ALLEN PARK -- Ezekiel Ansah won't look the same in 2018, and it has nothing to do with his health.

And it has everything to do with his role.

The Detroit Lions defensive end is, yes, still lining up at defensive end. He's there most of the time, actually. But now that he's had more than a week to work his way back from injury, the Lions are experimenting with him as a stand-up rusher at the second level. He's dropped into coverage too.

And this week against the Giants, he slid into the interior.

This defense is designed to create confusion, and Ansah, if healthy, figures to be the most important chess piece in the front seven because of his unique combination of size, athleticism and versatility.

"How can you put as much pressure on an opponent's offense as possible," said coach Matt Patricia, the architect of the defense. "Some weeks, you're not going to want to do that because you feel that whatever the situation is, or the matchup is, doesn't call for it. Or in a particular case, maybe it's more complex from a coverage standpoint. So you're not going to really mess with the front. Maybe it's a week where the front is going to adjust a little more than the coverage. It'll keep moving from that standpoint."

Ansah has been saddled with injury problems for most of the last two-plus years. He missed most of this offseason while working his way back from an undisclosed injury, and opened camp on the physically unable to perform list. But the Lions are clearly counting on him.

The club didn't add any substantive improvements to the pass rush this offseason, then placed the franchise tag on Ansah at a price of $17.143 million. Obviously, he's in the plans. Now we're starting to see what that plan is.

Ansah returned to practice last week, then began participating in one-on-one drills this week against the Giants. He hasn't looked like his old overpowering self, but that's to be expected after such a long layoff. The Lions are pleased with his progress, and there's still plenty of time for him to get his groove back before the Sept. 10 opener against the New York Jets.

"I think he's obviously a tremendous player and causes some different issues across the board," Patricia said. "So getting an advantage or getting an opportunity to look at him in some of those different alignments, I think, is good for us. I don't really know what it's going to shape out to be when we get to the regular season, but from a standpoint of just giving him some different ways to pressure an offense or put the offense under duress, is always a good thing for us.

"He's a really long guy, he's very strong, and he has a real good quickness about him, too. Which, when you can match him up against different offensive linemen across the board, you can get some advantages there."