Around the facility: Unexpected option in mix to help replace Montgomery; coaches didn't know St. Brown was hurting
Allen Park — Here’s the greatest hits from Wednesday’s media access at the Detroit Lions practice facility.
Unexpected role reversal
Monday night, after finishing his work at the office, Detroit Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery thought it more important to visit David Montgomery than go home.
After it was announced that the veteran running back had likely suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier that day, the coach wanted to be there for his pupil, in what he anticipated to be a trying time.
But David Montgomery quickly flipped the script on his coach.
“I went over there (thinking) I'm going to bring some juice, I'm going to get him pumped and he's going to be ready to go,” Scottie Montgomery said. “There's no question about it. When I walked out, I felt so much better about it because he pumped me up. He gave me the juice.
“As soon as I opened the door and walked in, he was smiling,” Scottie Montgomery continued. “His son was there, some of his family members were there. It wasn't doom and gloom. It was bright in there, the Christmas decorations were everywhere. He had his lights — he was very proud of his lights, by the way. His lights outside the home were beautiful. He was very proud of it.
“Talking immediately, he didn't talk about the injury, he just was talking about the game and some of the things that went on, some of the protection he was still able to get done in some of the situations he had going on during the game," Scottie Montgomery said. "It just continued to add a little more juice, a little bit more energy, a little bit more joy. By the time I left, I felt really good about where he was. I really thought he'd be down in the dumps, a guy that's done it as hard as he's done it from February to now."
David Montgomery's positivity surprised his coach and helped put things in perspective.
"Sometimes you can look at it as woe is me and he had none of that," Scottie Montgomery said. "If he doesn't have any of that, then none of the rest can have any of it.”
Check the report
As noted in our statically linked and regularly updated injury report, David Montgomery is getting a third medical opinion on his injured knee, holding out hope he can play again this season.
“If anybody can come back through it, you guys know, you guys have seen who he is, this is the guy that can definitely come back from it,” Scottie Montgomery said.
Additionally, coach Dan Campbell noted he doesn’t expect defensive end John Cominsky to return from his training camp knee injury this year.
Latest episode of the pod
The Ticket’s Will Burchfield and I dip back to the Buffalo loss, look ahead to Sunday’s game against Chicago, and catch up with one of the leaders of Detroit’s “Northern Savages,” defensive lineman Patrick O’Connor.
Threshold not a concern
It wasn’t too long ago that once you went on injured reserve, your season was over. Now the NFL allows a limited number of players to return from the list after they’ve sat out four games.
The league permits teams to return eight from injured reserve and amended the rule this offseason to allow an additional two for playoff qualifiers.
On Wednesday, the Lions used their fourth designation, starting defensive back Ifeatu Melifonwu's practice clock. I asked Campbell if there was any concern about butting up against the limit, potentially forcing the team to face some difficult roster decisions in the postseason.
“I think it’s going to work out OK here because, unfortunately, a number of our guys are done done,” Campbell said. “So it makes it pretty clear cut from that standpoint. I don’t think that we’re going to run into an issue here with who’s able to come back.”
Among the injured players the Lions still expect to get back are linebacker Alex Anzalone, wide receiver Kalif Raymond and rookie cornerback Ennis Rakestraw. Others in the mix, but less certain are linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who has vowed to teammates he’ll come back if the Lions make the Super Bowl
Suffering in silence
On his podcast this week, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown acknowledged he was battling the lingering effects of food poisoning the hours ahead of the Bills game. Despite not feeling his best, the All-Pro receiver set new single-game highs for catches and receiving yards.
Oh, and he didn’t tell anyone on the coaching staff he was having problems.
“I had no idea, nobody even told me, which is just like Saint,” Campbell said. “He’s not going to say anything until it’s done. The kid is — that’s just what he is, that’s the way he’s wired. It says a lot and you turn on the tape and you don’t notice anything different, because he’s one of those that can feel like crap and it’s not going to affect the way that he approaches the game and the amount of effort that he gives.”
It might not have shown up on tape, but position coach Antwaan Randle El suspected something was up.
“I kept trying to figure out why is this dude so tired?” Randle El said. “He'd run a couple routes and he would just look like he was sucking wind. I'm like, 'Are you all right?' 'Yeah, I'm good coach.' So, it just speaks to who he is and how he goes about preparation and getting ready for the game and not really putting what he has going on (in front) of anybody else.”
