Lions News

[-Deborah-]

Today's report:
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[ghandi]

Here was thinking Branch was having cramps...Turns out to be an actual calf injury not cramps.

[froot loops]

Branch came out of the Packer game with cramps not the Bill game.

[whatever_gong82]

‘It’s going to be legendary:’ Scottie Montgomery on why these Detroit Lions are built different

Besieged by injuries, the Lions plan to write their own story. The team's assistant head coach, Scottie Montgomery, explains to Go Long in Allen Park, Mich., why nobody is flinching.

Tyler Dunne
Dec 20

Detroit Lions assistant Head Coach Scottie Montgomery.jpg

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — All molded bread has been fully digested. Five days after surrendering 48 points and losing another round of key starers to injuries, these Detroit Lions are loving the earthy-sour aftertaste, too. Dan Campbell started the week with an analogy for the ages. He’s stressing the positive in a team crashing back to earth after 11 straight wins. Carlton Davis, David Montgomery, Alim McNeill and Khalil Dorsey all joined the walking wounded.


It’s true. Everything is still in front of this team.


Beat the flailing Chicago Bears (4-10) and San Francisco 49ers (6-8) these next two weeks, and the Lions are back-to-back division champs for the first time in 70 years.

Top it all off with a Week 18 win vs. Minnesota and the road to the Super Bowl goes through Ford Field. (They’d savor that bye week, too.)


Still, it’s also true that the Lions are lapping the rest of the NFL when it comes to the number of players on injured reserve. Campbell cannot ball up a handful of mud and slap it on his players’ wounds like Phil Swift in those Flex Tape commercials. This is an extreme talent drain. Go Long drove out to Michigan this week to make sense of this team at this time — expect a lengthy feature around Christmas. On Friday, I sat down Campbell’s right-hand man: assistant head coach/running backs coach Scottie Montgomery.

From a leather chair inside the Lions’ team lobby, leaning forward, pen in hand, Montgomery did his best to explain why these Lions are built to withstand such a mass exodus of contributors. He’s also close with David Montgomery, a running back playing for more than himself in 2024, and believes there’s a good chance we see the rugged RB1 again this season. Nobody should interpret Campbell’s bravado as bluster. As Montgomery details, the head man believes every word he says privately and publicly.


Our full conversation is below.

Most teams battered to this degree probably would wilt through Christmas.

The Lions do not believe they’re most teams.



This is a team obviously going through it right now. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this covering the league. These injuries. Have you ever experienced anything close to this?


Montgomery: You know, it’s crazy because I think what people are feeling on the outside is something totally than what we’re feeling on the inside.


How so?


Montgomery: We’re happy for the opportunities for other people. We’re really sad that we’ve lost some very critical and key pieces, but we were kind of built for this from the beginning. This wasn’t a team that put together with the thought process that we couldn’t handle adversity. And a lot of people think this is a lot. It’s a lot if you’re heavy-loaded at the top end of your roster. From a coaching standpoint, if you’ve only coached the guys that are on the field you didn’t do your job. We feel like we’ve done our job. We coach our offensive show team like it’s our offense. We coach our defensive show team, like it’s our defense. So there’s no worries about guys coming in and having a mental error or not playing at a certain level because of talent. We pushed that talent level up with Brad (Holmes). He’s pushed it up to be right there competing with the guys that were in there. So I think it’s a narrative that may be real. But on the inside of the building, man, we’re looking forward to this challenge of letting these young men who’ve done a great job this year so far, get in there and compete. And then at the same time we’re also looking forward to some of our guys being able to make it back. So it’s kind of a healthy balance of that.


“Culture” is thrown around way too often, but it is real here — what was built from the ground up. Only three players from 2021 are still on the roster. This thing has been churning and churning, but what’s built here can withstand a hurricane. Pick your natural disaster. What does that look like? What does it feel like? What is really ingrained where we’re sitting right now?


