Tag: Everson Griffen

Lions Week 10, By the Numbers: D’Andre Swift should carry the load moving forward

Examining the numbers that led to the Detroit Lions 30-27 victory over the Washington Football Team in Week 10 of the 2020 season.

Examining the numbers that led to the Detroit Lions 30-27 victory over the Washington Football Team in Week 10 of the 2020 season.

1 – sack for Everson Griffen, his first as a Lion. He also led the team with 5 quarterback hits.

2 – forced fumbles by Jamie Collins. He is the first player in Lions’ franchise history to have 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, and 10 or more tackles (he had 13) — per Lions PR.

3 – Each team had 3 touchdowns (Lions were all passing TDs, Washington’s were all rushing TDs) and 3 field goal attempts. The Lions connected on all 3 of those attempts, while Washington only connected on 2.

3 – straight games Marvin Jones has caught a touchdown pass. He now has 32 TD receptions as a Lion and is tied with Cloyce Box for 6th All-time in franchise history.

4 – sacks by Romeo Okwara over the last 4 games. He also has a team-leading 20 pressures on the quarterback over that time, including 6 in Week 10.

4 – pressures allowed by the Lions offense.

5.0 – yards per carry for the Lions offense. D’Andre Swift averaged 5.1 over 16 carries, Adrian Peterson averaged 5.3 on 4 carries, and Kerryon Johnson averaged 3.0 on 1 carry.

6 – seconds left on the clock and the Lions were 25 yards away from field goal range when Chase Young’s 15-yard personal foul penalty put them in striking distance. Stafford would hit Jones on a quick 10 yard slant, setting up Matt Prater’s 59-yard attempt.

16 – seconds were left on the game clock when the Lions took over in a 27-27 tie game.

47.8 – yards per punt average for Jack Fox in Week 10. He continues to lead the NFL in yards per punt (52.4), net yards per punt (47.9), and hang time (4.76).

50/50 – percent man/zone coverage split this week. ESPN’s Michael Rothstein points out the Lions have won every game when their man coverage is under 60-percent and a breakdown by halves shows the Lions were man 30.4-percent in the first half and 62.9-percent in the second half, further illustrating that point.

55 – yard TD reception for Marvin Hall. It’s nice to see him and Stafford connecting on the deep ball again.

59 – yard game-winning field goal for Matt Prater was the longest in Lions history, tying a record he set in 2016. He also connected from 53 and 37, going 3 of 3 on the day. This is Prater’s 7th career game (100 games played) where he has kicked multiple field goals from at least 50-yards — an NFL record.

“Prater is 22-22 on game-tying or go-ahead FGs in the 4th quarter inside of or at (the) 2-minute warning in his career (16-16 in regulation, 6-6 in OT),” per ESPN’s Michael Rothstein.

127.8 – passer rating for Stafford, the 16th time in his career he has exceeded 125. This was also his 37th game-winning drive (10th most All-time), per Lions PR.

149 – All-purpose yards for Swift, a career-high mark. It appears Swift has finally taken the running back reigns as he saw 73-percent of the Lions offensive snaps on Sunday.

Experts go purple and gold in the Lions at Vikings Week 9 matchup

The Detroit Lions are on the road to face the Minnesota Vikings in Week 9 and experts are leaning towards the purple and gold for the win.

The Detroit Lions (3-4) are on the road this week to face the Minnesota Vikings (2-5), hoping to get their record back to .500 and avoid falling into the division cellar.

The Vikings are on a quest this week to extend their five-game winning steak against the Lions dating back to 2017. The Vikings have outscored the Lions 143-78 during that timeframe.

The Lions fell victim to their own blunders last week, losing to the Colts with untimely turnovers and penalties. Meanwhile, the Vikings are on Cloud 9 after clinching a 28-22 victory against the Green Bay Packers riding Dalvin Cook’s four-touchdown performance.

So far this season, experts have tended to veer the opposite way of the Lions in their matchups, and this week isn’t any different. According to NFL Pickwatch, 82-percent of experts are favoring the Vikings in this division battle, at the time of this writing.

The Vikings have been hit hard this season with the injury bug and this week isn’t any different. The latest is at their cornerback group with three already out for the game, with another considered questionable. Luckily for the Vikings, their offense, led by Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, and Adam Theilen, has been able to keep them competitive.

The Lions will also be without a few key players this week including starters Kenny Golladay, Trey Flowers, and Tracy Walker. While Matthew Stafford has been activated from the Reserve/COVID list, which bodes well for the Lions’ chances this week. The defense will have their hands full this week with Cook, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue their run defensive improvements or regress back.

