{"id":393256,"date":"2025-09-24T12:43:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/393256\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T12:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:43:13","slug":"secret-superstars-2025-lions-dl-al-quadin-muhammad-completely-dominated-the-ravens-entire-offensive-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/393256\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Superstars 2025: Lions DL Al-Quadin Muhammad completely dominated the Ravens\u2019 entire offensive line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation\u2019s Doug Farrar\u00a0will write about the game\u2019s Secret Superstars<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment,\u00a0Detroit Lions defensive lineman Al-Quadin Muhammad has earned laurels based on his performance against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night in the Lions\u2019 thrilling 38-30 win. Because it was no automatic shot that he\u2019d even be on the field. <\/p>\n

40 days.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s how long veteran defensive lineman Al-Quadin Muhammad had to wait for an NFL opportunity after the Dallas Cowboys waived him on Aug. 28, 2024, before the Detroit Lions signed him to their practice squad on Oct. 7. More than a month went by before an NFL team signed the 2017 sixth-round pick of the New Orleans Saints, and anybody could have had him.<\/p>\n

Lions head coach Dan Campbell was in his second season as the Saints\u2019 tight ends\/assistant head coach in 2017, so that explains the familiarity. But given Muhammad\u2019s circuitous journey to his current place, one could be forgiven for thinking that the NFL was basically done with him.<\/p>\n

Muhammad was waived by the Saints in October of his second NFL season. The Indianapolis Colts had three shots at him in 2018, 2021, and 2023 \u2014 and declined to make a long-term commitment each time. The Chicago Bears gave him a cup of coffee in 2022, but he didn\u2019t hang around for the full breakfast. The Dallas Cowboys had him last before the Lions took a shot \u2014 they signed him on Aug. 1, 2024, and cut him on Aug. 28, leading to that 40-day purgatory.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Muhammad didn\u2019t always make it easy. He was ejected from a Colts game in Week 10 of the 2020 season for punching Tennessee Titans left tackle Ty Sambrailo, and he was suspended six games<\/a> in December, 2023 for violating the NFL\u2019s policy on Performance Enhancing Drugs.<\/p>\n

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On the other side of the equation, the 6\u20193, 250-pound Muhammad has shown flashes before. In 2021, for the Colts, he amassed seven sacks and 37 total pressures in 457 pass-rushing snaps, and that was his best season to date.<\/p>\n

Through three games in the 2025 season, and especially after what he did to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night, Muhammad doesn\u2019t just have an NFL home now \u2014 he\u2019s chipping in for serious upgrades. As much as some decried the Lions\u2019 quiet approach to acquiring premium pass-rushers in free agency and the draft this offseason, you can now understand why Campbell and his coaches were like the parents who told their kids that they didn\u2019t need to spend money at McDonalds \u2014 because \u201cwe have that at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the Ravens in that 38-30 Monday night win, Muhammad didn\u2019t just rack up three sacks and five total pressures in just 24 pass-rushing snaps \u2014 he did so from multiple gaps, foiling four of the five Baltimore offensive linemen he went up against.<\/p>\n

The Lions saw this coming after Muhammad had a sack and three total pressures against the Chicago Bears in Week 2 in 25 pass-rushing snaps.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYeah, well look, the guy \u2014 bringing it up again, he had a really good camp and he just continues to do things for us,\u201d Campbell said last week. \u201cHe\u2019s crafty, he\u2019s strong, he\u2019s got some explosiveness, and he plays hard. God, he plays hard. I mean, there was a number of plays \u2014 I can think of three right now \u2014 where he is running out of the stack. He\u2019s running out of \u2014 ball is thrown, screen, and he is running to try to get the ball or making a tackle. And it\u2019s that kind of effort with what he\u2019s got ability-wise that gives you a chance. So, he\u2019s been big for us, and he\u2019s going to get more of a role. He\u2019s earned that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard agreed, and pumped Muhammad up in his Sept. 19 press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I told you guys Week 1 he was slated to get more. He played 47 snaps, last game we played [it was] 70, so he was right there in the target range where we saw him in having a role. And he\u2019s done what I\u2019ve seen him do since Day 1 of training camp. He\u2019s come in here with nothing promised to him; he didn\u2019t even know if he was making the team. That\u2019s an eight, nine-year vet playing in the preseason all-out. Just go turn on the preseason games and tell me what you see from No. 96. It\u2019s the same thing we\u2019re seeing now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, as we move forward, on and on, it has nothing to do with who\u2019s available, who\u2019s not available. If you\u2019re available for the game and you show us you\u2019ve earned the right to be out there and get a role, we\u2019re going to find that role for you. And the better you do, the more that role will uptick for you. But he\u2019s been phenomenal, it has nothing to do with ability, look at the effort he plays with. That is the identity of the Detroit Lions defense. Forget the stats, forget any of that stuff, just talk to me about Muhammad\u2019s effort, and that is the standard for the Lions defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After the Ravens game, Muhammad expressed just how grateful he was for this opportunity. This is where the effort comes from, and it isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon. Waiting 40 days to hear if your career is over or not tends to add a little edge to your playing style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation\u2019s Doug Farrar\u00a0will write about the game\u2019s Secret Superstars\u00a0\u2014 those players whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[24909,184,117,2282,391,257,6214,4687,113,7,392,14986,55,6,169,1173,4686,394,4378,68292,7427],"class_list":{"0":"post-393256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-al-quadin-muhammad","9":"tag-baltimore","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-baltimoreravens","12":"tag-chicago-bears","13":"tag-dallas-cowboys","14":"tag-dan-campbell","15":"tag-daniel-faalele","16":"tag-detroit-lions","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-indianapolis-colts","19":"tag-kelvin-sheppard","20":"tag-new-orleans-saints","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-ravens","23":"tag-roger-rosengarten","24":"tag-ronnie-stanley","25":"tag-tennessee-titans","26":"tag-the-lions","27":"tag-ty-sambrailo","28":"tag-tyler-linderbaum"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115259336614475210","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}