The Detroit Lions made a handful of personnel changes for their Week 3 game against the New York Jets, and a pair of them earned more playing time moving forward after putting up strong performances.<\/p>\n
Lions coach Dan Campbell spoke to the media on Monday morning following his re-watch of the team\u2019s 31-24 victory over the Jets, and he noted that both linebacker Trevor Nowaske and cornerback Ennis Rakestraw played well enough in their expanded roles on Sunday to earn more time on the field.<\/p>\n
Nowaske played in half of the defensive snaps\u2014more than any linebacker not named Jack Campbell or Derrick Barnes, usurping the role from Devin White\u2014and Dan Campbell was very clear why.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowaske just does everything right. He just does,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cHe\u2019s been doing that now for a while, came in, had a really good camp, and he\u2019s a very disciplined player. He\u2019s grown a ton since he\u2019s been here, and just turned himself into a real solid player. He just does things right, man. You know that whole thing that we talk about: be where you\u2019re supposed to be when you\u2019re supposed to be there? That\u2019s him. He\u2019s exactly where he\u2019s supposed to be when he\u2019s supposed to be there. He makes plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowaske\u2019s discipline was fully on display against the Jets. Campbell pointed to a play in the red zone, where Geno Smith pitched it out to the fast and elusive Breece Hall, and Nowaske was ready for the perimeter run play. He chased Hall down for no gain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave him that rep in practice the other day\u2014coaches did a great job\u2014he yawned at it,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cAnd then when we get in the game, same thing. He doesn\u2019t miss a beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the amount of missed assignments and failed run fits against the Bills, Nowaske brought assignment-sound play that helped the Lions hold the Jets to just 58 rushing yards and 3.1 yards per carry after Buffalo rushed for over 200 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to continue to get opportunities because he\u2019s earned that,\u201d Campbell continued. \u201cHe\u2019s a valuable special teams player for us, and there\u2019s a role on defense where he can help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Rakestraw, the Lions\u2019 2024 second-round pick was in the game situationally against the Jets. When the Lions moved to nickel sets, they kicked Roger McCreary inside and brought Rakestraw in to play the outside. Per PFF, Rakestraw allowed just a single catch on four targets, and he had an impressive pass breakup against Jets No. 1 receiver Garrett Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u201cRakestraw, I thought, showed up,\u201d Campbell said, unprompted. \u201cHe\u2019s going to get more ops here. I thought he showed up. That was promising.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about how they may expand Rakestraw\u2019s role, he said the plan is still to keep him on the outside, but he wouldn\u2019t rule out eventually giving him reps at the nickel, too. Ultimately, he just believes that because Rakestraw still hasn\u2019t had a ton of playing time, there\u2019s still a chance he can bloom into a valuable, regular contributor. He was even encouraged by some of the growth Rakestraw showed through training camp, prior to an ankle injury that sidelined him late.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Rake\u2019s got a chance, man,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cHe\u2019s got the ability, and he wants to do it right. He works at it, and I do. I think the more opportunities he gets, the better he\u2019ll get.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week, both players will have their hands full with a Carolina Panthers offense that has been explosive at times this year. They are currently fifth in points scored, averaging 29.7 points per game and lead the league in passing yards per game (295.7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions made a handful of personnel changes for their Week 3 game against the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[4992,4993,349,99],"class_list":["post-864723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-detroit-lions-quotes","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}