You couldn’t blame the Detroit Lions if they had slight buyer’s remorse about their rookie offensive tackle Penei Sewell after his rough preseason campaign. But to the Lions’ credit, even if that’s the case, the organization is not showing it. As a matter of fact, the Lions seem to be fully behind their seventh overall pick.
Sewell visibly struggled to deal with pass rushers since arriving in the NFL and was consistently beaten on the edge. He also ranked last in pass-blocking among right tackles who played at least 50 offensive snaps during the preseason.
Still, Lions general manager Brad Holmes believes that Sewell will be just fine once the regular season comes.
“I believe that he will be ready for Week 1, and I think he’s ready now,” said Holmes via the Detroit Free Press.
According to Holmes, Sewell’s struggles are part of the growing pains that each rookie goes through, and the team isn’t too alarmed by them.
“So what he’s done, and I know it’s magnified by what may be a hiccup here or there, but there’s so much of the good stuff that maybe kind of hidden when you really kind of deep dive the film, little subtle nuances that is going to make a big difference,” he added.
One of the reasons why Penei Sewell doesn’t have the best of preseasons might be the fact that he didn’t play football at all last year, deciding to opt-out of the 2020 college campaign. The Lions also didn’t do him favors by putting him on right tackle even though his natural position is left tackle.
