The 2021 season is a wrap and the Detroit Lions are already looking towards the 2022 campaign.
Following the conclusion of a season, NFL teams like to conduct exit interviews with their players to get a feel for how the season went from their point of view. Theoretically, the team will then use this data to adjust and improve before the next season starts.
As expected, the Lions players had great things to say about the team management and how it helped them to develop as players.
Here is what some of the players had to say.
Michael Brockers
“When it comes to taking care of our bodies, they understand where our mental headspace is throughout the week,” Brockers said. “Some weeks he was like, ‘Man, we’re gonna dial it down a little bit, we’re gonna walkthrough.’ Stuff like that. Players appreciate that, because so many coaches in this league, they don’t play the game. They haven’t played at this level. When they’re just working you, working you, working you. They don’t understand the stress that you go through throughout the week and these coaches do. So that’s why the guys love playing for these coaches.”
T.J. Hockenson
“He played tight end in the league for a long time and just being able to get his knowledge on things and what he did well and just trying to take tidbits from him and continue that just to move forward,” Hockenson said. “He’s done a really good job with me. We’ve obviously built a really good connection over the last year, just continuing to build that. Hopefully, we’ll be here for a while.”
Amani Oruwariye
“Just his love for the game, and his level of knowledge is remarkable,” Oruwariye said. “Obviously he’s played in the league, he’s done his thing really well, six-time Pro Bowler I think [editor’s note: it was three]. So any kind of information I can get from him is valuable to me. I just like picking his brain. He used to play DB and he was a DB coach, so sometimes he misses actually getting hands-on coaching the guys so I just like pulling him to the side and talking to him.”
Frank Ragnow
“I can’t say enough about him as a coach,” Ragnow said. “How he coaches us, how he communicates, how he keeps everybody ready and coaches everybody the same. It’s incredible, man.”
These comments bode well for the Lions as they head into free agency. Players around the league talk and you can bet quite a few soon to be free agents will strongly consider heading to Detroit.