St. Brown finished with 14 catches, 193 yards and a touchdown in the loss. For the season, he’s hauled in 95 throws for 1,056 yards and 10 scores. It marks the third consecutive season he’s topped 1,000 yards and the second straight with double-digit touchdowns.
Two wrongs don’t make a right
Yes, Randle El has seen the photos of him chewing out Jameson Williams on the sideline during the Thanksgiving game after the third-year receiver was flagged for throwing a ball in the face of Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson.
“Of course I saw it,” Randle El said. “Everybody sent it to me. (But) the message is you just can't do that. That was the message, and don't ever do it again. That's really what came out of that conversation, everything everybody saw.”
Williams was vindicated later in the week when it was shown Stevenson tripped him on the sideline. The NFL even fined him $20,000 for the action.
Randle El doesn’t care.
“Yeah, it doesn't change (the message),” he said. “You have guys in the league that do that (antagonize), and it gets under your skin if you let it get under your skin. They normally get the guy who reacts the second time. That's what happened.”
Master motivator
A day after his analogy about filets and moldy bread to explain fan reaction to Buffalo snapping Detroit’s 11-game winning streak went viral, Campbell had a fresh round of inspirational quotes at his Wednesday press conference.
“We just had the first really significant meeting since the Buffalo game,” Campbell said. “Like I said, I just hit it head-on and tell them what the facts are. This is where we’re at, this is how we’re viewed right now, and look, nobody writes our story. We’re the only ones who write our own story, so we have the pen and there’s a lot of football left and I think we’re looking forward to this, to be honest with you.”
Obviously, there’s a lot of outside concern about the injury-ravaged defense, which allowed 48 points against the Bills. Predictably, Campbell doesn’t share your concern.
“You just can’t convince me,” he said. “I don’t believe it. We’ve got plenty here and I’ll tell you what, when we come out of a game and everything that we said that we have to do, including our identity, we do that for 60 minutes and we lose the game, then I’ll stand up here and tell you, ‘You know what, we just don’t have enough.’ But until that happens, you’re not going to hear me say anything about what we have or don’t have.
“We have plenty here in the whole roster,” Campbell said. “We have plenty on defense. I believe in Kerby (Joseph), I believe in (Brian) Branch, I believe in (DJ) Reader, I believe in Za’Darius (Smith), I believe in Levi (Onwuzurike), I believe in Amik (Robertson), (Terrion) Arnold, guys like (Pat) O’Connor, Ben Niemann, Jack Campbell. So we’re good and we’ll figure out how we need to play. We’ve already begun to do that and really, everything that we do from this point on is, how do we get to where we’re playing the very best football with where we’re at now, with what we have, by the time we hit the playoffs. That’s really where the focus has got to be.”
Three-year drought to end?
When replacing David Montgomery, whether short- or long-term, I asked Scottie Montgomery what the team expects to get out of Craig Reynolds and rookie Sione Vaki. And while the coach came back to those players in his answer, it was noteworthy that the first guy he mentioned was former seventh-round pick Jermar Jefferson.
“Jermar, tremendous short-area quickness, good vision in the run game,” Scottie Montgomery said. “Did a tremendous job in camp of creating a lot of explosive (plays). He actually might have had the most explosive in camp in real running settings. He did a really good job for us.”
Jefferson, a seventh-round pick in 2021, hasn’t appeared in a regular season game in three years. I asked Scottie Montgomery what it takes for a player to stay mentally and physically engaged with that type of drought between opportunities.
“Imagine being in the championship rounds of a boxing match for three years,” Montgomery said. “That's what he had to do to stay here, to stay present and work his butt off. You've got to have a different type of grit, a different type of mental toughness to have to leave the building, get called back, to come in, and still be available and never miss a beat.
“One of the most impressive things about him is he doesn't need a lot of reps to be able to be game-ready,” Montgomery continued. “We see that in practice when we throw him in when something happens. There's not a lot of alignment issues or pad issues or reads or even protection issues whatsoever with him.”
Montgomery said Jefferson will have to earn his role through the week of practice and the young back was ready for the challenge.
“I’m going to seize the moment with any opportunity I get out there,” Jefferson said. "... I've been ready for this opportunity for a while."
If Ty Johnson can do it. Jermar Jefferson can.
I believe in Jermar Jefferson. Always liked him. Glad he persisted.