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Avril shows versatility for Lions

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Updated Aug 21, 2009 2:30 PM ET
     
 
ALLEN PARK -- Today, Cliff Avril must be playing left defensive end for the Detroit Lions . That's because Wednesday, he played on the right side. And tomorrow? Who knows. "Every other day I'm on a different side. I just have to get better at both sides," said Avril, a second-year player who still is fighting for a starting position. Where that position might be is anybody's guess. "I have no idea," said Avril, a former third-round draft pick. "I think I'm the only guy who is comfortable playing both sides, so I guess I'm the guy who's going to come in in relief when somebody needs a blow. I'm really not sure. I'm just playing ball." Throughout the three weeks of training camp, and especially after the season-ending injury to starting left end Jared DeVries, the Lions have done a lot of experimenting on the defensive line. Avril, Dewayne White and Jason Hunter have been flip-flopped at the end positions, while Ikaika Alama-Francis and Andre Fluellen have rotated between tackle and end. "No, it's not an act of desperation, it's an act of what fits them," defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham said. "I think a lot of coaches come in and go, 'Well, we're going to play this,' and then you look around the field and they don't have the players that can play that system. "Our system is so multiple, we're trying to fix this thing the right way by looking at our players and what can they do." In the first preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons, Hunter -- a free-agent pickup -- started at left end with White starting on the right side. Avril entered the game as a backup. The Lions , who had only 30 sacks last year to rank 16th in the NFL, did not record a sack against the Falcons. "For me, any game without a sack isn't good," said Avril, who had five sacks his rookie season. "But we got our feet wet and there are a lot of corrections we have to make. Overall, we've still got the win, so that's a plus." While the Lions might not be in desperation mode yet, the defensive line still is a work in progress -- and progress has been slow. "It's getting a little better," Cunningham said. "We're going to go into (the regular) season with things we're probably not going to ever use in preseason. They got a little confused (Tuesday), so (defensive line coach Bob Karmelowicz) kept them out and they ran gassers. ... He ran them pretty hard and they got the message." Cunningham is expected to have the defense blitz a lot during the regular season to help manufacture a pass rush. He blitzed only 19 times against Atlanta. While Lions fans won't see anything too exotic out of the defense in preseason games, the team still is working on some trickery during practice. "There are a couple of defenses when we put them up against the offense that you can see their eyes light up trying to figure out what we're doing," Cunningham said.
Tagged: Dewayne White, Lions, Cliff Avril, Jason Hunter, Falcons

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