Not many wide receivers have blocking highlights on YouTube. Hines Ward does. "Everybody studies Hines Ward blocking clips," said Kalif Raymond. Ward, the four-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champ, is roundly considered the best blocking wide receiver of all time.
"Him, Steve Smith was a little tenacious guy, too. But the best in the league," said Raymond, nodding in the direction of Amon-Ra St. Brown, "is probably that joker over there. I mean, everybody knows Hines Ward, that’s a guy who was taking people’s heads off. Goodness gracious. My No. 2 is (St. Brown), for sure."
The mantra in the Lions' wide receivers room is well known, hammered home the last few years by former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson: No Block, No Rock. Receivers coach and assistant head coach Scottie Montgomery isn't letting the standard slip. Montgomery had Ward in his room for two years when he was receivers coach for the Steelers.
"Some of the things we used to ask him to do," said Montgomery, "very similar to what we ask Saint to do."
The Lions rushed for 224 yards Monday night in their win over the Ravens, second most in regulation of the Dan Campbell era, because their offensive line and tight ends paved the way for David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs and because their wide receivers wanted in on the fun. It wasn't just a few persistent perimeter blocks like the one Jameson Williams laid in the fourth quarter on Montgomery's game-sealing touchdown. The pass-catchers were often going to work in the trenches.
On one of Montgomery's longest runs of the Lions' 98-yard touchdown drive, Williams lined up on the left shoulder of Taylor Decker and took on defensive end Odafe Oweh despite giving up more than 80 pounds in the battle, while St. Brown, lined up to the right of Penei Sewell, chucked Kyle Hamilton to the turf when the All-Pro safety came crashing toward the line. As Montgomery powered past, someone on Detroit's sideline someone yelled, "Yeahhhh, Saint!"
On Montgomery's 72-yard dash through the teeth of the Ravens' defense that sparked the Lions' 96-yard touchdown drive, Raymond sealed off the hole by cracking Hamilton so loudly that it popped on the TV broadcast. Hamilton is 6'4; Raymond, on a good day, 5'8. With Hamilton coming downhill, Raymond's thought process was pure: "If I don’t make this block, this play doesn’t go."
"You feel that," he said, "so there is no hesitation. The play’s coming to your side, so I’d rather be a catalyst to the play going 72 yards than be the issue as to why it got stopped in the backfield."
Raymond was quick to note that his block was just "one of many" on the play, "because the line ended up taking all their guys to the left, which was crazy. It happened on the first touchdown, too. Me and Saint had to go down, but the line had smushed everybody."
Indeed, when Gibbs plunged into the end zone from one yard out to give the Lions a 7-0 lead, his lead blocker was St. Brown. Raymond was right in front of St. Brown, sparring with corner Marlon Humphrey. The big boys on the line did most of the work, but as Troy Aikman said on the TV broadcast, "If you're gonna play wide receiver, not only do you have to be able to catch the ball in this offense, you better be able to block -- and be a willing blocker."
Raymond was cut 16 times while playing for four different teams over the first five years of his career. He's found a home with the Lions. He's one of three vets imported by Campbell and Brad Holmes in year one of the rebuild who remains on the roster, along with Jared Goff and Alex Anzalone. He's a jittery receiver and an All-Pro punt returner. He also lights up when talking about blocking. It's more of a chore than an art. It's also a choice, said Raymond, "because the decision has to be made beforehand."
"If you try to go make that decision while you’re there, then you’re probably gonna make the wrong one," he said. "But honestly, I love it. Especially if you like to hit a little bit, it wakes you up, gets the game going, now you feel a little pain, a little blood on your lip, you’re like, 'Alright, loud, it’s time to go play ball.'"
Raymond is straight from the old school. He likes to watch film from "back in the day, when ball was just different." One of his favorite plays of all time is Ed Reed on special teams, mic'd up and sprinting down field to level a player on punt block. The "big, blow-up" blocks that Ward was known for aren't "really allowed anymore," Raymond said, which is partly why he appreciates St. Brown's blocking style: It's just relentless.
"It's something that has been established here for a while. And when that knucklehead puts it on film, it’s hard for everybody in the room to not know what the standard is," Raymond said.
In fact, Raymond's favorite play of the Ravens game was "play (No.) seven." With the Lions in the red zone on their opening drive, St. Brown ran a little slant out of the slot and star linebacker Roquan Smith "tried to, like, kill him coming across the middle," Raymond said. St. Brown dodged it at the last second as Goff threw to the boundary to Gibbs, then turned right around and took a run at Smith.
"He goes back and chases him. Like, it’s a linebacker! I called him laughing, I’m like, 'You maniac! That’s a linebacker.' He saw the ball was caught and he was like, 'Alright, now I get to go block, and went back to go hit him.' It was by far my favorite play of the game, because he showed, like, 'I have no fear. You try to hit me, but now it’s my turn.' He’s a different breed," said Raymond.
Scottie Montgomery has spent 12 years in the NFL as a player or a coach. As a group, the Lions' wide receivers are "by far, from top to bottom, the best that I’ve been around" when it comes to blocking, he said. It's not lip service to say they block from the first play to the last. On the final play of Detroit's clinching drive Monday night, Williams was down the field clearing David Montgomery's path to the end zone.
Williams, who just signed an $80 million extension, hadn't caught a pass since the first drive of the game. In a "situation like that," said Scottie Montgomery, "especially guys that are directly connected to winning games with catching the football in an explosive manner, when they get an opportunity to block the next time, you can find out a lot about him."
"And we found a lot about his growth and production," said Montgomery. "As he went through the game his blocking continued to pick up. Springing David for that last one was a huge deal for our football team because it spoke to the selfless nature that Dan has brought here, and just the ability for the whole team to win."
A different star receiver in the same position might have moped or pouted or withdrawn from the game. He might have started yapping on the sideline. He might have fit the stereotype of a diva. Not Williams, because that's not how the Lions roll.
"It’s a credit to the room, it’s a credit to Saint, it’s a credit to Leaf," said Montgomery. "Guys knowing that they’re going in to get a job done that doesn't necessary have a stat connected to it. There’s no Great Block stats. That is the one stat that is a team stat. That touchdown is a team stat. The yardage that we gained right there is a team stat."
Prior to the snap on Raymond's favorite play of the game, the Monday Night Football broadcast was highlighting St. Brown. He has the most catches in the NFL since he entered the league. He has the third most touchdowns and the fifth most yards over the last four seasons. And "he's the anti-diva," said Joe Buck, "he blocks, he's a great teammate."
"Jared Goff would take him over everybody. If you put them all in a big draft, he’d take 14."
Then the All-Pro wide receiver lowered his head and rammed into an All-Pro linebacker.