Penei Sewell – Lions Lowdown

Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley optimistic about new-look line

ALLEN PARK — Inconsistency was an issue for the Detroit Lions last season and one reason they were watching the playoffs instead of playing in them.

The offensive line has been addressed through the offseason and while it’s early, Hank Fraley, run game coordinator/offensive line coach, has reason to be optimistic about improvements.

“I like where we’re headed, we’ll see where we’re at, we’re still just in underwear there’s a lot of unknowns still, but I love the direction we’re heading in,’’ Fraley said at Tuesday’s veteran minicamp.

Last year the line did not live up to its high standards which are set by coach Dan Campbell.

“If we’re not living up to those standards ourselves then we’re not going to have the year we want to have,’’ Fraley said. “Really the thing I’m harping on these guys, it’s not necessarily always the strongest, the fastest, the most talented but you’ve got to be consistent. If you look back over last year we weren’t as consistent as we need to be in certain things, certain times, we’ve got to get that cleaned up and be more detailed.’’

Fraley, who was an NFL center for 11 seasons, says playing O-line involves a mindset.

“There’s not too many sports where you get to walk out and you get to bully people,’’ Fraley said. “Offensive linemen, the mentality is being a bully between those white lines and we can be as nice as we want once we get off the field.’’

While positions are not set in stone, the projected line could feature Penei Sewell at left tackle, Christian Mahogany at left guard, Cade Mays at center, Tate Ratledge at right guard and rookie Blake Miller at right tackle. Competition in training camp at guard could change the projections.

Sewell is making the transition from right tackle to fill the shoes of Taylor Decker.

“I told him it’s like riding a bike, you can go years without riding a bike mentally then you get on a bike you have to find your balance, your timing a little bit, how you pedal how, you do all that,’’ Fraley said. “It’s been a long time since he’s done it continually He’s transitioned pretty smoothly everybody knows he’s a great athlete — takes great pride in his work.’’

Mays, who has played in 52 NFL games (27 starts) since he was drafted in the sixth round by Carolina in 2022, gives more veteran presence.

Miller, the Lions’ first-round draft pick, has impressed Fraley so far. While he’s making some mistakes ,when he does make one it’s mental and he’s able to adjust and clean it up.

The run game also suffered last season which, of course, affects the whole offense. Fraley said the offense has to earn the right to run the ball to get the coordinator to call the next run and establish it.

The Lions wrap up the two-day veteran minicamp on Wednesday and then will be off until training camp starts in July.

Lions OT Blake Miller was sweating it out, learning about toughness as a 2nd-grade wrestler

First-round draft pick has credentials sought by Detroit

ALLEN PARK — Blake Miller’s first lessons in toughness and grit came from a no-nonsense coach on his second-grade wrestling team.

“He’d have us in the wrestling room with the heat all the way up to 95 degrees running around, I’m just a little second-grader,’’ Miller said during his introductory press conference. “He preached not quitting, he preached toughness and I feel like that kind of stuck with me. You want to be a guy who’s tough, you want to be a guy who’s going to finish and not crumble and stuff. It’s hard.’’

It was a small beginning but it apparently planted the seed in Miller, an offensive tackle who is known for his work ethic, toughness and grit. It all appealed to the Detroit Lions who drafted Miller with their first-round pick (17th overall) on Thursday night. It’s expected that Penei Sewell will move to left tackle and Miller will start at right tackle where he played for four years at Clemson.

Miller credits his father and mother, Chris and Karen, for instilling his work ethic.

“I really thank my parents for seeing them my whole life— they’re mortgage and real estate agents. They work around the clock. They were always there for their clients. Seeing the work ethic they had – everyday working as hard as you could. I kinda feel I owe it to them to apply that above and beyond.’’

His folks and girlfriend Kylie Jicha, made the short trip from their home in Strongsville, Ohio, (near Cleveland) to Allen Park on Friday.

Since he got the big news on Thursday night, Miller said he watched more videos of coach Dan Campbell.

“Everything he says gets you fired up,’’ MIller said. “You listen to him speak, you can hear the passion in his voice, you can hear the character in his voice. That resonantes with me, it gets me fired up, it gets me ready to go.’’

Miller never missed a game in his four years at Clemson, under coach Dabo Swinney, which he said prepared him for the NFL.

“A lot of similarities in terms of they really value toughness, they value finish, they value grit. That’s something that was emphasized to me in college,’’ Miller said. “Just being here today, it really resonates with me. It gets me excited. I can’t say enough good things about coach Sweeney. I can’t say enough good things about Coach Campbell. They’re two incredible coaches.’’

Swinney started Miller (6-foot-7, 317 pounds) as a freshman and coached him all four years. He knew Miller had what it takes to make it to the NFL right out of the gate.

“He was made in a lab, if you’re looking for an offensive tackle. God was in a good mood when he made him. It was offensive tackle day,’’ Swinney said in a conference call on Friday. “He can run, he can play in space, he can pull and, again, he’s got what you can’t coach. He’s got some things that some of my better tackles over the years have been downgraded on a bit – that natural length and size and the strength to go along with it.’’

Miller, who was rated in the top five or six of offensive tackles in the draft, filled a need for Detroit. He said he never worried about where he fit in.

“I was making sure I was being the best version of me every day,’’ MIller said. “I think comparison is the thief of joy. So just focusing on my process day in and day out.’’

Five things to watch as the Lions face the Bucs; plus injury updates, prediction

Under coach Dan Campbell the Lions have piled up amazing statistics on their way to two straight NFC North titles.

