Tuesday.

The running back had not been with the Lions since he signed an injury settlement and was waived on Sept. 12.

“Where I’ve always fit is whatever I’m asked to do whether it’s on special teams or offense, whatever they need,’’ said Zenner who played in eight games last season mostly on special teams.

He wasn’t done with football but he wasn’t sure if football was done with him until he got the call from Lions GM Bob Quinn.

Five things to know about Zenner:

1. First things first, he had to get healthy after a back injury. That took about six weeks which matched the settlement. He feels great now. He had snapped two bones in his back but said he was lucky it wasn’t worse. “If you’re going to break your back, that’s what you want to do,’’ Zenner said.

2. When he signed the agreement there was some talk about bringing him back. “The thing is it was so long ago, you can have whatever intentions you want but then eight weeks into the season who knows what’s going to be happening,’’ Zenner said. “I was aware of that although whether they wanted to or not who knew if they were going to be able to bring me back.’’

3. While he was away from the team he said he watched every game except two. “While I was not healthy I was enjoying being at home watching, but when I got healthy it got harder to watch because you feel like you could be out there playing and participating or at least helping out during the week at practice,’’ Zenner said on Wednesday. “Once you’re healthy that’s when it’s this is getting tougher to watch.’’

4. He was preparing for either a return to football or moving on with his life. He studied for the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test.) “I took it five years ago in May so I need to retake it. Was I going to have to retake it? Yes, sucks but I have to. Spent a lot of time studying for that, still plan to take it in March or April.’’ His teammates call him “Doc” because of  his intentions to go to medical school after football. He also got to spend quality time with his wife and young son. “He is working on crawling which is exciting and terrifying,’’ Zenner said.

5. Zenner and Ameer Abdullah joined the Lions at the same time and became great friends. “He’s been my teammate my whole career. It’s tough to see him go, I wish him the best. I’ll be watching whenever I can. Great guy, great teammate,’’ Zenner said. The Lions waived Abdullah on Tuesday and the Vikings claimed him.

Lions make coaching staff change, fire special teams coordinator Joe Marciano

Marciano originally hired by Jim Caldwell

Matt Patricia has made the first big change to his coaching staff.

On Monday night, the Lions announced that special teams coordinator Joe Marciano had been fired.

The team released this statement from Patricia: “Tonight I spoke to Joe and informed him of my decision to relieve him of his responsibilities with our team. I appreciate Joe’s leadership of our special teams units over the last three and a half seasons and have great respect for his many years of service as a coach in the National Football League. On behalf of our team and the entire coaching staff, I want to personally thank Joe for his commitment to the Detroit Lions and wish him and his family the best moving forward.”

When Patricia was hired in February he kept Marciano who had been hired by former coach Jim Caldwell in 2015 and led the special teams since then.

This season, which the Lions have started 3-5, sloppy special teams play has been an issue along with 14 penalties that cost 132 yards. That included three special teams penalties in each of the last two games, both losses.

Patricia said on Friday that he thinks across the league, there might be more innovation in special teams than on offense or defense.

“There’s a lot of teams that do a lot of good stuff on all three phases really to be honest with you. I would say if you dive into just in general with the League, special teams I would say right now is the one that’s having kind of the most change or adaptation, especially with the kickoff, kickoff return,’’ Patricia said. “It’s interesting to see how teams are handling that situation with the rule change and the alignments and all the rest of it. That’s a big one to take a look at and study.’’

Marciano, 64, had been a special teams coordinator with the New Orleans Saints (1986-1995), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996-2001), Houston Texans (2002-2013) and the Minnesota Vikings (2014).

The team did not announce a replacement. Devin Fitzsimmons is the assistant special teams coach.

Lions Matt Patricia: Fundamentals, execution holding us back right now

Next up, Lions head to Chicago, the NFC North leader

ALLEN PARK >> Matt Patricia said there was not one glaring factor when Matthew Stafford was sacked 10 times in the 24-9 Lions’ loss at the Vikings on Sunday.

Obviously, more sacks than points scored is never good.

“It’s a full team thing, it’s a full unit thing and we have to do a better job. We can’t play that way,’’ Patricia said at his Monday press conference.

And, even though it’s November, half of the season is history and the Lions are 3-5, the first-year coach is leaning on basics.

“Fundamentals and execution is what’s holding us back right now,’’ Patricia said.

Talent? The coach said they have plenty of talented guys to help them win.

So where are the wins? How could they get humiliated two straight weeks? Yes, the Vikings and Seahawks are good teams, but the Lions didn’t just lose, they were embarrassed.

Certainly the Lions’ coaches made adjustments as Sunday’s game went on, it was just difficult to see the improvement.

“What happens as the season goes and you have some success in certain areas, obviously teams are going to gear up to try to stop those things you do and make you do them differently,’’ Patricia said. “We have to be able to handle those changes better than what we do right now and put our players in a better situation to give them some success, especially with the offensive run game. The defensive run game definitely seeing some repeat runs which are giving us problems.’’

And, of course, there was Dalvin Cook’s 70-yard run which Patricia called “catastrophic.”

The Lions ran for just 66 yards at the Vikings and the Detroit defense gave up 128 rushing yards.

“With both offensive and defensive lines I would say the point of emphasis right now is fundamentals,’’ Patricia said. “Some of our fundamentals (Sunday) got out of whack, some of our technique stuff was not necessarily where it needs to be on a consistent basis.’’

It all seems a little nuts. They worked on fundamentals in long, grueling training camp sessions in July and August. Much of the roster is composed of NFL veterans who should not need to go back to square one for Football Fundamentals 101.

But they will work on basics this week in the meeting rooms and Patricia said he might add some extra periods during practice. “It’s hard when we’re trying to get everything we can done and get ready to go. It is what it is, we have to get it done, put a little more effort into it,’’ Patricia said.

Next up is another road game against a divisional opponent, the first-place NFC North Chicago Bears (5-3).

Patricia said they had a good week of practice last week, it just didn’t carry over.

“We were prepared and ready to go we just didn’t show up on Sunday enough all the way around,’’ Patricia said. “Just got to do a better job.’’

That is everyone, coaches included.

When Patricia was hired by the Lions in February, he was not brought in for a rebuild. The long-time Patriots defensive coordinator was expected to improve on the Lions’ 9-7 record from 2017.

General manager Bob Quinn made it clear the reason Jim Caldwell was fired was because he thought they were capable of winning more than nine games each of the last two seasons. He traded Golden Tate, the top wide receiver, last week. Maybe it’s a move for the future but Quinn knew they had two divisional opponents coming up.

Any talk that the Lions are currently sinking because it is all a part of the plan is just not true unless they’ve changed course and didn’t mention it.

Sunday’s loss at the Vikings was cringe-worthy.

Fundamentals and execution. Seems like we’ve heard those two words before.

The season appears to be basically over thanks to a 3-5 record. Not sure this was part of the Quinn-Patricia plan.