Maybe Jahlani Tavai has a future with the Lions, after all. Maybe the former second-round pick just needs the right role. Maybe, just maybe, under new defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Tavai can salvage his career in Detroit.
Through the first few days of OTA's, Glenn said Thursday that a slimmed-down Tavai has looked right at home in a scheme that aims to "eat up blockers (up front) and let our linebackers go make plays."
"You see that with Tavai," said Glenn. "I'll tell you what, Tavai's looking really, really good for us right now. I think he’s lost 17 pounds. He’s moving well. He’s another guy who’s catching my eye as far as a guy who can run."
Tavai was known as a lot of things through his first two seasons in Detroit. 'A guy who can run' wasn't one of them. His lack of speed left him exposed in the middle of one of the worst defenses in the NFL. He ranked 82nd out of 85 qualifying players at his position last season, according to PFF.
This is his second chance.
Glenn said he had a talk with Tavai in the offseason and told him, "Man, I want to get everything out of you that I can. I can’t promise you anything, I can’t promise you a starting job, but I can promise you a chance to compete. But you have to do the rest."
"And he’s like, 'Coach, I like it," said Glenn. "And that’s what we’re going to give him a chance to do."
During another conversation early in the offseason, the Lions' director of sports performance issued Tavai a challenge: flat out, drop some weight. And Tavai followed through. He said he was playing at "close to 270 pounds" last year at the behest of the former coaching staff and came into OTA's this year around 247.
So a loss of 17 pounds is ... putting it lightly. More like 20+, with Tavai aiming to be at 245 or under for the start of training camp.
"We challenged him as far as the weight that we wanted him to come back at," Glenn said. "I think that’s the measure of discipline. When you tell a player, 'This is what I want you at,' and you see him come back and he’s there. Alright, that’s the first thing.
"The second thing, man, is his movement. He did lose a lot of weight but to be as big as he is, he can move fairly well. That kind of surprised us. I don’t want to say totally surprised, but it was good to see a man of that size that can move like that. And then his ability to bend and get out of cuts, that was pretty impressive."
Tavai floundered under Matt Patricia in part because he wasn't quick enough to fulfill his role -- which was odd for a player who was drafted with a specific role in mind. His role's about to change. Rather than leave Tavai in space or make him take on offensive linemen, Glenn plans to let him come downhill.
"He was on the edge a lot in the defense before," said Glenn. "We want him to be a stack backer, allow him to be covered up and go make plays. And he’s enjoying that, man. ... Every linebacker will tell you, 'If I can be covered up and I can run to get the ball, hell, that's what I want to do.'"
We'll see what it means as the summer progresses and when the season arrives. But there's hope again for Tavai, which is more than we can say when the offseason began.