Locker room buzz: Raymond's big day, unlikely TD tosses, punchout jealousy and a meaningful debut
Detroit — Here’s what I learned bouncing around the Detroit Lions’ locker room following the team’s 52-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Right time for a big day
Kalif Raymond has been in Detroit long enough that it’s easy to forget he’s played anywhere else. But before signing with the Lions as a free agent in 2021, he was coming off a three-year stint in Tennessee.
The Titans' roster, coaching staff and front office have turned over enough that it would be difficult to maintain any hard feelings, and Raymond was far from the contributor he’s developed into with the Lions, but current teammates still took joy in watching him have the biggest day of his career against his former team.
“He was our guest captain this week,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “We do that every week. He was the one this week, which is typically against your former team. (Coach) Dan (Campbell) does that for those guys, and yeah, it was awesome. I mean he’s just been so close to breaking them through the whole year it seems like, and today those guys were blocking well for him, and he’s making those returns. He’s as electric as it gets back there, and they kept kicking it to them, so he kept making them.”
Raymond returned five punts, averaged 38.0 yards and brought three back into Titans territory. One ended up getting called back because of a holding penalty, another set up a short field the offense translated into a touchdown, and the third went back 90 yards to the house for the second punt return score of his career.
Interestingly, that punt came on fourth-and-1, and the Lions left their starting defense on the field to counter a potential fake instead of bringing on the typical return unit.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Raymond said “It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, oh, it’s happening, it’s happening,’ saying, ‘Don’t mess up, don’t mess up.’ But, no when you got guys like that …when you got defensive guys who will go play three snaps, force a punt, and then go block on the punt, it’s incredible.”