3 non-Hutchinson takeaways from Lions' media access, highlighted by Sewell's improvement plan

The Detroit Lions made select players available to the media on Thursday, headlined by defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who announced he was fully cleared to return from the broken leg he suffered last October.

Here are three other tidbits from those media sessions.

Pushing his limits

Offensive tackle Penei Sewell is well on his way to becoming one of the best offensive tackles of his generation. Already a two-time All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler four years into his career, he was asked if there was a specific area of his game he was focused on this offseason.

Respectfully, the answer should strike fear into the hearts of opposing defensive ends on Detroit's schedule.

"I wanted to get stronger, definitely at the point of attack, both run game and pass game," Sewell said. "I just wanted to be more sturdy while maintaining my conditioning, because I do get to run more than others at the position. That's the main thing going it, I just wanted to get bigger and stronger while maintaining my speed and conditioning."

Sewell has spent the offseason in Detroit, working with the team's conditioning coaches. That department is headed by director of sports performance Mike Clark, director of sports science Jill Costanza, and head of strength and conditioning Josh Schuler.

So, what does getting stronger look like for Sewell? According to him, it's a relatively simple formula.

"At the end of the day, it's just moving big weight fast," Sewell said. "I'm always trying to up the weight. Obviously, you've got to be smart with it. There's also some risk going into lifting those types of weights, but I just lean on the guys here, the strength staff, and they do a great job. It's just moving those heavy weights fast."

The idea of a bigger, stronger Sewell can be difficult to wrap your head around. Despite opting out of his final season at Oregon because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he entered the league at 20 years old as one of the strongest and most athletically gifted offensive tackle prospects of all time.

Currently recognized as one of the league's premier run blockers, Sewell does have room to tighten his pass protection. He matched his career-high, allowing 28 pressures last season, although just one resulted in quarterback Jared Goff getting sacked.

This year, Sewell will have the opportunity to compete for a new award announced by the league this week, "Protector of the Year," which will honor the NFL's best offensive lineman.

Sewell will seek to uphold his lofty individual standard while likely playing alongside a different primary right guard for the fifth time in five seasons. As a rookie, it was Halapoulivaati Vaitai. From there, it's been Evan Brown, Graham Glasgow and Kevin Zeitler.

With Zeitler moving on this season, joining the Tennessee Titans as a free agent, the spot off Sewell's left shoulder will be determined via an open competition. The leading contenders are Christian Mahogany and rookie Tate Ratledge. Glasgow could also end up moving back to the right side when the dust settles.

Team over me

While Sewell was clanging and banging in the weight room at Detroit's practice facility, tight end Sam LaPorta reveled in being healthy entering an offseason for the first time in a couple of years.

"My first offseason, I had ankle surgery," LaPorta said. "So I was trying to prepare the body for my second season. This season, I came out pretty healthy, which is great. I got to take some time off, just let my body relax for the first time since basically fall camp of my senior year at Iowa. So, it's kinda a long stretch, but took a couple weeks to relax, and then hopped back on the bike and started going again."

On top of coming back from the ankle injury, LaPorta suffered a hamstring strain in training camp. That was a key factor in a slow start, which hindered him from repeating the record-breaking numbers he posted as a rookie.

Still, LaPorta finished with a flurry, racking up 29 receptions for 335 yards and two touchdowns over the final five games. His 726 receiving yards on the season were good enough for sixth among tight ends.

Would he like the ball more? Of course. Every offensive player wants the ball more. Still, he's irked by people continually asking about the modest decline in his individual production.

"I felt like I was still a very polished receiver in the pass game," LaPorta said. "There were a lot of weapons last year, so I kept hearing comments this offseason, 'Why didn't you get the ball as much?' It's like, 'Dude, we scored the most points of any team in the NFL in the last five years. Everybody deserves the ball.' And, I agree, I think I deserve the ball still, but I was very pleased with how I blocked in the run game."

Apropos of nothing, LaPorta was also asked for his thoughts about NFL players recently being approved to participate in Olympic flag football in 2028. It's clear he hadn't reflected much on the topic, but he acknowledged the appeal.

"I feel like that's so far away," LaPorta said. "Just thinking back like two years, coming into the league in 2023 and now it's 2025, feels like an eternity, to be honest, in the best way possible. That's pretty far away. If I was to be selected, I feel like I would participate. Just such a cool thing to represent your country. So, we'll see, but that's in a couple of years."

Ready for Round 2

When the Lions signed DJ Reader last offseason, his two-year contract was structured in a way that he needed to prove himself coming off a torn quad if he was going to see the second year of the deal.

Shortly after signing, Reader spoke confidently about his ability to come back from the torn quad, having already rehabbed back to form from the same injury earlier in his career.

"Last quad injury, came back, went to the Super Bowl, got a sack in the Super Bowl, balled out, right?" Reader said last March. "It's the same confidence here. That's why I tell you that you never let people paint the vision of what you see in the mirror. Never let anybody paint your picture. You know who you are."

Reader fulfilled that vision, starting 15 games and setting a new career-high with 3.0 sacks. Detroit readily picked up his hefty roster bonus in March, locking him into the team's 2025 plans.

I asked him if the team's decision validated the sentiments he shared a year ago.

"For me, nah," Reader said. "Just the team winning was validating. Again, that quote (about the mirror) is me through and through. I will never let y'all or anyone else tell me what I feel about myself. I'm probably my biggest critic when it comes to ball and just being a man. I don't fall into that category of reading or listening to what the outside noise is.

"I feel like I put my best foot forward last year, and going into the offseason I was just happy to be healthy," Reader continued. "I was sad where we ended up. I wasn't thinking about that contract, if it got picked up. If it didn't, I was just like, whatever, I thought I put my best tape on film, felt like I had a good year."

That's not to say Reader is flippant about his money. It's a big reason why, nine years into his career, he's in Detroit for the voluntary stages of the offseason program.

"I got a workout bonus," Reader said. "I'm not in the interest of giving money back."

But Reader also wants to make sure he's putting his best foot forward this season. That means getting on the same page with the team's revamped coaching staff, including recently promoted defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard and incoming position coach Kacy Rodgers. With the latter, there's some familiarity, even though they've never worked together.

"It's cool because my college coach, and my coach in Cincinnati when I was there, Marion Hobby, him and Kacy are really close," Reader said. "So it's just like having a mirror and brother of Hobby over here coaching me. It's a coaching style I really like.

"He's a teacher, wants to make sure every detail of what he wants you to do before he's asking you to do it," Reader continued. "I think for a player like me, that helps a lot. You know what you can do within the system and what you can't do. It doesn't create much of a gray area for you. It doesn't teach you to be a robot, but it also lets you know where you got to be and how you get there."