Detroit Lions pass-rusher Anthony Zettel hopes to ‘build on’ breakout season

Anthony Zettel stood 20 feet away from fellow Penn State letterman and Super Bowl LII champion Stefen Wisniewski, reflecting on a breakout sophomore campaign with the Detroit Lions that still felt a bit empty.

“It was a good season,” Zettel said Saturday at Penn State’s Thon Explorers Program. “Preferably, I’d like to end it with a ring, you know?”

Every team and player’s goal is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. The Lions came close to competing for the title, finishing 9-7 and second in the NFC North, barely missing out on a playoff berth.

With former New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia taking the reins as head coach, that goal is front and center for Zettel, a Michigan native. After bursting onto the scene in 2017, Zettel hopes his torrid pace continues into this year, pushing Detroit toward becoming a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

“It was a good building-on season in my second year,” Zettel continued with a slight shrug of the shoulders. “Now I know what works and what doesn’t against starting offensive linemen. I’ll be able to build on that coming up next year.”

A sixth-round selection by Detroit in 2016 — the 16th defensive end taken off the board — Zettel has outperformed his draft stock significantly. The 6-foot-4, 270-pounder played in 13 games as a rookie and tallied a modest 13 tackles and one sack.

Those stats skyrocketed this past season. Zettel started all 16 games, logged 43 tackles and, most importantly, recorded 6.5 sacks — second-best on the team behind former Pro-Bowl pass-rusher Ezekiel Ansah.

Only three defensive ends drafted ahead of Zettel had more than 6.5 sacks last season: Chargers star Joey Bosa, Jaguars threat Yannick Ngakoue and the Ravens’ Matt Judon, who now plays outside linebacker in Baltimore’s 3-4 scheme.

Zettel was undervalued by scouts and executives around the league, and he proved that pretty much from the get-go.

The former first-team All-Big Ten selection nabbed four sacks in the first four games of 2017 — including a couple sacks, four quarterback hurries and a fumble recovery in Detroit’s close win over the Minnesota Vikings, the eventual division champ. His second sack helped the Lions close out Minnesota late in the fourth quarter.

Zettel’s breakout performance came just two weeks after former Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden compared him to pass-rushing great Jared Allen and dubbed Zettel as his “Gruden Grinder” before Detroit took on the New York Giants.

“He pops off the screen in his second year,” Gruden, now the coach of the Oakland Raiders, commented at the time. “He’s making his presence felt.”

Then, of course, Gruden showed a national audience the viral video of Zettel tackling a tree.

He received more than a few texts from old teammates and friends after that.

“That was some fun stuff,” Zettel said with a smile.

But in 2017, instead of taking down inanimate objects, Zettel tackled Matt Ryan, Case Keenum, Carson Palmer, Brett Hundley and Deshone Kizer.

Zettel’s hoping that’s just the start of it. The former Nittany Lion believes he can improve upon his 6.5-sack campaign.

Next season will surely be different than last; Patricia is a new face, and Ansah — Zettel’s sack partner — might be leaving Detroit in free agency.

But Zettel showed in 2017 what he’s capable of, what he can do given the chance.

“I have certain stuff I want to work on, but it’s little, petty stuff,” Zettel said. “Just keep getting bigger, stronger, faster is the biggest thing.”

That is a scary thing for the rest of the NFL.

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Detroit Lions pass-rusher Anthony Zettel hopes to ‘build on’ breakout season."