Detroit Lions players meet with the media | September 9, 2024

good uh I have not seen it but based on the incredible amount of texts of people saying it was done well I have to believe it went well uh absolutely and kind of like the piece said you know all of us in that room are in the same season of life right now so all of us know what we're going through probably at home in some way or another so just helps us in understanding further you know on the field off the field and gets us closer uh yeah I know I think it that's always the case week one you know the team in general we didn't play in the preseason and you know that's the right decision in my mind but you know that there's risk that comes with it and you know we got it going and thank goodness we got going when we needed to all are terms those uh yeah it's getting good you know like you said I miss some a training camp but I was in the room every day you know with them talking through things so you know it's coming along yeah I mean uh with that expectation like the way the game ended that's how you expect it but obviously you know we had some Rust you know kind of stalled out a little here and there and it's on us to make sure we can uh do that for an entire game not just you know one big Drive uh yeah I mean I agree you know it's never fun to go to overtime as a player rather take care of business you know during regulation but uh you know when that you know presents itself the fact that we were able to go in get the ball and get it done you know that's huge did you guys have a sense that drive uh I think you know you know we the fact that we were just able to do the two-minute and get the game tied up you know has a little momentum there and then you know once it started rolling it started rolling hard to building in the NF where there are more offensive L jerseys in the stands to look up and see so many 58s and 68 what does it mean to be part of culture city has um it's awesome you know like uh as kind of mentioned before you know I came here knowing the tradition of the o line the last couple years and fact that the whole city has bought into it like just gives you extra motivation to you know take it even further and make it even better had it for kind of live action just being in there to make your job easier it like just you thought uh yeah you know just both incredibly smart both incredibly athletic and you know they know how to play this game really well and you know for me just being in there you know it's excellent communication it helps and as we figure each other out in these live situations the final dul how much of fact you think that able to do G um I mean I hadn't thought about it but maybe that did play something into it um and uh obviously we took advantage if that was the case uh absolutely I mean you know in terms of young guys there's only so many things there's only some things you can learn football by actually being out there and playing the actual game so for the guys who aren't out there yet you know you try to explain you know those hidden things here and there and you know hope they Click by the time they get out on the field uh he did great like um smart guy you know pretty good communication had a couple hicups here and there but that's to be expected week one and uh now that we kind of know what our issues are you know it's honest to fix them absolutely I thought he was going to take it the whole way I was pretty exciting I mean yeah like we we kind of mentioned it lightly today like we know it's a heck of a defense uh you know have a little history with the team playing them two times last year and we know it's going to be a bigger challenge even than this past week so we have to make sure we improve and get better and see what happens um I mean I guess you can always say there's motivation it's game day but you know just because it's early season you don't know what they've changed yet or anything so you know no matter what happens we'll have to be ready for it was Nam captain your early um you know I think it's with him it's you know he shows up every day plays with a lot of passion and you know a lot of people follow that and uh for him you know to be as good as he is as young as he is you know age doesn't matter when you've got it you got it cool yep no problem how's it going how's it going still lots of things to clean up probably after watching the tape but just you know the whole you know that team to under four yards um rushing for attempt to to have I think it was you know 12 quarterback hits just what you think of the performance first time out you guys as a collective group um uh I thought it was solid uh we know we can be better in certain areas little small details here and there um but I thought we got to the quarterback I thought we affected him and I thought we played you know we did our job in the Run game um but like I was saying there's always little small details you can always clean up and um you know with that being our first game there's a lot of things you can clean up up and uh going forward we're looking to do and continue to do the same thing affecting the quarterback affecting the Run game so I think it was solid for our first outing Marcus in that group too just the game you thought he had and how he impacted that other side opposite Hut uh dport is you seen it he's physical he's he's a he's a presence out there and that's just who he is that's how he plays and every time I'm on the field I can always hear him hitting somebody to the side or something so he's real physical and uh he's going to get off that edge if he when he wants to hearit yeah I've always hear Davenport hitting somebody always you can always hear he's head first all the time so you can always here when you hitting somebody first impressions of uh playing next to Levi in a game uh well I mean me and Levi played together before so I mean but you know Levi is that's who he is that's the type of player that he is he's worked and got himself back in that position to be you know to be Levi again and he's he's comfortable he's you saw him he's got a sack last night so um he he's doing great I'm I'm really excited to see what Levi does you guys held the ramps 20 points Tim mentioned some of the other positive stance but every defensive player I talked to in the locker room was kind of fixated on their mistakes um I'm just wondering why that's the mentality in that locker room like why why is it hard to appreciate the accomplishment