The X-factor has to be Everson Griffen’s return to Minnesota. During his first interview as a Lion, he felt disrespected by Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer by just calling him a “good” player. With Flowers out, the Lions need Griffen to step up and after seeing the energy and passion I feel sorry for whoever gets in his way. (Sorry Riley Rieff).

Division games are always hard to predict because the players always come out with a little more fire. As long as the Lions have learned from their mistakes, play clean football, and here to the key concepts in this week’s Honolulu Blueprint, they should have a good shot to pull off the upset against their division foe.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer responds to Lions DE Everson Griffen’s comments

See what Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said in response to Everson Griffen’s comments.

In case you’re not caught up, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer recently called Everson Griffen a good player. Griffen, who is playing against the Vikings as a member of the Lions, did not like Zimmer’s choice of words.

“He was a great coach to me, so for him to call me a good player, that kind of hurts my feelings,” Griffen told reporters Thursday, via Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press. “I’m really looking forward to playing the Vikings and showing them that I am a great player.”

After that, Zimmer responded to Griffen’s response. The Vikings coach seemed to be confused a bit by what Griffen was saying.

“I thought we had a good relationship,” Zimmer said, per Mizutani. “I don’t feel like I was being derogatory at all. I think Everson understands how I feel about him. Or I thought he did, anyway.”

The Vikings will face off against Griffen for the first time since the defensive end left the team in free agency this offseason. Griffen will presumably be going up against Riley Reiff. That should be an interesting matchup.

Everson Griffen not happy about being called a ‘good player’ by Mike Zimmer

“I’m really looking forward to playing the Vikings and showing them I am a great player”

Everson Griffen is set to play his first game for the Detroit Lions, and the defensive end already has beef with the Week 9 foe, the Minnesota Vikings. Griffen played his first 10 seasons in Minnesota, and his departure from his longtime team does not sit well with him.

Griffen made that abundantly clear in his Zoom press conference with the media on Thursday. Specifically, he’s not happy with his old coach calling him a “good player”. Not at all.

“I got a little frustrated when I read the comment that (Vikings coach Mike) Zimmer said about, ‘Oh Everson was a good player’. Like, coach Zimmer wasn’t just a good coach, he was a great coach to me,” Griffen said. “So for him to call me a good player, that kind of hurts my feelings.”

The new Lions defensive end is definitely excited to play his old team in his Detroit debut.

“I’m really looking forward to playing the Vikings and showing them I am a great player,” Griffen said with emphasis.

The longtime Viking did talk fondly of his former teammates, noting he misses many of them. Then Zimmer came into mind again, and Griffen got animated.

“We going to see who’s a good player on Sunday, that’s what I got for him … he’s gonna put some respect on my name.”

Thanks to FOX2 for posting the clip:

How has Everson Griffen played this season?

According to Pro Football Focus, Everson Griffen is having the worst season of his career.

Former Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen will go up against his former club in Week 9 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Griffen is on his second team of the season after he was traded to the Lions via the Cowboys earlier this season.

So, how has the 32-year-old defensive end played this season?

In seven games, Griffen had 2.5 sacks with the Cowboys. Griffen has only played about 60% of the snaps this season.

So far, it looks like the Vikings were right to move on from Griffen. Griffen has a Pro Football Focus grade of 56.6, a mark that ranks 82nd in the league among edge rushers. It also marks a career-low for Griffen.

To put that in perspective, Ifeadi Odenigbo, Jalyn Holmes and D.J. Wonnum rank 44th, 79th and 91st, respectively, among edge rushers.

We’ll see how Griffen does in his first game against his former squad on Sunday.

Everson Griffen completes onboarding process, added to Lions active roster

Detroit Lions’ latest roster acquisition, EDGE Everson Griffen has completed his COVID-19 onboarding process and has been added to the active roster.

It’s been nearly a week in the making, but after the Detroit Lions traded for EDGE Everson Griffen last Tuesday afternoon, he has finally completed the COVID-19 onboarding process and has been added to the active roster.

The Lions did not need to make a corresponding move following Griffen’s addition, as they had an open spot on their 53-man roster as a result of placing EDGE Trey Flowers on short-term injured reserve on Monday.

Flowers isn’t the only Lions’ EDGE player unavailable due to injury, as Austin Bryant is still on the PUP list — though he is practicing an eligible to be activated at any time — and Julian Okwara is on injured reserve and not eligible to return until after this weekend’s game.

That leaves only Griffen and Romeo Okwara available on the edge at this time.

