August 28, 2023
On if Lions QB Nate Sudfeld tore his ACL in Friday’s preseason game: “I’m not going to confirm that. He’s getting a second opinion right now.”
On his level of concern for the quarterback position if Lions QB Nate Sudfeld is injured: “Well, if it is the deal with Nate, it’s awful, and I hate that for him. That’s tough because Nate’s given us everything he’s had and he came in last year and brought something to us, and somebody we were very comfortable with, enough to sign him back. And so, I hate that if that’s the way it goes here, but I also have a lot of faith in (Lions QB) Teddy (Bridgewater), and he’s gotten better and better every practice, every week, so I feel pretty good.”
On the emotional toll this week of roster cuts has on him: “Well, I don’t think it’s as bad as it is on the players that are there, because that’s tough. That’s tough for them. And look, every year this is the hardest time for me and (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes), I mean it’s – there’s nothing worse than watching guys give everything they’ve got, bust their rear, the blood, the sweat, all of it, the angst, the good, the bad. And, that’s hard. It’s hard to look them in the eye and tell them, ‘Hey, this is as far as it goes for now.’ But there’ll be a number of guys too that, ‘Yeah, you didn’t make it on this maybe the 53, but we want you back here.’ And if it doesn’t work out somewhere else or someone’s not willing to claim you, there’s a reason why we want you back because we feel like you can help us and I mean, our practice squad players play. I mean they play during the year whether it’s injury or special teams or – I mean there’s a good chance you’re going to end up playing at some point this year if you’re with us, so. But it’s tough, I mean there’s nothing fun about this.”
On how different this year’s roster cuts are with more depth on the team compared to last year: “Yeah, it’s a lot different. It’s a lot different. I do feel like that we are more talented and it’s not just more talented, but the players that we’re letting go too are – man, just the way they’re made up, I mean any team would love to have them. The way they work, they’re smart, they’re pretty instinctive guys, and they’ve produced. They’ve got good tape. So, we are, we’re far better off.”
On how many roster decisions they have left to make: “It’s tough to say. We’re close, but we still have – there’s a number of moving pieces between here and looking out on the other 31 teams too, and where does that – is there a piece there that fits here? How does it – relative to what we already have here and so, we’re close, but we still have – there’s a little bit of flux we have to go through here.”
On how much performances in Friday’s preseason game affected final roster decisions: “Yeah, I would say it certainly affected a few guys. It certainly did. There were some really good performances in there, and as a whole, I thought the guys played really well and really to a man, you would say, a vast majority of our team I thought got better. We talked about the details, the fundamentals of it, being better on third down, passing the stunt games up front. I already told you defensively we had some guys playing positions they’d never played. We had defensive tackles playing D-ends at the end of that game and just battling. But we were better, and fundamentally we were much better, and you come away, there again, with four turnovers, I mean that’s encouraging. You’re always going to feel good about that defensively, so it was good. A lot of guys did some really good things.”
On if Lions QB Nate Sudfeld’s injury validates his decision to not play key starters in the preseason: “I mean you can go either way. I just – you could go either way with it. I mean you can talk yourself in or out of it, but for me, it was always going to be about man, the nature of the way we practice, we were pretty physical I think relative to most teams in the League, and we had two joint practices, two teams that we had joint practices with that were going to be pretty physical and to me, that was – those were going to serve as building blocks to get our core ready. And then, just knowing where we were at this game relative to playing KC, which at that point, you’re under two weeks, I just didn’t feel like it was worth the risk. But, I felt good about going live here about three days prior to that. I would rather do that, which we did, so I feel pretty good about what we did.”
On if veteran players ever lobby to play in preseason games: “Oh yeah, yeah. We get some of those guys, and that’s hard. A guy wants to go play, but it’s kind of like, I get it, but you’re not going unless this player’s going, and if that player’s going, then that player’s going, and if that player’s going, then that player’s going, so. And pretty soon, you might as well do it all. It’s either all or nothing a little bit in that regard, particularly offensively.”
On Lions DL Cory Durden’s performance in different positions in Friday’s preseason game: “Yeah, it was pretty impressive. He did a couple of things. You saw the long arm over there on the edge. He just picked him up and put him right into the quarterback, so. It was good to see. I mean there was – that was a little bit of something we – we like Durden, there’s a reason he’s here, but that’s pretty intriguing, right? It shows a little bit of flexibility out of him and maybe some versatility, so it was good.”
On what led them to have such success with the undrafted free agent class this year: “Well, I’m just going to – I keep – I’ll keep pushing that to (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes). I mean that’s Brad and our personnel department, our college scouts, because they really – they’re in these schools and they’re building relationships with these guys too and if it doesn’t work out in the Draft, they’ve kind of already built those ties and have told them, ‘Hey, man, we may have a spot here for you.’ And the guys that come in here know they’re going to get a chance to compete too. I mean the agents can tell them that. Look at us over a two-year period. We have rookies – we’ve had rookie free agents that have started for us, and so that helps, but that’s all Brad and his crew. They do an unbelievable job.”
On if there are injury updates for Lions LB Julian Okwara, Lions CB Emmanuel Moseley and Lions S Ifeatu Melifonwu: “Yeah, not right now. I mean certainly JO didn’t come back in the game, so I don’t see him practicing today. E-man’s doing well, but he’s somebody we’ll discuss tonight on whether – do we keep him on PUP, do we take him off? He’s close, but he’s doing well. Iffy, he’s another, he’s not going to practice today. It’s day-to-day. We’ll see. Hopefully know a lot more when they come back off this break on Saturday.”
On if the League has provided any clarity about Lions WR Jameson Williams being able to receive treatment from the team during his suspension: “Nope. No, they haven’t given us anything.”
On what goes into the philosophy of maintaining a relatively consistent 90-man roster throughout the summer: “Yeah, I think it’s – not that it doesn’t happen at times because you’re always looking to see if you can upgrade, but I think there’s also, as much as you can, I think it’s important that those guys, there’s a reason why you want them back and it’s because they understand our system, but also we’ve built a rapport with these guys too, so there is a level of trust and you feel pretty good about that relative to somebody you bring in off the street. You don’t really know about – or from another team, because even then it’s going to take a minute to get them acclimated to how we go about our business or terminology, all that. So, I just think, as much as you can, keeping those guys intact too. I mean they’re very much a part of our team and they need to think that way. I want them to think that way. It’s really to me, it’s – and I understand it is, it’s a 53-man roster, but it’s really not. It’s a 60-man team. It’s a 69-man team is what it is, and that’s kind of how we view it. These guys are all on the same team. We all help each other out and every one of those guys, there’s a good chance they’re going to play for us.”
On how his comfort level with the 90-man roster has increased compared to when he started here: “Yeah, I think so. I certainly think that, and it’s no secret, we are, we’re better off than we were a few years ago. Our roster’s much better.” |
