For a dude known as The Terminator, for a man who will punch you in the mouth and "choke you out," John Cominsky makes a lot of people smile. No one more than Dan Campbell, who has to wipe a grin off his face almost every time he starts talking about the "unsung hero" of the Lions' defensive line.
"Oh, man. Commish, he’s kind of the secret sauce to all of it," Campbell said earlier this month. "He’s got his lunch pail and his hard hat and he just comes in and puts in a damn good day’s worth of work."
"I think that’s who I am," Cominsky said this week, "and I think it’s who I’ve been destined to be."
In a rebuild that began two years ago, Campbell and Brad Holmes have placed a premium on tough, selfless players. One might call this grit. It oozes out of draft picks like Penei Sewell and Amon-Ra St. Brown, free agent signings like Alex Anzalone and Charles Harris, even trade acquisition Jared Goff. It's no mistake that all five of them were voted captains this season -- and it's no coincidence that Cominsky fits right in. If Campbell is happiest "in the mud," Cominsky makes the dirty work shine.
"He really values those kind of players, they’re all over this team," Cominsky said. "Kalif Raymond on the opposite side on offense, similar guy, and that’s how we’re winning games right now. This league’s getting away from being a hard-nosed league and they’re protecting the quarterback a lot, but we’re still bringing the physicality to the game that I think a lot of defenses are losing."
In his second game with the Lions, Cominsky played through what he would call a "mushy" thumb, sealing their Week 2 win over Washington last season with a sack. It was mushy because it was mangled. Cominsky underwent surgery, returned to the lineup a few games later and reclaimed his regular role on defense -- do everything up front -- in the Lions' 15-9 win over the Packers that sparked their second-half surge. He played the rest of the season with his hand in a giant white club, like he was dishing out angry servings of Hamburger Helper.
"That's who we are," said defensive tackle Alim McNeill. "That mentality, that kind of commitment, Commish out there with a big club, can’t even feel his hand and he’s still playing. Like, what’s the excuse? We’ve built ourselves as a team off being like that. We don’t care what the circumstances are, we’re just gonna go out here and do what we need to do."
Cominsky does what needs to be done, whether it gets noticed or not. A lot of his contributions transcend the stat sheet. They are celebrated for this very reason by his coaches and teammates. Center Frank Ragnow was wearing a 'Commish' T-shirt in the locker room on Wednesday -- because "he gave me the T-shirt," Ragnow quipped. Ragnow, who has a mind for the game, wasn't kidding when he said this:
"He sets up a lot of things for our defensive line that a lot of people don’t notice. And also, when he’s one-on-one with a guy, he can win a lot of reps. I think he's super, super underrated for what we do on defense."
Hardly anyone had heard of John Cominsky when he arrived in Detroit last spring, claimed off waivers from the Falcons. He was a literal nobody as a high school recruit from the outskirts of Akron, he played at Division II University of Charleston, which had produced two NFL players prior to Cominsky, and he started one game in three seasons with Atlanta. Motivated by a "fresh start" with the Lions, Cominsky forged his way onto the roster, up the depth chart and ultimately into the starting lineup by attacking everything and everyone in front of him.
"Commish, we call him Terminator," said Harris, a defensive end. "He’s a non-stop engine, non-stop warrior. He gives you everything he's got, in practice, games, don’t matter what it is it. If he’s gonna go, he’s gonna go, and that’s very aromatic. It's contagious. Guys pick up off of that and feed off that."
McNeill says Cominsky's impact is hard to explain. He struggles to even "put it into words." One thing he's sure of is this: there's no talking about Detroit's defense, which ranks sixth in the NFL this season and third against the run, without talking about Cominsky. McNeill, 23, said he tries to "model myself personally in certain things that Commish does on the field," namely his take-no-prisoners approach.
"That’s the attitude you gotta have out there. He’s violent, he don’t care, he'll choke you out. And he makes plays, that's what Commish does. And even if he's not making a play, Commish is destroying somebody somewhere else so that somebody can make a play. That mentality is everything. He embodies that. He's football, he's a football guy. That’s what everybody likes about him. You’re gonna get punched in the mouth every day if you’re out there in front of him."
This season alone, Cominsky has lined up in every position on the defensive line. (He's also pitched in on special teams, because why not?) He does the bulk of his work on passing downs, often freeing up rushers like Harris and Aidan Hutchinson to get to the quarterback.
Not that Cominsky doesn't get there himself. The Lions forced a punt on their first defensive drive of the season when Cominsky shed Pro Bowl guard Joe Thuney like a snakeskin and tackled Patrick Mahomes by his ankles just as he was escaping the pocket. Detroit scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive.
"He’s like the uncle who be chillin' at the barbecue but if you get him mad, he's gonna tear the whole place up," Harris laughed. "He’s like that cool, laid-back individual, but Commish, when you say anything about football, or you say anything about third and short, he’s wired."
When Cominsky says he wants to restore violence to football, Harris says it's "nothing short of what he's actually doing." When McNeill says Cominsky's attitude permeates the defense, he says it's "because we all watch him, everybody sees it, every coach knows it, too. Everybody knows who 79 is out there: he's gonna give it his all and somebody getting hit."
"Man, it's a huge impact," said McNeill.
Cominsky's two best games with the Lions have come under the Lambeau lights. No wonder people like him. He had seven QB pressures and a sack in Detroit's dominant in Week 4, and a huge two-point conversion stop just when the Packers were poised to make it a one-score game. Cominsky fought off guard Jon Runyan and then tackled Jordan Love at the goal line, as Runyan was all but tackling him. He had five pressures and a forced fumble in last year's season finale, after which Cominsky publicly beseeched the Lions to "please bring me back."
The Lions happily obliged with a two-year, $8.5 million deal. Five games into his second season in Detroit, Cominsky is third on the team in QB pressures behind Hutchinson and Harris and tied for first with Hutchinson in QB hits. He and Harris were teammates for a season in Atlanta, before Harris came to Detroit and revived his career. A year later, Cominsky did the same. To Harris, Cominsky is the same player with "a different mind frame."
"He has a place where he can bloom," Harris said. "Like when I first got here in Detroit, I think it was just a great form of soil that we could sprout within. And that’s something that we both take advantage of, like, man, we love the environment, love the coaches, love our teammates, love the defense, love the system, love everything about the city. And you put the right seeds in the right soil, it’s going to grow. I think that’s something that me and Commish have both been fruitful and lucky to be placed into."
Cominsky, 27, doesn't care for the credit, but he deserves it. He just wants to be a player his teammates and coaches can trust. If they can count on him, Cominsky says he's "doing my job." He happens to have several of them on the Lions' defensive line, from rushing as the big end to gobbling up blocks inside. Campbell calls him "one of the keys to setting up our rush game when we get in third down."
"He’s physical, he’s got push, he can separate and he can play the run, so he’s a little bit of the unsung hero for us on the D-line," Campbell said.
That's nice and all, but Cominsky doesn't need the hero's label. He just wants to go to work, in a hard-working town. Following the Lions' most recent win over the Packers, Campbell singled out Cominsky as an example for his peers of "dependability and reliability." Now that's high praise.
"For coaches to recognize me that way, and for my teammates to recognize me that way, it’s a dream come true," Cominsky said.