ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Joe Dahl was a little frustrated. It was early in the Detroit Lions' season and while he expected something like this to happen, it was still a lot more than he thought. The offensive lineman knew his growth to become an NFL player would take time for a lot of reasons.
But the amount of what he had to pick up, re-learn and in some cases learn for the first time ended up startling him a little bit.
Dahl was a little bit less prepared for the jump from college to the NFL because of where he went to college and what his team ran. He understood entering the draft process many of the things he used as an offensive lineman in Washington State’s spread offense were not going to translate to blocking NFL defenders.
It still didn’t prepare him for the breadth of things he would have to start learning as he adjusted from the spread to Detroit’s pro-style offense while he also moved from playing tackle for two seasons inside to playing guard.
Essentially everything he saw, he was seeing for the first time -- not only as a pro but in some cases as a football player.
“I’d probably say the biggest change was just learning an offense actually,” Dahl said. “I really had five or six plays in college so just having to learn the complexities of an offense and I had no idea, in terms of how complicated this is relative to other NFL offenses, but compared to my college offense, it was a lot more to take in.
“You definitely want to have an idea of what your assignment is and what technique you should use before a play starts and that way you can be confident in whatever coaching has been given to you.”
That learning process, Dahl said, took almost half the season. In addition to understanding and perfecting multiple new techniques and blocking formations along with a lot more plays, he had to get used to playing with tight ends and fullbacks in the offense. Last season, the Cougars did not have a single player on their roster at either position.
Those spots have blocking assignments, as well, and changed what he saw from defensive fronts and whom he was expected to block on plays. So when he says almost everything was new to him -- it really was.
“It just changes everything in terms of who you’re going to be blocking on a certain play and what technique you’re going to have to use,” Dahl said. “It was just another layer to add into learning a long playbook.
“It was just something I really didn’t see coming but I think I feel confident with it now and feel confident in all the coaching that I received and my ability to help the group.”
He said the offense he ran at University High in Spokane, Washington, had more pro-style elements to it than what he used at Washington State, so he was able to pull more from that -- now years old -- than what he did with the Cougars for three seasons as a left guard and left tackle.
"Especially because pretty much all of the techniques we use in college don’t translate over at all," Dahl said. "Especially because each coach is going to want their own specific techniques and you just have to completely flush it after college."
He never looked at 2016 like a redshirt season, though. He was on the 53-man roster, so he had to be ready if necessary. By midseason, he started to truly understand what offensive line coach Ron Prince had been teaching him. He’d see the improvement on practice tape he’d watch after. That, for the majority of the season, was where he got his most work.
“It’s one of those things where you see those guys, they develop in the weight room, getting stronger, they’re getting bigger, more active,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “They’re learning from a technical standpoint, so he’s making good progress.”
Even though it took a while, Dahl feels comfortable with what he needs to do now. He ended up playing in six games, active mostly after center Travis Swanson suffered a concussion that forced him to miss the final five games of the season, including the playoffs.
Dahl played 20 snaps, 11 in Week 16 against Dallas and nine in Week 17 against Green Bay. That might have given him a small idea of what could come next. Depending on what happens in free agency, Dahl should be in a position to compete for one of the starting guard spots on the offensive line with Laken Tomlinson and Graham Glasgow.
By spring, he should be fully prepared to do that.
