Allen Park — Talking to the media minutes after the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers Sunday night, coach Dan Campbell was asked about the future of the franchise.
Within his answer, Campbell reference “the guys we plan on re-signing.” It hinted that some level of conversation had already taken place between the coach and general manager Brad Holmes regarding the team’s pending free agents. Not that it should surprise anyone, given the communication and relationship the franchise’s brass have forged since being paired together in Jan. 2021.
On Monday, Detroit’s players cleaned out their lockers and conducted exit interviews. Typically, in those conversations, leadership will express the team’s level interest in bringing a pending free agent back. They did so with linebacker Alex Anzalone and Charles Harris last year, and similarly expressed that sentiment with defensive lineman John Cominsky this year.
Cominsky is, without a doubt, one of the guys the Lions plan on re-signing. And while the common refrain from players at the end of the season is to say they want to be back, it’s clear he is genuine about extending the relationship after a breakout season with the Lions.
“Yeah, the plan is definitely to figure something out where I can be here,” Cominsky told the Detroit News. “There’s all this talk about the culture and myself, it’s just a perfect fit. Myself and the Detroit Lions organization, I think we’re on the same page where we want to make something happen that I can be here next year. I love the guys in my room and this culture. I think this place helps me be my best, so we definitely want to be here.”
A fourth-round draft pick out of the University of Charleston (W.V.) in 2019, Cominsky went from a rotational role with the Atlanta Falcons in 2020 to an afterthought during coach Arthur Smith’s first season in 2021, logging just 13 defensive snaps.
Not having a place for Cominsky, the Falcons waived him at the end of May. What followed was a stunning amount of interest in the athletic, relentless 6-foot-5, 285-pounder. Eight teams put in a waiver claim, but the Lions had priority because of their 3-13-1 record the season before.
Cominsky quickly worked his way up the depth chart through Detroit’s offseason program and earned 59 snaps the first two weeks of the regular season, recording a game-sealing sack in the Lions’ Week 2 victory over the Washington Commanders. But shortly before that play, he had broken his thumb, an injury that would require surgery, sidelining him a month.
He returned and played the remainder of the season with a club over that hand. It was an adjustment, but after a brief re-acclimation period, he was back playing between 30-60 snaps per game through the second half of the year. By season’s end, he had more than doubled his workload the previous three seasons combined, while finishing second on the roster to Aidan Hutchinson with 44 quarterback pressures.
“It’s perfect, it’s been everything,” Cominsky said. “All I needed was an opportunity, a full opportunity, an opportunity where I can start some games and be on the field for 40 or 50 plays because I feel that’s where I’m at my best. Before I was plugged in 10 or 20 plays and I’m not able to show my full potential. So this opportunity has been perfect.”
Campbell talks about his team being gritty. Cominsky embodies it. Nicknamed The Commish, he’s quiet, no-nonsense and plays with a red-hot motor. His willingness to finish a game with a broken thumb and play out the remainder of the season with a club demonstrated his toughness and only endeared himself further to his coaches and teammates.
“We call him our quarterback,” defensive line coach Todd Wash said earlier this month. “He sets the rush plan. If there’re blitzes and somebody’s confused, he knows what everybody does. Hell, he can coach the room.”
If he makes it that far, Cominsky will test the market in March. He owes it to his wife and young child, a daughter born this offseason, to maximize his value after showing the NFL what he’s capable of doing. Still, he’s hoping no one bowls him over with an offer the Lions aren’t capable of matching.
“This is where I want to be,” he said.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers