Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Lions have made no secret about their intentions to run the ball more under head coach Jim Caldwell, but in fifth-round pick Joe Dahl they drafted one of the most experienced pass blockers in college football.

Dahl started the last three seasons at Washington State in Mike Leach's air raid offense, where 60-pass-attempt games are common and running the football is not.

“I definitely think it got me a lot of reps at pass pro, that’s for sure," Dahl said today. "But other than that it really doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re doing now. I just got to do my best to learn whatever they give me and just get to work with this group."

Dahl was the Cougars' starting left guard when then-Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday set an NCAA record with 89 pass attempts in a game in 2013. For comparison, Matthew Stafford averaged 45.4 passes per game when he set the NFL single-season record with 727 attempts in 2012.

He started the last two seasons at left tackle, and joked after the draft that playing in such a pass-heavy offense is "not exactly what you dream of growing up playing offensive line."

"You want to run block and move some people around," Dahl said. "But it was its own challenge in itself and it worked really well for our offense.”

Dahl was one of three offensive linemen the Lions took in last month's draft, and while he's not expected to play an immediate role like first-round pick Taylor Decker and perhaps third-rounder Graham Glasgow, he could develop into a fixture someone on the Lions' offensive front.

For now, the Lions are training Dahl at both guard and tackle spots, and it's not unreasonable to think he could start at one of those positions in 2017 when both Riley Reiff and Larry Warford could leave as free agents.

Dahl, who made 22 of his 34 collegiate starts at tackle, said he doesn't have a preference what position he plays in the NFL.

"I really have no idea what I’ll end up playing," he said. "It’s really their job to decide and I’ll just be happy to do whatever they want me to do."

Grizzled vet: Dahl spent one season at FCS Montana, where he redshirted in 2011, before transferring to Washington State. He sat out the 2012 season due to transfer rules and started his last three years with the Cougars.

“Basically, the deal was I wanted to go to Washington State out of high school I just made the wrong decision coming out and so I transferred over,” Dahl said.

Dahl said Washington State offered him as a high school senior after he already committed to Montana and “I just felt like I should stay true to my word.”

“But once I got there I just realized I wanted to be at Washington State,” he said.

And where would Dahl be had he stayed at Montana?

“I really have no idea,” he said. “I think my work ethic and everything would have been the same.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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