It hasn’t been the loudest thing the Detroit Lions have been doing, but if you’ve been paying close attention, then you know the Lions have been trying to fill one position since 2021 and they have had nothing but trouble in their efforts.
We’re talking about the SAM linebacker spot. The Lions have been trying to find their other SAM outside of Derrick Barnes. They’ve tried to get Charles Harris, James Houston and Mitchell Agude into that spot and they just haven’t been able to. They tried it for three years with Houston. It’s just a difficult position to learn apparently.
The reason for the difficulty is that it’s almost like being a defensive end and a linebacker at the same time. You have to have the athleticism, strength and the smarts to both rush the passer and be able to be in coverage. Not everyone can do it. Right now it seems like the Lions may have finally found their guy in Trevor Nowaske.
You could tell the Lions really liked this guy last year. They signed him as an undrafted rookie out of Saginaw Valley State and then put him on the practice squad going into the year. They then had to stash him on the 53-man roster midway through the season when a team tried to poach him away.
The Lions had no choice but to waive him last December so they could put Jason Cabinda back on the active roster. The Cardinals claimed him and he played out the rest of his rookie season there.
The Cardinals cut Nowaske at cut down time this summer and the Lions made sure to claim him off the waiver wire. He was the only claim they put in this summer. Again, it shows how much they like him.
Nowaske started getting some SAM snaps against the Seahawks and looked pretty good. Then they played him in nearly the entire game against the Cowboys and he again looked really good and logged his first career sack. On Sunday he played another pretty solid game against the Vikings and put up three tackles and a walk off sack that cemented the Lions win. He also got an 87.1 grade from Pro Football Focus for this game.
It’s going to be interesting to see where things go with him moving forward. He’s not playing a ton of snaps just yet, but the Lions are seeing what he’s doing out there with the time that he’s given and we should be seeing a lot more of him going forward. The Lions may have finally found their guy.