Pressers and scrums: Lions give Smith a post-trade break, Branch apologizes, and Williams talks lessons learned

Allen Park — The man of the hour wasn’t even in the building Wednesday.

Continuing the team’s cultural emphasis of putting person in front of player, the Detroit Lions excused veteran defensive end Za’Darius Smith from the first two days of practice this week after he was acquired by the team in a trade on Tuesday.

Smith, who has already appeared in nine games and logged 327 defensive snaps this season, had been set for his bye week in Cleveland this upcoming weekend.

“I thought that was important,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s been in this league a while and they were actually just going on their bye week when he got the call from us and everything got done. So, let him do what he needs to do, refresh, get back here Friday.”

Campbell said the team will determine whether Smith will play on Sunday based on what he shows during Friday’s practice.

Whether Smith does take the field against Houston, Campbell is thrilled the Lions were able to land an edge rusher of that caliber. He noted general manager Brad Holmes made multiple calls and found very few teams willing to discuss shipping over talent at that position.

“I can’t tell you the number of calls and inquiries that there are, and the bottom line is, it’s hard to find a pass rusher, especially in the season,” Campbell said. “Most teams aren’t going to give them up, they don’t care what you say, which is smart.”

The conversations to deal for Smith started shortly after Aidan Hutchinson was lost for the season, giving Campbell plenty of time to learn more about the veteran defender, both through his tape and in conversations with those who have been around him. It confirmed how strongly the coach feels about the fit.

“We’ve got enough people that speak highly of him that I know — players and coaches — and they all say the same thing about him: Team guy, hard worker, tough, loves the game,” Campbell said. “And then you watch the film, and it backs it up. So, I can’t imagine that all of those guys would lie to me.”

Campbell, who spoke to Smith after the trade went through Tuesday afternoon, said the defender is “fired up” to join the Lions. And his new teammates are similarly thrilled to be getting some much-needed reinforcements.

Josh Paschal has actually known Smith for a while. Both played collegiately at Kentucky. They didn’t overlap, but Paschal’s older brother TraVaughn Paschal was teammates with Smith at the school.

“Za'Darius has been in the league for a while, so just everything from how he takes care of his body to how he rushes the passer, how he plays the run, tendencies, I'm just going to be picking his brain as soon as he gets here,” Paschal said.

Taking missteps head on

Lions safety Brian Branch took accountability for his back-to-back 15-yard penalties against the Packers, including the helmet-to-helmet hit that earned him an ejection for the contest.

After reviewing the play, Branch said the officials on the field made the right decision to flag him, repeating a point of emphasis made by Campbell and position coach Jim O’Neil this week that Branch needs to be better about lowering the target of his hits.

“I most definitely agree with the call,” Branch said. “I feel like my target was obviously high, but that was never my intention, to aim for the head. But moving forward, I do have to move my target down.”

Branch was arguably more apologetic for his actions after his ejection, when he gave the Lambeau crowd the double bird as he exited the field, earning an additional infraction for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“That’s not something — like I don’t want to show — (I don’t want) people to notice me as that,” Branch sheepishly said. “I feel like that was just a heat of the moment for me. I apologize to everyone that seen that. That won’t happen again.”

Branch will inevitably draw his second fine this season for a helmet-to-helmet hit. I asked O’Neil if Branch not only has to lower his target, but also do a better job of keeping his head up to avoid those hits, which don’t just draw flags and fines, but can cause injury to the opponent and self.

"I think he's a very aggressive player,” O’Neil said. “I think we are a very aggressive defense. I think that he plays exactly how we want our guys to play. …I think both of those were situations where the receiver was tracking the ball and at the last second, at full speed, the target changed.

“His target was sternum, and then when the ball carrier or the receiver drops, that sternum now becomes higher up in the head or neck area,” O’Neil continued. “I think that that's part of the game. There were probably four or five hits very similar to it just this past week. I do think the defensive players have done a great job over the past few years taking those kinds of hits out of the game. I don't think anybody is going in there trying to go helmet-to-helmet because everybody understands the consequences."

Fighting upstream about perceptions

Jameson Williams, for better or worse, was less contrite in his first comments since being reinstated from his two-game suspension.

"What have I learned? Just to be smarter, I guess,” Williams said. “Be a bigger person in certain situations and things like that.”

Williams said multiple times that nothing that’s happened will change him.

“I'm good, you know?” he said. “It was just two weeks. I've been suspended before. I don't really look at that as like a good thing or something to brag about, but I had to miss time before. I have always been the same person. It don't change me. Never will change me.”

Williams declined to elaborate on both what caused his two-game ban for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy and an early October incident where he was nearly arrested for failing to properly transport his registered gun in a vehicle without a concealed carry permit.

What he makes abundantly clear is he feels incapable of changing people’s perceptions of him.

