In The Grey, Liam Neeson and his colleagues battle a pack of hungry wolves in the Alaskan tundra. Spoiler alert: The wolves win.
Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham watched that movie, and it gave him some ideas: Cunningham told the Detroit News that he’s experimenting with a new formation in which defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley move outside to end, while the ends move inside to tackle, and he named the formation after the movie.
“Yeah, I call it Grey,” Cunningham said. “If you watch that movie you will know what I mean. Those wolves kind of tricked ‘em and that’s kind of what we’re doing.”
With franchise player Cliff Avril now signed, the Lions believe they have one of the deepest defensive lines in the NFL. Defensive end Willie Young and defensive tackle Corey Williams both said they believe the Lions’ second line would be one of the 10 best starting units in the league. That kind of depth gives the Lions the ability to do things that other teams don’t do, head coach Jim Schwartz said.
“I think we are an elite defensive line,” Schwartz said. “I wouldn’t compare us to anybody else. We’re not trying to be the New York Giants. We’re not trying to be anybody but the Detroit Lions. The talent that we have, if we play to our ability, that’ll be enough.”
It may be enough to make opposing quarterbacks as terrified as you’d be if you were surrounded by wolves in the middle of nowhere.