Here is something that is going to be talked about a lot this week for the Detroit Lions. Can they stop the mobile quarterback? It’s something that has been discussed for some time now. It feels like this has been an Achilles heel for the Lions since 2021.
When your team struggles with something, it’s really easy to start feeling like your team is the only one having this problem. That’s just not the case. At least that’s how Lions head coach Dan Cambell seems to feel about it.
“I know this, running quarterbacks are hard, they’re hard to defend, and it’s like, somebody tells you that, ‘We don’t handle running quarterbacks very well.’ Well, tell me the team that does, give me the next team. So now you’re working for whoever, I don’t care who they are, and I’m not going to name a team because somebody will come back and say, ‘Why did you name that team?’ But if you’re on that team and you’re being like, ‘We don’t handle running quarterbacks that well.’ Well, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of – when you’re trying to deal with (Ravens QB) Lamar (Jackson) and you’re trying to deal with a guy like this over there and (Bills QB) Josh Allen, there are a lot of teams that struggle against those guys, they’re not easy to stop and there’s a reason for that.”
I don’t at all doubt Campbell when he says that, but I wanted to look into some other teams and see how they do against running quarterbacks. I’m especially going to look at the top 10 teams against the run in 2024, a group the Lions were a part of. Here’s that group:
- Ravens
- Vikings
- Broncos
- Buccaneers
- Lions
- Steelers
- Packers
- Chiefs
- Dolphins
- Eagles
The Lions allowed just 1,672 total rushing yards in 2024. That was the fifth least in the league. Of those 1,672 years, 445 of them came from quarterbacks running the ball. That’s a little more than 26% of the rushing yards the Lions allowed this year. Here’s how the other ten teams measured out in comparison:
| Team | Quarterback rushing yards allowed |
|---|---|
|
Lions |
445 |
|
Chiefs |
427 |
|
Eagles |
352 |
|
Bucs |
351 |
|
Broncos |
290 |
|
Packers |
266 |
|
Ravens |
233 |
|
Steelers |
226 |
|
Dolphins |
178 |
|
Vikings |
160 |
So the Lions did allow the most in 2024, but it’s not by a ton. The other 15-2 team from this season allowed just 18 fewer yards. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference for either team. You might note that the teams that were really good at it are now on their way to Cancun for the offseason.
So how can the Lions stop Jayden Daniels? The answer is that they probably can’t fully stop him, but they can neutralize him in multiple different ways.
The first is to grab a lead and then keep building on that lead. Force Daniels to just throw the ball. He can totally do that, by the way, but making the Commanders one-dimensional hurts their attack, which relies heavily on being a balanced offense.
The next thing is hit him. The thing about mobile quarterbacks is that while they can be dangerous to opponents, they can also be dangerous to their own team. These guys tend to get sacked a lot. Daniels has been sacked 47 times this season. That’s sixth most in the league. The Lions have been getting two sacks a game for the last three weeks.
The other thing is just to be the good run-stopping offense that you are already. The Lions aren’t just in fifth place because it looks cool. They’ve been good at stopping teams on the ground. Daniels has played a lot of the teams listed here and he didn’t have the best days on the ground in those games.
- Five yards against the Steelers
- 18 yards in one of the matchups with the Eagles. He did hit them with 81 in the second game.
- 22 yards against the Ravens
- 88 yards against the Buccaneers
He’s going to get out and get some runs on the Lions’ defense, but if they handle their business, they can win this game and head back to the NFC Championship game.