Montgomery: First thing that we do is we carry our pads. A lot of people — when you get to this level — the pads are not being carried as much as we carry our pads. We carry our pads in camp, we carry our pads during the season. We’re in 1-on-1 situations during the season. We do feel like “iron sharpens iron” and we feel like we’ve continued to sharpen our axe as we go through this. So that’s what it looks like. It’s pure competition between our 1’s and 1’s, our 2’s and 1’s, and our 2’s and 2’s. Everybody is competing. Our coaches offensively, defensively, we’re competing on Friday. We’re competing today. We have a red-zone period. We’re going to compete our ass off. That’s what it looks like. We’re not passive by any means here. This is an organization and a coaching staff and — driven by our players — we like stepping up to the challenge. We want to be in the championship rounds. We want it to be as difficult as it possibly can because we don’t feel like people around the league are willing to do what we do from March to now.



When you say “carry pads,” are you saying wearing pads at practice?


Montgomery: Absolutely. We wear our pads. We don’t leave them in the locker room and then think that we’re going to be physical on Sunday. That’s just not what we do. Now, we do that all inside of the restraints of what the CBA will allow us to do. But we’re going to get the work that we’re supposed to get and that’s not from us. The crazy part of it is, our guys will come to us and say, “Hey, we got 1-on-1’s. Let me get two snaps. Let me get three snaps of pass pro.” And it is weird: “Can I get a 1-on-1 rep at the receiver-DB position where it’s 1-on-1 throwing and catching.” So our guys, it may have taken us a while to get where we are now, but I will say that this team embodies the head football coach. They really see eye-to-eye with him and that’s critical.

Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell_2024 season.jpg


What is that fine line? Because I was just sitting down with Sean Rhyan out in Green Bay. He’s an animal. He was giving it to the defense in camp and Matt LaFleur ripped him after practice. But you’ve also got to condition the body for combat. You’ve got to callous the mind. How far can you really push it as a team in a padded practice?


Montgomery: First of all, these guys are the best players in the world. They’re the best athletes in the world. And because we have a staff with so many former players we know that we got better by the callous part of it. But we also know that there’s things that we can do to be fresh and calloused. So I think you’ve got guys in every room damn near that have done it at this level and have coached at this level a long time. We understand the demands that we’re putting on our body. We also have created spaces for them to be a little bit more successful with taking care of their bodies, whether we’re starting practice later, starting meetings later. Our fueling station is our nutritional department. There is a fine line and we continue to try to find that — how tight can we get to it on both sides? How much rest can we push them to, how much physicality can we have? And then how do we go out and execute our plan with both of those in mind. I think that’s what comes to mind for us more than anything: How do we go execute a plan on Sunday but get the best value out of our physicality and our freshness. And that’s why we have great people in the building watching what the coaches are doing as well.


You guys played, so you can relate. This week, Dan goes on 97.1 and is saying, “Hey, enough of the filet mignon. We’ve got to remember what it’s like to eat that molded bread.” Privately, what is he saying to set the tone?


Montgomery: We are who we are. We got here with grit. We got here with the chip on our shoulder. We’ve maintained that but also it’s good to see how many people that were with us 60 minutes ago and think that — because a guy goes down or this guy goes down — the core of our team is not built from a culture standpoint and people can’t step in. You guys have seen it. We’ve brought in guys from outside of the building and the culture is so strong that immediately you see these guys playing quickly at a high level with great intensity. And as far as coach is concerned, he understands how to speak to us to get us to understand that we’re in the middle of a season. We’re not reactionary. We respond. And I think that’s what we’re in the process of doing.

continued...

[whatever_gong82]

And you said it — the team embodies him. Tangibly, what does that look like?


Montgomery: Man, he could tell them anything. And the reason why he can tell them anything is because everything that he tells them, he believes and it is true. He is going to do it. We go out and execute a plan. It’s not something that we’re getting out on the field and doing on the field. It’s not a “gut” decision. We talk about these situations throughout the week. So what that looks like is a complete investment through everybody. Once you give someone a certain level of value to where you can be transparent with them? And they know what’s going on? The buy-in happens. A lot of times people don’t buy in because there’s no investment from the person that’s trying to get the buy-in and to understand what’s going on. It’s just “do as I say, do what I say.” That’s not how it works here. Everything is planned. Our guys understand our plan on Wednesday. They understand what we’re going to do on Thursday. They understand our Friday red-zone plan and what our mentality is. So when it comes up in the game, there’s no question what we’re doing.

So you’re talking about buying in, yeah. He tells them it’s going to be a physical week, it’s going to be a physical week. They expect it. They understand it. So when he tells them, they believe it. And as a player, that’s all you really want. You want somebody that can get you better. Cut all the other stuff out. Coach to player and player to coach, at the end of the day, it is “Can you get me better?” And his track record has shown — even before he got here — that he got players better. He gets guys better. Rookies, he knows how to push their buttons. Vets, he knows how to push their buttons. And it’s not “pushing buttons” from being critical or being demeaning. He’s demanding, there’s no doubt. But he just knows what to do to get them over the hump.


Is there a story, an analogy, a speech in these walls that resonated to you? We’ve heard a few obviously.


Montgomery: I thought what he said about the filet mignon and the molded bread says everything to who he is. When you think about that, there’s joy in that part of the molded bread. There’s joy because you got all the sustenance you need and it reminds you constantly of where you came from. And that story, when I heard it, it’ll quickly take you down memory lane. And I know for all of our players — immediately — it’s a humbling factor. There’s two ways you can be humbled. You can listen to someone humble you and make you understand, or the only other way you can be humbled is humiliation. And we are at a point where we’re not humiliated by any means. Our head coach, our coaches, they have the way of just using certain things like that story to ground us. So I think that was a great grounding point for us. And now we’re ready to run. Ready to go.


Before you got here, Dan was 4-19-1 at one point. There’s a lot of NFL owners that say, “OK, you’re done” at that point. Where this team was, where this coach was, I got to know David Long Jr. and his life story’s unbelievable. He was going to be a captain for the Dolphins, and he’s cut. Many of the individuals here have been in that “molded bread” state.


Montgomery: Love it. A bunch of us. Most of the people that are in this building — damn near all of us — we’ve been fired, we’ve been cut, we’ve been traded, and we came together. We came together with somebody that understands what that is like. To the utmost. And we were just ready at the right time. It really did come together at the right time for us here. So we’re looking forward to closing this thing out.


You were fired by ECU in college, and you also went to a Super Bowl with the Steelers.


Montgomery: Yep, been through it. Seen it all. Multiple guys that played at a high level for me, seen careers change, but it’s truly about the building. It’s truly about the building. It doesn’t matter. The people that are in the building is what makes it. And this building has been put together really, really well.


Are we going to see David Montgomery again?


Montgomery: I think you will. I saw him today. I saw him yesterday.


I should say on field.


Montgomery: (laughs) Hopefully so. He’s working his butt off and it’ll be evaluated. We’re in this wait-and-see moment. But some other guys are ready for the challenge as well. But we’re in a wait-and-see, tread-water position. But if I know anything about anybody that could come back — if anybody could make it back — it’s him. He’s too strong mentally and physically.


Dan said you’re going to write your “own story.” What is that story that you plan to write as a team?


Montgomery: The one thing that our guys understand now, especially after this week, is that we have the pen. It’s our ink. It’s going to be legendary. I really do feel that. Every hit, every tackle, every sack we have is a chance for us to write the chapter and the ending the way that we want it. I do think it’s going to be legendary. I feel it.



State of the 2024 Detroit Lions, with Justin Rogers

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Good morning! And greetings from Lions Country, where the injuries are piling up to epic proportions.

Read full story


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