ALLEN PARK, Mich. — The Detroit Lions have removed defensive end Ziggy Ansah from the active/physically unable to perform list.
The Lions announced the move Monday. They have not said what injury caused Ansah to go on the PUP list.
Ansah hasn’t played a full 16 games since the 2015 season. He is back with the Lions for this season on the franchise tag.
Ansah played in 14 games last season and finished with 12 sacks, including three each against the Giants, Bengals and Packers. Detroit drafted him in the first round in 2013.
Ryan, who was slated to start at inside linebacker, was carted off from practice with the injury. It is likely he will miss the 2018 season.
The injury occurred during an 11-on-11 drill late in Sunday’s practice. Ryan pounded his fist on the ground as he received medical attention.
The injury will accelerate the need for rookie third-round pick Oren Burks to play a bigger role on defense. Also, defensive back Quinten Rollins has worked at inside linebacker in the sub packages, and the Packers are high on undrafted rookie linebacker Greer Martini of Notre Dame.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Ty Montgomery showed up to training camp in style last week, when he rolled into St. Norbert College in a bright yellow Polaris Slingshot and looked ready to put the disappointment of last season behind him. Perhaps that’s why it took him so long to come up with the right word or two to describe what his 2017 felt like.
Five seconds passed. Then 10.
Finally, Montgomery offered this: “A frustrating misunderstanding. That’s the way I would put it.”
It was supposed to the Green Bay Packers running back’s first full season at his new position. Instead, it turned into an injury-shortened year that fueled more questions about whether the converted receiver could handle the switch.
The frustration came from this: Early in the season, his transition looked complete when after three games he led all NFL running backs in playing time with 23 more snaps than the second-most-used back, Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott, even while he nursed a wrist injury. Then came a rib injury — multiple broken ribs he says now — that took him out of action for a week. He returned to play four more games before he took another shot to the ribs.
His season was over after eight games, but this is where he believes the misunderstanding comes in. It wasn’t the ribs that ended his season but rather the wrist that eventually required surgery, and he believes people simply chalked it up to a lack of toughness and durability needed to play running back.
“I think there’s a lot of people who assumed or never expected me to be able to do it anyway, but I don’t think a lot of people understand what I was playing through or what I was doing,” Montgomery said. “And they questioned my durability or my abilities. There’s nothing I can do about breaking my ribs. I don’t know how many guys could play running back with broken ribs. It was just unfortunate. I was ready to have a big year.”
Instead, then-rookies Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones emerged as starting-caliber running backs, leaving Montgomery as a near afterthought. That is, until this offseason, when based on how snaps were divided during OTA and minicamp practices it once again became apparent that Montgomery remains a significant part of coach Mike McCarthy’s running-back-by-committee plan.
“I feel really good about the running back group,” McCarthy said. “I think Ty’s transition has been pretty special. Not only what he’s done from a position change but you look what he’s done to prepare himself — you look at his body and the added muscle that he’s put on. Ty and just the other young guys, I think it’s going to be a very, very competitive position.”
It’s also a critical year for Montgomery, who’s in the final season of his rookie contract. His first task is to show he can stay healthy — something he has done in only one of his three NFL seasons.
After that, it’s all about what he can do for the offense.
Perhaps the committee approach will help in both regards. Although no one will say what that actually means in terms of reps, early in camp Williams has gotten the bulk of the work with the starters during normal down-and-distance situations while Montgomery has handled the two-minute and no-huddle drives where his receiving skills could come back into play. Jones, who must serve a two-game suspension to the start the season, dropped out after two practices with a hamstring injury.
“I mean, I feel as though I’ve put some good things on film, but every year is a big year,” Montgomery said. “I think what’s important for me now is being healthy and being on the field while healthy. I think it would obviously benefit me if I don’t have to play through an injury and I can just be myself. Having a son in the picture now, my wife and I, I have a new perspective on a lot of things. Call it motivation. Call it whatever you want, but I have a difference in my purpose that feels natural.”
Ever the positive thinker, Montgomery admitted even he needed a boost last season when the injuries set in. That’s when practice squad linebacker Ahmad Thomas, one of his good friends on the team, stepped in.
“He sent me something, the Chinese Farmer Parable — where [when something happens] you don’t know what’s good or bad,” Montgomery said. “Outside looking in, obviously it sucks to get injured. The positive is before I got injured, the younger guys weren’t getting very many reps. I remember seeing a stat where I had more snaps than any back in the league. The positive that comes from it is now we know what we have in these two guys.
“It opened up the conversation of what more can we do with Ty? I think that’s a positive that comes from this. He doesn’t just have to play running back; he can do both.”
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Matt Patricia had players lay down on the ground, offense on one side, defense on the other. At the whistle, they popped back up and the offensive player — the ball carrier — then had to try to beat the defensive player one-on-one.
On the first padded day of Detroit Lions practice Sunday, they ran a modified version of the Oklahoma drill — just one example of the physicality and intensity under Patricia, the first-year Lions head coach, who is trying to change the culture of a team that hasn’t won a division title since 1993.
To do so, Patricia said at some point the Lions will tackle to the ground — a stark difference from former coach Jim Caldwell, who rarely had live tackling during practices. Patricia does want to keep his players upright for the most part, but he recognizes there are times that tackling has to happen.
Just to be prepared.
“At some point you have to go live. You have to be able to experience that both offensively and defensively because you don’t want to do it for the first time in a game,” Patricia said. “You have to be able to get in good position. There’s certainly a manner in which we can practice in pads where we can thud each other up and be in a good hit position and know that from the strike standpoint everything is clean and we’re in good space but then not really follow through or try to finish at that exact moment.
“But at some point you have to transition into the finish and be able to make sure you understand what that feels like and that we’re doing it the right way.”
It led to Patricia calling Sunday “the most exciting day of the year,” because it’s the first time his team is able to put on pads and actually have more consistent contact. It’s also the first time he had a team under his control in pads for the first time.
Patricia said while working in pads is something that is made a big deal of, he believes players should always want to play in pads for both protection and to get used to it since they’ll be wearing full pads during games. It also forces players to get to another conditioning level because of some restrictions pads place on players.
The potential for more tackling and contact is just one area where Patricia has changed Lions practices. Detroit does more running under Patricia than it did under Caldwell — including running laps for mistakes made in practice, something the defense had to do at least once Sunday.
On Friday, Patricia opened his first training camp practice by working on goal-line strategy because of the importance Patricia places on it in games. The Lions offensively struggled in goal-line and short-yardage situations in 2017, something general manager Bob Quinn said after the draft bothered him during Caldwell’s final season.
Now, as the pads go on, they can work on that even more. The players noticed an increased energy having pads on as well. The linemen can hit. The players move just a little faster. For the third straight day, practice ran at least two hours.
“It’s definitely physical and that’s what we want to be, a physical team,” receiver Marvin Jones said. “So we’re out here working hard and the most dominant team wins every Sunday, so that’s what we have to be and that’s how we practice.