One stat seems to stand out. The Lions have not lost back-to-back games since October 2022 when they fell to Miami and Dallas.

That streak gets tested on Monday night when the Lions (4-2) host the Tampa Bay Bucs (5-1). Detroit is coming off a 30-17 loss at Kansas City. The bounce-back stat is on the line. If it was easy to accomplish this season after season, more teams would do it.

“It’s our players, we have a good group of guys that are competitive, they’re a resilient group, they know how to overcome adversity,’’ Campbell said. “They don’t like losing. And they go back to work to fix the things that need to be fixed. We have a couple things to clean up and we’re going to clean them up this week. So it’s our players man, coaches do a helluva job too.’’

The Lions lost just two regular season games in 2024 and one of them was to the Bucs in Week 2. They bounced back after that with 11 straight wins.

“We’ve gotten each other, I don’t know, four or five times now in the last handful of years. And it feels like we’ve given them a good punch and they’ve given us a good punch. We’ve kind of gone back and forth in that way,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. “And I think a lot of who they are is a lot of who we want to be too. And again, I’d hope they’d say the same thing about the respect they have for us, the respect we have for their team, how hard they play, how well they’re coached, the whole thing. It’s great. It’s a good, fun I guess rivalry, if you want to call it that and I think they’re a good team.”

Five things to watch:

ONE: Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is a challenge even with a fully healthy secondary which the Lions do not have. “Baker makes that offense go, and it’s been that way no matter who the play-caller has been over the last couple season. … He’s a tough guy. He’s a tough guy to deal with because when it seems like there’s nothing there, he finds a way to pull his team through,’’ Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said. “So, he makes that thing go. The coordinators are smart because they don’t try to change much, they understand what works for him and they carried over. There’s some nuances that changed motion-wise, schematically, but for the most part it’s Baker’s show.” In the Bucs 20-16 win over the Lions last year Mayfield scored on passing and running touchdowns. The Lions secondary will be without Terrion Arnold, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph and Avonte Maddox.

TWO: It’s an understatement to say DL Alim McNeill has been missed since he tore up his knee late last season. He will be back in action on Monday. “I expect Alim to come in and show what he’s shown the last two weeks on the practice field. Like I said, it’s like he didn’t miss a beat,’’ Sheppard said. “Now, obviously you’re not taking hard-core doubles and true pounding and – you know that live in-game you may find yourself in kind of an eight-play sequence there that you can’t simulate on the field. So, it’s all that stuff – getting his legs back up under him. But I mean I expect this player to play at a high level and more importantly help our defense in a tremendous way.”

THREE: The Lions offensive line is coming together despite playing without LT Taylor Decker for two games. Decker could possibly return against the Bucs which would be huge since they’ll be facing nose tackle Vita Vea (6-foot-4, 347 pounds) who has 2.5 sacks to start the season. “The size is one thing but (Vea’s) quickness to get off the ball. He’s got explosiveness and he’s got really good feet. When you’re (facing) a man that big and can move like he moves you have to do everything right and you’ve got to play with leverage,’’ Campbell said. “You have to get off of your life. We have double teams, we have to fit the double teams together. You’re off just a little bit he’ll spit you, he’ll crease you, he’ll get an edge. He’ll do that in the pass game too. He’ll swim sometimes and so if you’re not locked in and you’re not perfect fundamentally he’ll get on you. We have to be locked in on every stinking play and we have to play together.’

FOUR: All the talk about the change in offensive coordinators came to an end quickly. One main reason is the play of Jared Goff who leads the NFL in passing TDs (14) and passing percentage (75.9). “I mean, he’s the CEO of this place. So, when you’ve got a veteran guy like that, we’re always talking, ‘Hey I want this, I want that. I’d like to have this.’ It’s awesome. When you have that dialogue with the quarterback, it just makes it so much easier for me and everybody,’’ offensive coordinator John Morton said. “Everybody sees how much confidence he has to do things, and it’s paid off for us. So yeah, it’s big time.” Goff said he’s always tried to keep the ball in his teammates’ hands and avoid sacks. “Those two things, completion percentage and low sack numbers, is something I work on and something we’ve done a good job with up to this point,’’ said Goff who has been sacked nine times this season with four of those in the opening loss.

FIVE: Tampa Bay’s coach Todd Bowles is known for switching things up which creates headaches for guys like Morton. “Listen, we have to prepare for everything. Protection-wise, that’s the biggest thing. You give them all the looks that you can give, especially the things that they’re doing this year,’’ Morton said. “You’ve already played them three times, you go back there, and you look at those games. You look at games of other teams that are similar to us, similar to the quarterback. … But the biggest thing is, we try to make sure (Goff is) protected. Because when he’s protected, he’s deadly.’’

LIONS INJURIES: OUT: CB Terrion Arnold (shoulder), Kerby Joseph (knee), DB Avonte Maddox (hamstring) and RB Sione Vaki (groin). QUESTIONABLE: LT Taylor Decker (shoulder), DT D.J. Reader (back) and DT Alim McNeill (knee).

SUSPENDED: DB Brian Branch

BUCS INJURIES: OUT: WR Chris Godwin Jr. (fibula), G Luke Haggard (shoulder), RB Bucky Irving (foot/shoulder); QUESTIONABLE: WR Mike Evans (hamstring), WR Emeka Egbuka (hamstring), LB Lavonte David (knee/rib), QB Teddy Bridgewater (illness).

PREDICTION: Lions 28, Bucs 27