When the Lions were working on kickoff coverage during practice a couple weeks ago, linebacker Grant Stuard exhorted one of his rookie teammates to be better after allowing the returner to gain the edge. Stuard called it out, he said, because "if it's a multiple mistake or it's something that we were doing purposefully just to try to improve from the game then it's like, 'Hey, that cannot happen. We already talked about this in the meeting.'" When practice ended, Stuard was one of the last to leave the field after working with a small group of young players on their technique.
"I'm not necessarily a young guy anymore, but I've really shown that I know my job from a special teams perspective, and that I'm gonna be prepared and do my absolute best to execute to the highest level in that part of the game," he said. "And it's one of those things, man, if you choose to say anything in this world, I'm gonna speak my mind and add value as much as I can. That's what I try to do, especially on special teams. Coach Campbell just let me know, 'If you want to lead in that area, feel free to.' So he gave me the key to do that."
Once 'Mr. Irrelevant' in the 2021 draft, Stuard is now a captain in Detroit. His new teammates voted him one of their leaders on Monday, alongside Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson and Alex Anzalone: five pillars of a roster with Super Bowl ambitions and one newcomer. Stuard, 26, is a natural replacement for special teams ace and former captain Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who was released by Detroit in a cost-cutting move this offseason. He already talks, hits and plays like a Lion.
"Special teams is about effort and attitude and those are two things you can really control, and part of that is doing your job even if there might be an easy way out," he said. "Coach calls it, the wrong easy way versus the right hard way. Making that decision, in a split-second sometimes, is tough. But if you're a dog, man, you'll find your way out the mud."
The Lions were already deep at linebacker when they targeted Stuard in free agency, headlined by Anzalone, Jack Campbell and Derrick Barnes. They valued him for what he brings to a less heralded part of the game. Stuard had several suitors, including a couple of teams who told him he'd be a starter on defense, but "I had to ask myself, how good do I want to be? How much do I want to challenge myself? And if I want to be the best I can be, I need to go where the best is," he said.
The easy wrong way would have been prioritizing a place "for comfort," said Stuard. He could have chosen a city where he and his family already had a home, or a team for whom he had played in the past, or a coaching staff with familiar faces. Stuard chose the right hard way and signed a one-year, $1.7 million deal with the Lions.
"I'm not used to people believing in me, per se, in my NFL career," said Stuard, who spent his first season with the Buccaneers and his last three with the Colts. "I've kind of always been a back-burner, 53rd guy on the roster type of guy. I had to put in my mind that anywhere I go, I'm gonna start as fifth- or sixth-string (linebacker) and have to work my way up. But for me, at this point in my career, I'm not thinking about year five."
Instead, Stuard was thinking about how he might make it to, say, year 10. He looks around the league at veteran linebackers like Nick Vigil, Demario Davis, Elandon Roberts, Lavonte David and former Lion Nick Bellore, some of whom first made their name on special teams, "and a similar thing they've all had is that they went to teams that were good," forced themselves to get better and "tried to just become the best player they can be."
Stuard knew he'd be signing a one-year deal wherever he landed as a free agent. While he was hoping to have more money on the table, he understood why the offers were modest: "I feel like I'm not the best at my position, so who the hell am I to be like, 'Give me some more money'?" But his visit with Detroit "was like my wildest dreams," he said, "all the meetings were perfect," highlighted by the fact that the Lions tackle in practice. That appealed to Stuard because "that's one of the weaknesses of my game."
"It was before I arrived here," he said, "is that I tackled like a defensive back. I tackled at the legs. I'm all physical and running through the thighs and all that, but it's not a linebacker tackle. Like, I had 19 tackles against Miami (last year), every one of them was on somebody's thigh board. I didn't run through anybody's face. So I wasn't being evaluated properly, to me, as a backer when I hit free agency because, yeah, I have a lot of stats and all that and I'm running fast, but I'm like a DB in the box.
"So for me, knowing that they tackle here, that it's physical here, and they're good, having that conversation with my wife, I was like, man, I think we should do it. It came down to between here and another team and she was just like, 'Every time you talk about Detroit, it seems like you want to do that. You should go there.'"
Every day, Stuard is happy that he did. He caught eyes in the Lions' exhibition game against the Chargers when he shot through the offensive line on a blitz, somersaulted over a block by the running back, quickly regained his feet and chased down the quarterback for a sack. He forced a fumble a couple weeks later against the Dolphins with a hard hit on running back Jaylen Wright. But this is what it looks like to run through somebody's face:
"The mentality here really is the same mentality as mine. And if you have one day that you're not on that mentality, you're gonna see it on tape, like, what the hell is this guy doing? I've really enjoyed it. I've been in places where I get kicked out of practice for tackling somebody — not here," Stuard said with a smile. "I just feel like this has been a good spot to improve my game. The standard is tough."
The Lions are also giving Stuard a chance to return kicks. He did it once in college at Houston, where he also took a few carries as a sophomore. When Campbell and Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp checked out some of Stuard's film from that year, they saw potential. Stuard is a hard-charging, straight-line runner who could hit some big plays with a full head of steam. In his first chance to prove it, Stuard returned the opening kickoff in the Hall of Game and promptly fumbled.
But Fipp and the Lions stuck with Stuard. They helped him with ball security drills in practice, while Stuard sought out out extra pointers from All-Pro punt returner Kalif Raymond and running back David Montgomery. And ever since that fumble, he's been carrying a football around the hallways of the facility, training his brain to hold it the right way. In the preseason finale against the Texans, Stuard hit a 44-yard return that nearly went for a touchdown.
"My goal," he said, "is to be fearless forward."
Really, that's why he's here. The standard is the standard in Detroit, which Stuard has has learned quickly from Campbell and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard. Those who don't catch up get left behind. The Lions believe in the players they keep. Stuard laughed and said that "sometimes I almost wish Coach thinks I sucked, because then you could play with nothing to lose. But if Coach expects something out of you, now you're letting him down."
"Previously it's like, I do something crazy, I'm not letting nobody down -- nobody thought I could do it anyway," he said.
Stuard wants to win, and he wants to grow his game while doing it. He wants to be going strong five years from now, like Bellore, a two-time Pro Bowler on special teams who's entering his 15th season in the NFL, or like Raymond, who's translated his skills as a return man into a long career and a bigger role on a Super Bowl contender. Stuard is proud of who he's become and wants to be more, so "when Coach cusses me out because I mess something up, I'm just happy to be here."
"I'd rather that than like, 'Oh, that's just Grant, doing some bullsh*t,'" he said. "I love being held to the highest standard, because some guys see the way I play, the way that I am, and it's like, 'Oh, that's the gimmick guy, that's the effort, try-hard guy,' or something. But these guys are like, no, they see value in that."
