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ALLEN PARK — Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp likes to begin the mornings asking his players if they’re fired up and ready for the day ahead, showing his enthusiasm for what will be a hard day of work. Fipp doesn’t vault around quite as much while speaking to reports at the podium, but he’s always got an excitement about his unit. And there’s one player that knows how to match Fipp’s energy better than anyone. “We got one guy with long hair and it’s always on fire,” Fipp said Thursday. “But he’s bouncing off the walls usually.” That player is first-year Lion Grant Stuard, the 27-year old linebacker and special teams gadget player who was named a team captain mere months after signing with the team. A former Mr. Irrelevant, Stuard quickly meshed with the Lions and their culture, bringing his long curly hair and fiery play style to Detroit and becoming a fixture on Sundays. His time spent this season as a kick returner hasn’t been frequent, but you’ll still see Stuard ramming his way up and down the field on returns, in coverage and attempting to block field goal tries. Through seven games, Stuard has played 151 snaps on special teams and 11 on defense. What’s stood out since Stuard arrived was his passion both on and off the field. He’s made a name for himself on special teams while also adding fuel to the fire of a joint practice during the preseason with the Miami Dolphins. “I’m a guy, that’s pretty intense,” Stuard told MLive earlier this month. “I like to respond in an intense way during practice, whether that might be physically, vocally, sometimes emotionally, and it’s not something that’s going to linger or something, but sometimes you got to get it out, you know what I’m saying?” According to his teammates, that’s the way Stuard is all the time. He’s the same guy every day, full of intensity and ready to give his all for the Lions. That doesn’t stop Stuard from being a mentor to some of the younger players and helping to educate on developing a consistent role as an NFL player after being plucked from Mr. Irrelevancy. It’s not just about being a ball of energy to receive notice, Stuard is held up as a role model in his room. “The intensity on the field, game days, whether it’s walkthrough, whether it’s practice, whether it’s meetings, he’s always that type of dude,” fellow linebacker and special teams contributor Trevor Nowaske told MLive. “He doesn’t turn it on and turn it off. He’s always 110 miles an hour, which is really cool and it kind of feeds into other people as well. You want to be like that.”