In typical weeks, Flowers and Romeo Okwara both see roughly 55- to 60- percent of the Lions defensive snaps, meaning Griffen is stepping into a situation where he may be heavily relied on.

It shouldn’t be overly challenging for Griffen, as he is a 10 year NFL starter, was seeing similar snaps in Dallas this season, and as noted in last week’s film room, he has the skill set to hold his own in the Lions scheme.

But, if the Lions don’t want to overwhelm Griffen in his first game with the team — or he needs more time to acclimate to the playbook — they could supplement his snaps with hybrid players like defensive lineman D’Shawn Hand or JACK linebackers Christian Jones, Jahlani Tavai, and/or Reggie Ragland.

Panthers’ options disappearing fast during busy 2020 NFL trade deadline

Initially, we laid out six potential trade targets for the Panthers.

The Carolina Panthers – for all their faults – have been competitive in every game they’ve played this season. If they can get healthy and their luck improves, there’s still an outside chance they could compete for a wild card spot in December.

They’ll have to make some changes to get there, though. First priority right now should be adding a defensive playmaker who can help make up for the group’s inexperience and lack of depth. Their options are dwindling fast, though. Teams have already made multiple deals over the last couple of days, with several coming in the last couple of hours.

Initially, we laid out six potential trade targets for the Panthers:

Eagles TE Zach Ertz
Jets DL Quinnen Williams
49ers LB Kwon Alexander
Cowboys DE Everson Griffen
Jets LB Avery Williamson
Patriots CB Stephon Gilmore

Several of these options (plus DB Desmond King) are already off the table. San Francisco just traded Alexander to the Saints, giving Demario Davis the partner he needed in the middle of a floundering New Orleans defense. Williamson is also no longer an option. On Sunday night the Jets dealt him and a seventh-round pick to the Steelers for just a fifth-rounder in return. On Friday, Griffen was dealt to the Lions for a conditional sixth-rounder.

Ertz is still technically a possibility, but he’s out with a high-ankle sprain and won’t be back for several more weeks. The Eagles were reportedly open to dealing him before the injury, though. As for Gilmore and the Patriots, they are reportedly not interested in being sellers.

For what it’s worth, Williams would still make an excellent addition to this Carolina team, significantly improving their run defense and pass rush at the same time. He is just 23 years old and has two more seasons on his contract after this one.

The trade deadline is at 4:00 p.m. ET tomorrow.

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Cowboys vs Eagles Inactives, Captaing: No Lane Johnson, Sean Lee back

The inactives and captains for Week 8’s Sunday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles

The Dallas Cowboys injury situation has been catastrophic in 2020. Still, they did receive a fair bit of positive news on that front this week with the return of linebacker Sean Lee who was activated from injured reserve and Zack Martin who practiced all week after recovering from a concussion that kept him out of last Sunday’s game.

The two veterans, something Dallas has sorely needed in 2020, are active and ready to go against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. There are no surprise inactives for the matchup tonight as there’s not many tough choices that need to be made. However, rookie defensive end Bradlee Anae returns to active duty after the team traded Everson Griffen earlier in the week.

The team’s rotating cast of captains honors goes to linebacker Leighton Vander Esch, running back and kick return Tony Pollard and kicker Greg Zuerlein.

The Eagles are missing some key pieces offensively, missing right tackle Lane Johnson who was ruled out earlier in the day with an ankle injury. They’re also without running back Miles Sanders and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery.

It hasn’t mattered who has lined up at running back for opponents of the Dallas defense to date, but Boston Scott will assume the lion’s share of those duties. First-round draft pick wide receiver Jalen Reagor will be active for the first time since Week 2 after having surgery to repair a torn UCL in his right thumb.

 

Detroit Lions officially announce Everson Griffen trade

The Detroit Lions officially announced the trade for EDGE Everson Griffen.

Last Tuesday night, the Detroit Lions made a trade with the Dallas Cowboys, sending a conditional sixth-round pick in exchange for EDGE Everson Griffen.

Due to the NFL COVID-19 onboarding process, Griffen must have five consecutive days of negative test results before joining a new team, meaning the earliest Griffen can enter Allen Park is Monday.

Here’s how the Griffen trade went down.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Lions and Cowboys started a conversation surrounding a trade for Griffen, and reportedly roughly four hours later a deal was done. The exchange was leaked to the media and soon after the Cowboys publicly confirmed the deal. Griffen then took to Twitter that night, saying goodbye to Dallas, and issuing an intense message for Lions fans, expressing his motivation to succeed in this new opportunity.

The next morning Griffen was on a plane to Detroit to begin his onboarding process and at coach Matt Patricia’s morning press conference acknowledged the deal.

