Pride of Detroit
On Tuesday, three Detroit Lions coaches—head coach Dan Campbell, wide receiver coach Scottie Montgomery, and offensive line coach Hank Fraley—met with the media in the team’s first real day of Week 1 preparation for the Green Bay Packers. While each session was informative, I’m not sure anything was revealed that requires a BREAKING NEWS banner.
So on days in which a lot of little tidbits are dropped, but nothing major, we’ll try to offer a more broad recap of the media sessions for ease of consuming. Here are five things worth noting from Tuesday’s press conferences.
This offseason, coach Scottie Montgomery moved from the running backs to the wide receivers room. But that is just the tip of the iceberg in what Montgomery—who is also the team’s assistant head coach—contributes to the team.
“Scottie’s a stud, man. He is. He’s an invaluable coach for me,” coach Dan Campbell said. “He does a lot. He wears really a lot of different hats. Not only the Assistant Head Coach, but the receivers, the offense, screen game, the pass game, the splits, the formations, the tendencies. I mean, he wears a ton of hats.”
Montgomery also used the hats analogy, thanking Campbell for the opportunity to do so many thing that is preparing him for bigger opportunities down the line.
“Coming in here, I probably only had three hats. Now, I’ve probably got like 25 hats, a lot of them to cover up the hair that I’ve lost learning some of the things that I’ve learned,” Montgomery said. “It’s just the big picture. You can get so involved when you’re in a room that you can’t see the building, right? What Dan has given me the ability to do since I’ve got here is see the building, not just from an offensive standpoint, but from a defensive standpoint and also an administrative standpoint. That’s one of the things. I’ve got to say thank you to him for giving me the opportunity, and not just giving me the title. There’s two different things. There’s the title and there’s the opportunity to create your ability to see it from the head coach’s position, and that’s what he’s been able to do for me.”
At this point, it’s unclear if new Packers defensive end Micah Parsons will play on Sunday vs. the Lions. He’s currently dealing with a back injury and is obviously just getting to know the playbook. Smart money is on Parsons playing a limited role. And while Parsons can play anywhere on the defensive line, Fraley says the outlook is the same for the Lions offensive line: stick to the coverage rules.
“We have rules and when they want to move guys or stuff like that, we have certain rules we follow,” Fraley explained. “And he definitely can be a force off the edge or in the middle when they stand up, when...
