The Detroit Lions have had a lackluster pass rush the last few seasons, and there’s graphic proof to show it.
The Detroit Lions had the third-fewest sacks in the NFL last year (30). In 2020, their 24 sacks were sixth-fewest. In 2019, they had the third-fewest in the league again (28). It’s been bad enough that it’s hard to recall they had 43 sacks in 2018, which at least was in the top half of the league.
Jeff Risdon of Lions Wire, via NFL Inside Edge, unearthed a ranking of the NFL teams with the most games with less than three sacks over the last three seasons. The Lions edged the Cincinnati Bengals for the most, registering less than three sacks in 26 of 49 total regular season games.
Here are the bottom five, ranked by the most games with less than three sacks from 2019-2021 of course.
1st-Detroit Lions-26
2nd-Cincinnati Bengals-25
3rd-Las Vegas Raiders-24
4th-Los Angeles Chargers-23
5th-Chicago Bears-22
Detroit Lions pass rush has been bad, but help is coming
The Lions only added five games with less than three sacks to that tally last year, so that’s a positive step.
But, with a hat-tip to Risdon for titling his piece “Graphic evidence of the Lions woeful pass rush over the last three seasons“, the statistical proof of how dismal the Lions’ pass rush has been since 2019 is indeed graphic, with the data and the physical reaction the data ugliness might bring.
The Lions made moves in the draft to help their pass rush, making the easy pick of Aidan Hutchinson second overall and then circling back in the second round (No. 46) to take Josh Paschal. Even sixth-round pick James Houston (16.5 sacks for Deion Sanders at Jackson State last year) could help, if he makes the roster.
The Lions’ pass rush can’t be much worse than it has been over the last three seasons. In terms of getting bunches of sacks (three or more) in the same game, it actually can’t get any worse than the 2019-2021 sample compared to the rest of the NFL over that span.