Last Sunday we got to see the debut of a new Detroit Lions edge rusher in Al-Quadin Muhammad. He had a very good game with six pressures. While he didn’t show up on the stat sheet, he was the Lions top pressure getter on the day.
After talking about him multiple times ahead of Sunday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about him again on Monday.
“Man, he did some things for us. He was active, he played aggressive, he was physical. And so, he went in there and really gave us a good day’s work, which is exactly what we talked about. Now there were a couple of things we’ve got to clean up mentally with him. And like you brought up, some of the rush, there were about three of them in there where, we get a little bit better, maybe, out of a couple of things he does, then it may help around the perimeter with (Lions DL Alim McNeill) Mac and some of those other things. So, those are just little things to clean up, but man, I thought he came in and gave us a good day’s work and it’s certainly something to build off of.”
It just seemed like the Lions were going to be definitley using him a lot more. That time has come. On Saturday the Lions made some moves and and elevating him from the practice was one of them. This is going to be a big help becasue Muhammad has traditionally been a good run stopper, if he’s now added a pass rush to the mix, the Lions are going to be in good shape with him.
Here’s what else the team did on Saturday:
Elevated Shane Zylstra from practice squad
The Lions really seem to be loving what they have going with this guy right now. Just earlier this week Campbell said it was hard for the Lions to not notice him at practice and that’s why he’s up again. Keep in mind that this is his third and final practice squad elevation, so the Lions are going to have to make some decisions with him soon.
Signed Chris Smith to 53-man roster
There should be no surprise here that the Lions would make another elevation for their defensive line. The Lions are going to be missing Josh Paschal for this game and Mekhi Wingo is currently doubtful to play Sunday.
Smith was added to the Lions 53-man roster in Week 1 and didn’t play a whole lot, but Campbell has talked multiple times about him being one of those guys that does a lot of work you don’t see. We’ll see, or maybe not see, how much work he does on Sunday.
Signed Abraham Beauplan to 53-man roster
This is another very telling move. The Lions lost Malcolm Rodriguez with an ankle injury last week and when asked about it earlier this week, Campbell said it was “T.B.D” with him. This could point to him being out for a while.
Released Parker Hesse
Not really a shocker here. Hesse was signed to be the team’s fullback, but they haven’t really done anything with full backs this year. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hesse back on the practice squad later this week.