5 days Ago
Twelve days after he was acquired in a trade with the Cleveland Browns, edge rusher Za’Darius Smith finally made his Detroit Lions debut. The veteran tallied a team-high three pressures, a sack and a stop on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in his first game in Honolulu blue, per Pro Football Focus. That all came in 37 snaps, a pretty decent workload, considering Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Smith could be on a pitch count early on with Detroit and the fact that Sunday’s game got out of hand early.
Follow us on Facebook Related: PFF player grades: Top performers in Detroit Lions dismantling of Jaguars On Monday, Campbell was asked what he thought of Smith’s debut and said he liked what he saw. “Yeah, I thought he did some good things for us, it was good to have him out there. Really, like we talked about last week, just be a piece of this puzzle,” Campbell said.
The coach noted that Smith, 32, can do a lot of different things and just adds another element to Detroit’s defense. “He’s a guy that’s played, he is instinctive, he doesn’t stay blocked long, he’s really good with his hands, like I said, he’s can set an edge in the run game, he’s really good at working games with (Alim McNeill) and (D.J.
Reader) and those guys, he’s just got a knack for those things. So I think, first outing with him, man, I thought it was good. I think he fits right in with us.
” Smith and the Lions will head to Indianapolis to play the Colts this weekend. Related: Lions put Anzalone on IR, activate Melifonwu despite setback Related: New Detroit Lions edge rusher Za'Darius Smith excited to join contender, hopes to play Sunday © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.
