Lonnie Outlaw: Player Spotlight of the Week
This week I had the opportunity to speak with Lonnie Outlaw, check out the wide receiver's interview here to get to know him a little better, on and off of the field.
With one of the highest scoring offenses in the league, what is one way you, Lonnie Outlaw make it better?
We push each other in practice. Practice is what makes us better and what it is in the game. So we make each other kinda what we are in practice and it shows in the game. We execute every play and defensively we hold each other accountable on every play, we go out and run and we make sure we know our plays know what we are doing and know our assignments and know our alignment.
With the season starting to wind down with only two games remaining, are your eyes on the end of the season or just this next game?
Just this game you know you never want to overlook any team in this league because you never know what comes out and you never know the outcome you gotta come out and play and we are definitely looking at the biggest game as this game we got this weekend and then more after we win this week.
Awesome. So how was that double bye week for you guys?
It was very essential and it definitely got our bodies back right and back healthy to where we got everyone back being active and with that being said it was very important, well needed.
So you talked about it being physically helpful. Bye weeks are usually pretty helpful but I don’t really see double bye weeks very often. What did y’all do to stay focused and try to keep this momentum that y’all have now?
We could say we had a double bye week but coach has been really hard on us and letting us know we gotta come back the week before so we only had one week off and the next week we came back a couple days and practiced and get back out and get our legs back warm so he basically gave us a week off and then we can back to work so it wasn’t too much and wasn’t too bad at all.
So what did you do in that week where y’all didn’t practice?
I relaxed and put my feet up and got my legs back under me and got my feet up legs up and just in recovery mode for a couple days
What would you say is your biggest strength on the field?
A post route is probably my biggest strength at this moment, just because I’m good at using my speed and body frame to get cross face and it’s kinda scary because people don’t ever wanna come down and get in front of me so I would say that’s probably my strongest strength on the field right now.
So what is one thing you are personally working on to be better on the field?
Just being more vocal as a leader is basically something I need to work on more this season being vocal as a leader and that’s about it. Everything else I feel is smooth and inherit and maybe to say getting in and out of my breaks at the top of my routes but not gonna harp on that too much because it’s indoors and outdoors and you gotta be able to get in and out.
So you mentioned trying to be a leader. What is one thing one you try to tell the younger guys, especially on the offensive side of the ball?
Play fast and play loose.
If you had to say, what famous football player do your skills most closely match?
I know he’s retired now but I’m gonna say Calvin Johnson, I’m a big Calvin Johnson fan.
So what is important to you outside of football?
My son and being a father, my son is important to me.
That’s great. What do you do when you are off the field?
In my spare time I’m trying to get better at golf. That’s where my efforts are outside of football right now, trying to get better at golf.
How’s it going?
Man I just gotta get back on the bug and get back on the course and that’s it.
So what challenges have you had to overcome to be playing for the Lions and one of the leading receivers in the league?
A hardship we had to overcome is basically just pushing ourselves in practice to make ourselves get to where we is now. Just going out everyday and trying to execute every play and be at tip top shape every play and not take a play off. So that’s probably one of the big things we could overcome this season to know we gotta go hard every play to make the game time easier