About two weeks before free agency, at the NFL Draft Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was asked about which areas of his defense needed to be better in 2023.
“I think the question — or the answer — is more of, how do we just continue to upgrade?” Glenn said, echoing a popular phrase of the Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell regime.
Over the next month, the Lions would add cornerbacks Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson through free agency. In the draft, they picked up towerin’ Iowan Jack Campbell, the reigning Butkus award winner, before plucking All-American safety Brian Branch out of Alabama with pick No. 45 and 6-foot-5, 330-pound defensive tackle Brodric Martin out of Western Kentucky with No. 96.
They got their upgrades. Will it make a difference?
Detroit’s horrid defense to begin the 2022 season was almost solely to blame for the team starting 1-6 and missing the playoffs by the skin of its teeth, and though the young defensive unit made massive strides to close the season 8-2, there’s quite a bit of pressure to perform immediately when the expectation is a division title and there are new faces everywhere.
Regardless of the professionalism that Detroit’s veteran defensive signings have brought to the room, it’s not a sure thing that countless new members in the secondary will mesh right away. There’s no guarantee James Houston’s record-setting rookie season can be replicated, if Derrick Barnes and Alim McNeill truly have another level, if Levi Onwuzurike or Josh Paschal can be consistent impact players, if Campbell and Branch can handle the NFL at full speed.
If we’ve learned anything from training camp — the jawing, the hootin’ and hollerin’ — this defense should be fun.
But assuming you’re looking for something a little more insightful or comforting than “fun,” try this: If the offense produces in the same ballpark as a season ago (let alone becomes even more efficient, as some players and staff have suggested), anything above an average defense — which the Lions should have — should put them on track to accomplish their goals.
As the likes of Aidan Hutchinson, Kerby Joseph and Malcolm Rodriguez found their way in the second act of a roller-coaster rookie season, opponent scoring dropped from 32.1 points per game in Weeks 1-8 to 20.2 per game in Weeks 9-18 and opponent passer rating from 108.5 to 84.3 — both statistics where the Lions would rank middle of the pack if only counting the second-half defense. The hope is the returners can at least replicate league-average performance, while additions on the back end move the defense into a range of outcomes from good to great.
Amuse yourself for a second and consider the Lions have successfully instilled a “do your job” culture on their defense in the rebound years of Matt Patricia. In the Lions’ language, it’s more like “everybody’s got a job,” which is probably a little more conducive to team-building and getting everybody on the same page, but it’s all the same principles: Doesn’t matter if a guy is starting or the third player at his position — he’s probably going to play and is expected to play well.
The Lions essentially added a veteran at every starting role that wasn’t held down by a first- or second-year player (or Alex Anzalone) in 2022. Even veteran safety Tracy Walker, who signed a three-year deal ahead of last season before suffering a torn Achilles in Week 3, has been topped in the depth charter by the Joseph/Gardner-Johnson pairing, and the fact Branch has played well enough to carve out a starting role at the nickel — previously thought to be Gardner-Johnson’s spot — to push Walker, a defensive captain last season, out of a starting role.
All things considered, it’s easy to see why people are expecting more from the secondary this season after it placed 25th in passer rating (94.2) over all of last season. A year ago, Walker was a man the Lions’ defense couldn’t live without. Former Lions cornerback Amani Oruwariye, thought to be the team’s best at that position heading into last year, is now on the New York Giants’ practice squad, while former No. 3 pick Jeff Okudah was traded this offseason for a fifth-round pick (later used to move up and draft Branch). When the whole secondary is healthy, third-year corner Jerry Jacobs — arguably Detroit’s most reliable corner of the last two years — probably doesn’t have a starting spot, either. Upgrades, upgrades.
As every team will be reminded at some point, football is a war of attrition. The Lions have done well to avoid major injuries on the defensive side of the ball to this point, but it’s only a matter of time before one of the backups is asked to jump in a starting role. Only this year, with those aforementioned upgrades, Detroit should be much better equipped to enter these crossroads.
Detroit’s growing depth has pushed players with experience down the depth chart. At every spot, they’ve got a backup who’d they feel comfortable as the starter. Walker, utility DB Will Harris, safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, and edge Romeo Okwara all played a pivotal role at one time or another for this Lions team but now find themselves waiting their turn to contribute. Even defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs, who was a big piece for the Lions during last season’s turnaround, has seemingly been topped in the rotation and will be inactive for Thursday’s opener.
The benefits of depth go far beyond injuries, especially on the defensive line. Consider the Super Bowl-runner up Philadelphia Eagles, heralded year over year for restocking the depth on their D-line, from a season ago: 12 defensive lineman averaged 15 snaps per game last season and 10 averaged at least 20, as the Eagles had four players register double-digit sacks (no other team had more than two). Haason Reddick, who had 16, played just 73.9% of snaps — not a “small” amount by any means, but significantly less than the 84.3% of snaps that Hutchinson was asked to cover last season.
If Hutchinson, who had 9.5 sacks last year, can see the field slightly less in his sophomore season, that would only mean good things for a Lions defense that’s looking to squeeze as much juice as possible on every play, and it is indeed trending in that direction: edge Charles Harris, the team’s sack leader (7.5) in 2021, is back and looking to start opposite of Hutchinson after a season riddled with injury. Okwara, who led the team in sacks (10) in 2020, is trying to prove he’s still got gas in the tank, too — and so far, those guys have well enough in training camp to believe they can be steady in the upcoming season.
And then there’s the youth, which is really where the idea that there’s something for everybody begins to take shape.
Entering the offseason, it seemed like a no-brainer to every local and national pundit alike that the Lions would make a real effort to bolster their defensive line through free agency and the draft. Then, they pretty much stood pat — with the exception of selecting Martin, largely an unknown prospect, at the end of the third round.
Paschal and John Cominsky both have enough experience on the outside to be difference-makers when they’re asked to go out there, but have been pivotal pieces on the inside on obvious passing downs. Houston might be the most interesting case study: He didn’t take Harris’ spot as the every-down outside linebacker like some thought he would, but there’s no real reason to believe he’s poised to take a step back as a pass rusher, besides the fact that his rookie production (8.0 sacks in seven games with a pass-rush win rate of 19.3%) was completely unprecedented in the sport of football (maybe there is one real reason).
At linebacker, there’s a case to be made that the Lions are deeper than they’ve been in a decade. The team has four linebackers it’d feel comfortable trotting out as the “starter,” but what they really have is four linebackers who all play a specific role well. Rodriguez, for example, took the league by storm with his run defense a season ago, and while — like Houston — he might not be well-rounded enough to play every snap, Barnes and Campbell figure to be competent enough to let Rodriguez focus solely on that job, and vice versa.
The plan for this offseason was to upgrade at every position, and on the defensive side of the ball, they’ve done that. The plan for this season is to win the division — and with how they’ve built this defense, they’ve certainly given themselves a chance.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
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