Penei Sewell has played impressively in the last couple of weeks at left tackle for the Detroit Lions. After a mixed bag in his first handful of games, the first-round rookie has established himself as a force in the last two weeks.
How did Sewell pick up his performance? He was asked about it during his media availability session this week.
“Just going back to the little things,” Sewell said pensively. “My eyes and my hands the most. Slowing it down because at times my feet can carry me faster than what my eyes and hands can handle.”
It’s a shrewd assessment on Sewell’s part. When he had some issues in games against Chicago and Baltimore, it was often because his hands weren’t ready to react to where his feet carried him in relation to the defender. That wasn’t an issue at all in the Week 7 matchup with Aaron Donald and the Rams in Los Angeles.
Sewell was asked a follow-up question about how he’s learning to adjust to the NFL game after a small sample size in college and not playing at all in 2020.
“The one thing I can lock into that I’ve been working on is my hands,” Sewell said. “Being really precise with them. When I say that, mediocre hand placement can sometimes get the job done. But in this league, you’ve got to be real precise and lock in on that.”
Sewell praised offensive line coach Hank Fraley for working with him on his hand placement and consistency of technique. He did note that he shot his hands too low on the play where Aaron Donald got a key pressure on QB Jared Goff and he needs to clean it up.
Sewell’s impressive progress has been a welcome development for the Lions line which continues to play without regular left tackle Taylor Decker and Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow.