Coming off the left edge last week against the Titans, Al-Quadin Muhammad threw his hands into the chest of tackle JC Latham and drove the seventh overall pick into the turf and very nearly sacked Mason Rudolph. He nodded on Thursday and said, "That's me doing what I do best."
"You don’t have to worry about a guy playing the game with some nastiness, aggressiveness and strength," Dan Campbell said ahead of Muhammad's Lions debut.
Campbell knows Muhammad well. So does Aaron Glenn. They coached him in 2017 when he was a rookie with the Saints. Muhammad remembers Campbell, the Saints tight ends coach at the time, making the tight ends take one-on-one reps against Muhammad and the defensive ends: "That tough mentality was always there with him," Muhammad said.
He also remembers Campbell telling him that "the way I was practicing ... I would be a great player one day."
"Hearing that as a rookie," Muhammad said, "that gives you confidence that you're doing something right. It gives you that reassurance that whatever you're doing, keep doing. It meant a lot."
Seven years later, Muhammad and Campbell are reunited in Detroit. And Muhammad can prove Campbell right. The Lions signed him in October after losing Marcus Davenport for the season, just before losing Aidan Hutchinson to an injury of his own. Muhammad, who had been cut by the Cowboys at the end of training camp, worked out for several teams as he auditioned for a new job. He came to Detroit intending to stay.
"I had everything, I had my bags and stuff like that," he said with a smile. "I was prepared to be here."
He never left.
"This was my last stop," Muhammad said. "So I’m blessed and grateful for the opportunity. Sometimes it don’t come around, so I’m just taking advantage of it every day."
Muhammad has a real chance to carve out a role with the Lions in the weeks ahead, whether or not they trade for a defensive end ahead of Tuesday's deadline. His debut was a good start. In his first game since the 2022 season, Muhammad played with some power off the edge and generated a team-high six quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus.
"I think I played really physical and played fast," he said. "Fly around. But I'm definitely going to take it to another step."
That next step, Muhammad said, is "playing free. Week by week you just get more comfortable within the scheme and what the coaches are asking you to do."
As a pass rusher, the Lions want Muhammad to help them crush the pocket. He was pleased that he "got some good pressures, got a couple hits on the QB" against the Titans, but acknowledged "there's little, tedious, technical things that help you get there faster or just make the play a little bit cleaner."
"I’m super humble. There were some plays that I was like, 'OK, this is what it should look like for myself,' plays where I was getting after the tackle and stuff like that," Muhammad said. "Some other plays where it’s like, I could have done this a little bit better technique-wise. But other than that, I felt good about the performance and I’m excited for this week."
Glenn had a similar review of Muhammad's outing, noting there were "some rushes that you liked" and some plays in "the run game that you want him to improve on." Hutchinson was an underrated piece of Detroit's run defense, which has been vulnerable on the outside since he went down. Muhammad is no cure-all, of course, or he wouldn't have spent most of the last two seasons on practice squads. But he does have some NFL production to his name. He's played in 85 career games, and posted six sacks with the Colts in 2021.
Campbell, Glenn and the Lions like Muhammad's makeup, starting with his violence. And Muhammad loves the Lions' outlook after spending last season on the sidelines and toiling for the last-place Bears the year before that. He's played on three playoff teams in the NFL, but "some people play in this league and never make it to the playoffs," he said. Muhammad last made it in 2021, and had a sack in the Colts' only playoff win in the last 10 seasons.
He's on track to return in Detroit.
"It does feel good to be a part of an organization that’s doing things the right way," he said. "You’re playing for something, you know? It’s just awesome to be part of an organization that’s just working hard and doing the right things every day to try to get better. And that’s all we do, we try to take one day at a time and week by week and right now, the focus is just this week."
Last week, said Muhammad, "I was just knocking the rust off a little bit."
"This week, you guys are gonna see some great things out of me."