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Ezekiel Ansah signed his franchise tag Tuesday Kareem Martin Jersey , signaling his return to the Detroit Lions .

"That's a pretty big guy to have returning," Lions coach Matt Patricia said recently. "If he was out there in the free agent market with some other team right now that would be their front headline."

Detroit designated the defensive end from Ghana as its franchise player nearly two months ago.

"When we were going through the process and Matt got on board, Ziggy was the No. 1 conversation," Lions general manager Bob Quinn recalled last week. "So, what are we going to do with Ziggy? I had my thoughts. It didn't take long for me to show Matt why we should do what we did."

Ansah has 44 sacks in five seasons with the Lions. He had 12 sacks last season, bouncing back from an injury-filled 2016 season in which he had a career-low two sacks. He had three sacks in a game three times last season.

"To have an outside Doug Kotar Jersey , edge rusher that can be as dominating as Ziggy is something that is really appealing to Matt," Quinn said.

"Matt has had a lot of great players in New England and Ziggy would rank right up there with some of the best edge players Matt has ever coached.

"We're really excited to get Ziggy into this new scheme."

Detroit drafted him No. 5 overall in 2013 out of BYU, where he was originally more interested in track and basketball than football. He has started 71 of 73 games, playing through injuries the past two years, and has 207 tackles.

Ansah was not made available to reporters Tuesday, but quarterback Matthew Stafford reflected on the coaching transition from Jim Caldwell to Patricia.

"Obviously Colin Kaepernick Jersey , change happens in the NFL. It's almost inevitable," Stafford said. "I think the goal is to play well enough to not have those changes. Obviously, we didn't in the past."

England manager Gareth Southgate is seeking to lead his squad beyond the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time since 1990.

The country that is home to perhaps the best club soccer league in the world in the English Premier League has consistently fallen short of expectations over the past two decades on the international stage of the World Cup. The team failed to get out of the group stage at the 2014 World Cup, which served as their greatest disappointment since failing to qualify for the tournament in 1994.

Southgate has been tasked with revitalizing the team after being handed the job in 2016. England finds itself on the verge of a spot in the semifinals if they can advance past Sweden this Saturday in Samara, Russia.

According to BBC Radio 5 Live’s World Cup Daily podcast, Southgate has been looking beyond the sport of soccer for insights that could help him manage England’s World Cup team and devise new tactics on the pitch.

“The technical details of the sports are different but the challenges of leadership Shilique Calhoun Jersey , team building, best ways of dealing with the media, that crosses over for every sport,” Southgate said. “To get a view from different sports, different countries with similar sorts of problems, every time I do it you take away pages of notes and then it’s ‘OK Ereck Flowers Jersey , what applies to our sport and how might we get it to work?'”

Southgate has attended the last two Super Bowls with fellow coach Allan Russell and visited the Seattle Seahawks. He’s also studied the NBA as well in seeking potential ways to help with their set pieces, which England had struggled with in previous tournaments. Six of the eight goals scored by England so far at the World Cup this year have come via set pieces or penalty kicks.

“You’re always trying to bring new ideas to your team and new ways of thinking, and anything that can possibly add to what you’re delivering,” Southgate said, via Nick Pope of Esquire.

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