Allen Park — It’s Micah Parsons week.
But for second-year Detroit Lions offensive tackle Penei Sewell, it’s also Dorance Armstrong, Demarcus Lawrence, Dante Fowler Jr. and Chauncey Golston week.
Sewell is in the next phase of his development as an NFL player. He’s no longer the highly touted rookie trying to get his feet under him, but even with 21 career games under his belt, he’s still learning lessons the hard way, like in Week 5’s shutout loss to the New England Patriots, when Sewell was surprised by facing a number of pass rushers who weren’t on his radar heading in.
Against a vaunted Dallas Cowboys front — which is highlighted by Parsons, but has a number of dangerous pass rushers — he won’t make that mistake again.
“Out of respect for the game, I always look into every opponent as if they’re coming with their best, and at any time and any moment, they can surprise you,” Sewell said. “I learned that lesson the hard way during … the Patriots (game). I wasn’t on my regular routine, watching film on everybody, so there was a couple times where I got surprised.”
Would the Lions have preferred Sewell (and the rest of the Lions’ offense) to fare better against New England? Sure. But at the same time, Sewell’s immediate recognition of a failed process — and the ensuing adjustments that came from it — are a big part of the reason why the Lions are so high on the former seventh-overall pick.
“He loves ball and he’s willing to work and put extra time into it, especially on the field doing extra after practice,” offensive line coach Hank Fraley said. “I know he has his own goals and aspirations as an individual, and his ceiling’s pretty high, and he’s just still tapping into it. He’s a young player and there’s guys that — you gotta challenge guys like that, too. ‘How good do you wanna be? Is it good or great?’
“And I think he can be one of those great ones, but he’s far from there. But he can be a great one.”
After a shaky start to his career that saw him flip from right tackle to left tackle, and back to right tackle, Sewell settled in to deliver a fantastic rookie resume that landed him the ninth-best Pro Football Focus grade amongst all offensive tackles from Week 6 on.
Over the offseason, there was much ado about the ‘second-year leap’ for a handful of the players on Detroit’s roster, but — outside of perhaps Amon-Ra St. Brown — there was no player for whom that question was more intriguing than Sewell. One of the youngest players in the 2021 NFL Draft, he was heralded as an athletic freak and had the mental makeup to boot, and with the latter portion of his first year yielding excellent returns, the progress he’d make this season was a hot topic.
So far, that discourse is proving to be for good reason: He’s PFF’s fifth-best right tackle and No. 3 run blocker, and has allowed just one sack and 10 total quarterback pressures through five games; he allowed five sacks and 35 pressures in 16 games last season.
“His mindset, his mentality, his demeanor as he approaches not only the game, but this week of practice and preparation, it’s beyond his years,” offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said this week, adding that it’s “rare” for a young player to set the tone for a position group like he has.
“For a young player, I think some of them have some growing pains in terms of what a professional looks like. To me, he’s really made those strides in terms of how he enters the building, how he watches film, how attentive he is in meetings, and then that same intensity you see on gameday shows up in practice as well.”
By many accounts, there are few who take practice more seriously than Sewell.
He’s a big believer in confidence, understands the value of it — it’s perhaps the most necessary thing in a player’s toolbox — and focuses his preparation around being able to keep it. This offseason, he put in a lot of work on his hand skills; this season, his hands are giving him confidence. Sounds simple enough, right?
“My confidence stems from practice. So, if I’m feeling good at practice, I know my hand placement’s money, my feet are money — on game days, I think that whatever I did at practice would just correlate to the game,” Sewell said.
But the reality is that a majority of NFL linemen set out to improve their game this offseason. It’s the elite skill set that, when paired with his work ethic, has the Lions licking their chops about where his development has gone and will continue to go.
“Some of the stuff he does athletically is — he’s the only guy in the league who can do some of it,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Maybe (49ers tackle) Trent Williams and some of those guys who can move at tackle like that.
“Like, he’s pretty special in what he can do.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi