John Penisini is coming off a decent, promising rookie season as the Detroit Lions nose tackle. Based on what new head coach Dan Campbell said about Penisini in his Thursday press conference, bigger and better things are in store for the big man in his second season.
Campbell talked up the camp competition at nose tackle and the differences between Penisini and rookie Alim McNeill at the position. He then dropped a nugget on why Penisini’s strength didn’t appear to be as good as advertised in his rookie campaign.
“I know that we’ve been pleased with Penisini when he came back into camp,” Campbell said Thursday. “His weight, where he is in shape, passing the conditioning test. By the way, John Penisini had what looked like softballs in his shoulder that he had repaired after the season after the fact. It just looked like a bunch of calcium deposits that had been in there. You wonder why when you watch the film last year why he’s not using his arm. It’s because he had issues.”
Campbell continued,
“It’s a credit to him playing through it and all of those things. He’s better and you could see it yesterday. It was impressive. I’m pleased with Penisini too.”