"I don't really want to address those types of things,” Williams said. “I figure people already have their own types of views and stuff like that. I'm just going to stay away from talking about those things.

“…"I wouldn't really say I have a message (to fans),” Williams said. “People view me how they view me. I'm my own person and things like that. I wouldn't say I have a message."

Williams acknowledged how much he has appreciated the support of his coaches and teammates these past few weeks.

Campbell, who has been one of Williams’ biggest public supporters, believes the young receiver has learned more than he’s letting on.

“I think any time you don’t get to play this game I think you’ll always reflect and it just helps you to look at it — different vantage point, because it hurts, it hurts not to play,” Campbell said. “And when you don’t have anybody to blame but yourself, it makes you look at yourself a little bit harder.

“He’ll be fine,” Campbell said. “I really believe that, and I do believe he’ll learn from it.”

Respecting their process

Have you ever been in a fantasy league draft where another manager keeps drafting your targets? That’s the first thought that popped into my mind when I asked Campbell about the similarities between the Lions and the Texans.

“They’ve got a lot of young talent that they hit on, and it’s funny because most of those players over there are all players that we really were high on, too,” Campbell said. “When you see that, and you see some of these players, you’re like, ‘Man, that was a good one. That was a good pick they got there.’

“Then you see how hard they play and the type of football players they are, and so I do think there’re a lot of similarities,” Campbell said. “There again, I think they’ve drafted well, I think (coach) DeMeco (Ryans)’s done a hell of a job going in there, and just the style of play that they have.”

Campbell described that style of player to open his press conference, and not surprisingly, it sounds quite a bit like Detroit.

“They play hard, they’re physical, they’re violent, aggressive, finish on the ball, they’ve got explosiveness on offense, defense, special teams,” Campbell said.

Jaw-dropping play

By now, most football fans have seen Saquon Barkley’s crazy spin move into a backward hurdle of a defender, but I wanted to hear what Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery thought of the ultra-athletic play.

“Amazing,” Montgomery said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like that. It almost looked like it could have been A.I. or something else, but I know that it wasn’t.

“I’ve always loved Saquon,” Montgomery continued. “His offseason workouts are crazy. I don’t know if you guys have seen some of the weight that he can move. But it didn’t surprise me that he can jump, what, 60, 70 inches straight up in the air, keep his balance, turn around"? Amazing play. I’m glad that he had that happen for him. Definitely would have been hard for me not to turn into a fan on the sideline if I saw it.”

Appreciated praise

New York Jets and former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had some lofty praise for Lions counterpart Jared Goff during a recent appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show.”

"Well, first of all, I love Jared,” Rodgers said. “He's definitely a guy I've pulled for. He was written off, for sure. He was definitely written off. When the trade happened with Matthew (Stafford) — I love Matthew, too, he’s one of my favorite players to watch — the sentiment wasn’t, ‘Oh, just trading places for these guys.’ It was, ‘Oh, the Lions gave up a franchise quarterback for Jared Goff.’ That’s was the sentiment was."

"What he’s done is nothing less than sensational,” Rodgers continued. “It’s hard to complete passes at that rate. I can’t remember what the stat was, but it was a ridiculous stat, where you’re like, ‘How is this possible?’ Over five or six games and only like 24 incompletions or something like that. That’s wild. It’s wild. It’s bananas. Give credit to his coordinator for sure, but please give credit to this man. This is not easy."

Rodgers and Goff are forever linked, having both played for Cal before entering the NFL. Still, it’s meaningful to receive that kind of praise from a peer, particularly one who is Hall of Fame bound.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Goff said. “I appreciate it. Aaron’s a guy that I grew up watching and grew up a big fan of and any time guys like that who know what they’re looking at say good things, it’s awesome.”

To be fair, good luck finding anyone saying anything bad about Goff these days. The reigning Offensive Player of the Month in the NFC, he’s putting together a statistical stretch never before seen at his position.

Instead of having to drown out the negativity from previous years, Goff is doing his best to block out all the praise being thrown lobbed his direction.

“People are going to keep telling us how good we are now and then if something were to go wrong, they tell us how bad we are," Goff said. "So, it’s how it goes and just try to keep doing the work, put your head down and go in a hole.”

Injury report and roster moves

The Lions conducted a walkthrough on Wednesday, meaning the participation report was an estimation. The only players projected to be impacted by injury were linebackers Jalen Reeves-Maybin (neck) and Malcolm Rodriguez (ankle). Both would have been held out.

Additionally, as part of some shuffling at the bottom of the roster, the team re-added defensive tackle Chris Smith and linebacker Abraham Beauplan to the practice squad, while also bringing on a newcomer to the unit, linebacker Ezekiel Turner.

A converted safety, Turner played six seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, appearing in 80 games for the franchise as a top special teams contributor.