the moment you're already you know the mindset is where can I get better yeah I mean cuz you want to hold them to zero points um I think we had him at three at halftime and we wanted to keep it there it was three too many um um but that's that's just always our mindset here is like how can you get better every day every second of the day like what can we do to fix this fix that um because you want to hold them to zero you can't score you can't win so yeah that's that's always our mindset how much are you looking forward to DJ getting back and just what did you see from him and those maybe snaps that you guys lined up in practice last week and what kind of Duo do you think you can be and just how much talent and depth will you guys have up front once he gets back too yeah I'm really excited to see what DJ does everybody in here knows exactly who DJ reita is as a player um he's a vet and he knows exactly what he's doing out there he's really Savvy in some things and he's very good very athletic so I'm really really excited to see how DJ uh when he comes back I'm excited to see how this goes see how this plays I think it's going to be great um we're definitely going to stuff to run and we're going to be able to get after the quarterback so I think it'll be really exciting specifically how do you think he helps you like what does he do for your game what can he bring out uh he's going to have to take up some double teams so you know I'm going to be able to get it one1 so he has to take some double teams on cuz he's just going to destroy centers that's just what he does and that's what he did when he was in ciny so yeah he's going to take some double teams it's going to leave some one ones on the other side that's perfect except in a run game but other than that yeah I'm good you looking forward to that what a big smile on your face when you when you talk about somebody else taking double that's usually you oh I mean that right now is is H taking wherever side Hut is on he's going to take it and DJ's probably most of the time be on that side and be on the opposite side so yeah it's already happening now anyway so I'm good to go but when DJ comes back just adds that much more of a presence in there knowing what the type of player he is who he is in his league so yeah a guy that's so eager to share his knowledge you see him working with young guys all the time I know you're for you're still kind of a young guy in some ways as well I mean what what has he given you uh like you know some kind of tip trick something that you've been able to take away from from DJ um well I guess that's when I get questions like that I always can't think of something on the spot but it's always a little something small something here and there um whether he's talking about hand placement or uh where my feet could be or what type of move to hit here keep going power something like that like he was doing it at the game last night um when we come off the field he would just tell us here and there a little tip or whatever with that he's seen from our rep um whether to keep going power to keep pressing it stuff like that so um he's always got something that he can share and I I really love that he does that because it helps me out a lot what is the identity in your mind of this defensive unit and even if you compare that down to the defensive line the identity is violent that's our ident we want to be feared we want to be violent that that's how you defenses win games that's our advantage is fear and that's that's our identity we want to be feared we want to be that violent defense that nobody wants to play against so even though you guys didn't have Sorry Brad large sack numbers yesterday how do you guys watch the film and interpret pressures getting a guy out of the pocket and and just changing up their game plan how much are those wins for you guys um those those are definitely wins um but more so when we're cutting down the film or breaking down the film we don't really talk about like if this was a pressure or if it's like I mean if it's obvious yeah like we're bring it up like you affected to throw here you know stuff like that um but like when we're breaking down the film we don't really try to we don't really get too much into that and obviously a sack is a sack when you see a sack but um yeah we don't really break it down like that to be honest when we're watching it but we do when you do have a good rush or something like that we do make it a point to let you know that simple question but just if mind over matter is the thing what's the difference on a Prime Time game that goes as late as it did with overtime walking in this building with a win compared to walking in here after a loss oh it's not day it's much better walking in here with a win uh with the loss everybody's down nobody likes losing so I'd much rather come in here with the win cuz I was up to for morning couldn't sleep so I'd much rather coming in with a win than a loss couple more guys yeah the team signed Chris chrismith to the active roster can you speak to the work that you saw that he put in last year and what do you think he can bring to this defensive line oh yeah Chris has dedicated his life to the NFL into the lions um he he's become really really good really Stout inside and Chris was always there he just you know he didn't have like you know League experience yet and he's been able to get some experience under his belt you know practice and whatnot going against AR line first of all um and he's just really been able to sharpen a lot of his tools a lot of his skills and Chris has become a really really good player inside and um I'm really excited to see what he does in there he's going to be able to Blossom in there for sure what you said 4 in the morning you were up there I was up 4 in the morning just laying there I watched the film and then crazy enough Reba was on I was watching Reba till like in the morning yeah so yeah fan I my girlfriend's been watching it lately a lot so I just just been on and it was just running the whole night and now I looked at my phone it was four in morning it was on Netflix you still ignoring your agent calls you still ignoring your agent calls ignor my agent calls said you didn't want you didn't want to hear from him at all about country oh oh yeah yeah I'm not yeah I I I'm worried about these games I'm worried about week two right now so nothing new shaking there nothing new shaking with that uh no I I don't know I haven't talked