Griffen instantly gives the Lions depth on the EDGE and will allow the Lions to take it slow with Austin Bryant (who is practicing but still on the PUP list) and Julian Okwara (who is currently on injured reserve).

If you missed our Film Room dissecting what Griffen brings to the Lions, it will give more perspective on why this trade is universally approved.

Film Room: Examining what Everson Griffen brings to the Detroit Lions

Lions Wire is back in the film room, this time examining what newly acquired EDGE Everson Griffen brings to the Detroit Lions.

Lions Wire is back in the film room, this time examining what newly acquired EDGE Everson Griffen brings to the Detroit Lions.

The Lions defensive philosophy has always centered around stopping the run first and pressuring the quarterback second. Their 3-3-5 scheme is designed to disguise where the fourth pass rusher is coming from, but for the first two years and four games of coach Matt Patricia’s tenure, their disguise has been fairly transparent.

But coming out of the Lions’ Week 5 bye, they shifted their approach upfront, have been extremely creative with their linebacker intentions/disguises and found ways to incorporate bigger defensive linemen on early downs.

This bigger approach to the defensive line has led to more success against the run and opened up more pass-rushing opportunities for EDGE rushers Trey Flowers and Romeo Okwara — and they’re getting to the ball.

In fact, the only flaw in the system right now is a lack of depth beyond Flowers and Okwara, as both reserve EDGE rushers are currently injured. Julian Okwara was placed on injured reserve and is out through at least Week 9 and Austin Bryant is practicing, but still on the PUP list while the team evaluates his health.

This lack of depth and re-focused attention for bigger bodies on the line led to general manager Bob Quinn searching the trade market for help, and he got it in a big way when he landed Griffen.

Griffen has a lot of similar traits to Flowers and Okwara, and his experience could fill a massive need with the Lions’ new approach.

In this film room, we’ve highlighted six plays from Griffen’s 2020 season with the Dallas Cowboys, that best illustrate a variety of ways he will be able to immediately contribute in Detroit.

Setting the edge against the run

  • Situation: 1st and 10, 4:28 into 1st quarter
  • Griffen: RDE, 7T
  • Assignment: Set the edge
  • Results: Sets the edge, reads the RB, pursues and makes the tackle

Note: Be sure to have your sound on the video for analysis 

Setting the edge against the pass

  • Situation: 1st and 10, 2:22 into the 3rd quarter
  • Griffen: RDE, 7T
  • Assignment: Set the edge 1st, rush the passer 2nd
  • Results: Engages TE, sets the edge, keys on the QB/RB exchange, recognizes pass, disengages from TE, gets a QB hit

Pass rushing from the 9-technique

  • Situation: 3rd and 4, 4:28 into the 1st quarter
  • Griffen: LDE, Wide-9
  • Assignment: Rush the passer
  • Results: Power to speed pass rush against the RT, pursue, and sack

Pass-rushing from the 7-technique

  • Situation: 3rd and 13, 4:08 into the 3rd quarter
  • Griffen: RDE, 7T
  • Assignment: Rush the passer
  • Results: Stresses the LT’s outside shoulder, gets upfield with speed to power, disengages, and sack

Pass-rushing from the 5-technique

  • Situation: 3rd and 9, 8:06 into the 3rd quarter
  • Griffen: RDE, 5T
  • Assignment: Rush the passer
  • Results: Takes on LG with swim move, recognizes screen, tracks the ball, and makes the tackle on the WR

Pass-rushing from the 3-technique

  • Situation: 3rd and 16, 9:45 into the 3rd quarter
  • Griffen: 3T
  • Assignment: Rush the passer
  • Results: Attacks the A-gap, escapes the wash, redirects pursuit, pressures the QB, forces the incompletion with a QB hit

Conclusion

Griffen has the size (6-3, 273), speed (4.6 seconds 40 y/d), strength combination the Lions love to lean on in their edge rushers, and the positional versatility to allow the Lions to run the same scheme with him on the field.

Once he clears the COVID-19 protocols, he will likely find the field quickly, and as a 10-year veteran, he should have no time getting up to speed.

He will shift from a starting role in Dallas (roughly 55-percent of snaps) to a reserve role in Detroit, but he has the talent to be an impactful player — even if only as a pass rusher early. His 2.5 sacks and 18 quarterback pressures put him second on the Lions defense, behind only Okwara.

He may not be the havoc seeker we saw in Minnesota, but there is plenty of juice left in the tank, especially coming into a situation where he won’t be asked to hold down a starting role and can instead focus his efforts/energy on situational work.