Notes: Quintez Cephus opens up about sexual assault allegations, death of father

Detroit Lions rookie receiver Quintez Cephus has been through a lot as a 22 year old. At age 19, the person closest to him, his father, was murdered in his hometown of Mason, Georgia. A year later, he was charged with two counts of sexual assault. He would eventually be found not guilty of those crimes after a long, arduous process. Cephus was initially expelled from the University of Wisconsin due to the allegations, only to be reinstated a year later.

Cephus has been somewhat silent on those topics since being drafted by the Detroit Lions back in April. But on Tuesday, he was very open in discussing that difficult period in his life.

NFL Network’s “NFL 360” series had a segment entitled “Sincerely, Q.” In it, Cephus talks about attending an all-white private school while growing up, addresses the sexual assault allegations briefly, describes some racism he experienced during the criminal justice process, and finishes with a heartfelt letter to his late father.

Check it out:

• There’s a bunch of good Lions film study out there this week. The Draft Network’s Trevor Sikkema broke down the things that are going right and wrong with Jeff Okudah.

• Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press—whom we interviewed this week—broke down why the Lions offense is struggling in the red zone. (subscription required)

• The Athletic’s Chris Burke has a nice breakdown of T.J. Hockenson’s film and explains why we may have only seen the tip of the iceberg of what he can do.

• Tyrell Crosby gained some attention on Twitter for this pair of solid plays:

• It’s not just Jack Fox who is dominating the Lions special teams; everything is firing on all cylinders. Kyle Meinke of MLive explains.

• The Lions pass rush remains unsurprisingly terrible: