Mike Daniels still open to a return to Detroit Lions

Former Detroit Lions defensive tackle is continuing to make the media rounds as he awaits his opportunity to sign with a new team. Daniels, a free agent, is coming off a disappointing year in Detroit, but he remains hopeful that once the quarantine is lifted, he’ll be able to get some visits in and find himself a home for the 2020 season.

“Guys of our caliber, we get picked up fairly quickly, and because of the quarantine, you see a lot of really good players still sitting at home waiting on a call,” Daniels said Wednesday on Good Morning Football. “Teams can’t bring you in, their team doctors can’t see you, you can’t meet the coaches or anything. And you know as well as I know that sometimes just getting in the building is more than enough for a team to talk to a guy, meet a guy and say, ‘Hey, this is the kind of guy we want in our locker room.’”

When asked if he would consider a return to Detroit, Daniels didn’t hesitate to compliment the team again.

“Oh, yeah,” Daniels answered. “Man, that defensive group, I haven’t played with—and in Green Bay we had a lot of really good players and then we had some really hard, tough guys sprinkled in. Detroit was just nothing but a bunch of hard, tough guys. That’s just the attitude. I don’t know if it’s just the Motor City thing. I don’t know. They’re just tough.”

This goes along with what Daniels said about the Lions last week on SiriusXM NFL Radio, calling the locker room “awesome” and “one of the better ones that I was a part of.”

But he also seemed to take issue with his playing time, which was hampered—at least in part—due to injuries to his foot and arm.

“I didn’t control my playing time. That’s the best way I can put it,” Daniels said in the radio interview last week.

However, Daniels only had positive things to say for the Lions during his NFL Network spot. Again, he praised Detroit’s culture under head coach Matt Patricia.

“They just have the right type of attitude,” Daniels said. “I really enjoyed playing with them, and they worked hard. They worked super hard. I remember dealing with injury, not being able to play a whole lot, and just the weight room—the guys would come in, and I’ve worked out for about two hours already, and they’re coming straight off the practice field getting under the bars squatting like 500 (pounds). I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is the right kind of culture,’ and I really enjoyed it.”

The Lions could certainly still use help in the interior of their defensive line. Having moved on from both A’Shawn Robinson and Damon Harrison Sr., the Lions appear to have potentially downgraded with the additions of Nick Williams and Danny Shelton. And with the position largely ignored in the draft until late in Day 3, Detroit’s depth remains shaky, at best.

Of course, Daniels’ health remains a big question. Daniels has missed 13 games in the last two seasons alone, and at 31 years old, his body is not getting any younger.