Five lingering thoughts I have from the Detroit Lions’ preseason-opening 16-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Friday at Ford Field:
Julian Okwara will play significant pass rush role
That’s the most obvious conclusion I can come to after Okwara played a whopping 49 of a possible 63 defensive snaps Friday, or 78%.
A third-round pick last year out of Notre Dame, Okwara lost most of his rookie season to injury and the Lions are racing to get him ready for his new position, outside linebacker. He was credited with three tackles against the Bills, but had one sack and affected the pocket with good rushes.
Okwara is admittedly a work in progress. He was playing against second- and third-string offensive linemen Friday, and won’t find getting to the quarterback quite as easy once the regular season begins.
But he has the pass rush chops to be an effective weapon out of sub packages, and maybe, eventually push Trey Flowers for time. (Flowers absolutely belongs on the field right now, for what it’s worth, but I wonder how he fits in the Lions’ long-term plans.)
“There’s a lot of stuff to clean up in there,” Okwara said Friday. “There were definitely some bad plays in there. It might look good cause I got whatever, but there was definitely still a lot of clean up. I got to be better as an edge rusher setting the edge and all that stuff, so I think there’s still a lot of room to work on no matter how good or bad I did. So there’s still a lot of room, so I’m excited to get back to work and just work on my craft and sharpen things up for the season.”
A youth movement is upon us
If you missed it last week, Lions general manager Brad Holmes hinted as much when he said in a SiriusXM NFL radio interview that he and Lions coach Dan Campbell are in lockstep about letting their young, core players learn on the field.
“It’s great to have a young team, but you’ve got to let them play,” Holmes said. “I remember back when I was with the Rams, (general manager) Les Snead used to say, ‘you’ve got to let them cross the street by themselves.’ Dan and I were aligned in that and said, however this shapes out, we have these young guys, you can’t just be on the driving range just chipping away and practicing. You’ve got to go out there and play, so hopefully we’re going to have the young people ready to play and hopefully produce.”
Okwara, who will play most of this season at 23 years old, is one of a handful of young players in line for see-how-much-he-can-handle playing time. Amon-Ra St. Brown was the Lions’ best receiver in the first quarter Friday, when he caught two passes for 12 yards and had another 13-yarder nullified by penalty. St. Brown started in Breshad Perriman’s absence Friday, but it won’t be long before he climbs the depth chart, possibly to as high as the Lions’ No. 2 receiver.
Alim McNeill’s strong camp has been documented and Penei Sewell’s role at right tackle is obvious, but fourth-round linebacker Derrick Barnes also had a strong showing in limited snaps Friday. Barnes, who has been battling a hamstring injury throughout camp, played one series in the third quarter, made two tackles, including one when he showed good recognition on a play-action pass, and destroyed a third-and-8 play with a blitz.
“I was hoping to see him disrupt a series, so it worked out great,” Campbell said. “He’s coming back off that hamstring and he’s looked good for about four days now, three, four days in practice, and it’s like, ‘All right, this is good, but now we’re going on turf and the intensity’s about to go up. Let’s be smart about it.’ So we just gave him a handful (of snaps) and I would say for the reps that he got, he did a good job.”
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Kevin Strong just shows up
Strong had six tackles, including one for loss, and forced a fumble (the Bills recovered) in extended action Friday as the Lions were down five defensive linemen: Michael Brockers, Da’Shawn Hand, Levi Onwuzurike and John Penisini because of injury, and Nick Williams on the reserve/COVID list.
This isn’t the first time Strong has popped in the preseason. He made the team as an undrafted rookie out of Texas-San Antonio in 2019, and seems to have a knack for performing when his livelihood is on the line.
“I have come to the conclusion I got to prove myself every day, every year,” Strong said. “I enjoy it, man. It’s not even just proving myself to everybody else, it’s proving myself to myself, showing that I can do it every day and just show my family that it’s not over yet. I just take all it as motivation, and just keep on pushing one step at a time.”
Strong may or may not factor into the Lions’ youth equation, because he does not project as a core player and is about the same age as the other players he’s competing for a roster spot with (Penisini and Bruce Hector, primarily).
But, while I won’t do my first roster projection of the summer for another week, there is room for Strong to play his way onto the team after looking at the 53-man roster I cobbled together in the spring.
Offense could be tough to watch
I like big pass plays. I like dynamic offenses that take shots downfield. It was good to see Jared Goff and the Lions put together an 18-play, 10-minute scoring drive on their second possession of the season. But I have major doubts about their ability to win anything other than close, low-scoring games.
Goff, according to my TV-copy film review Saturday morning, averaged throwing the ball just 7.4 yards downfield on his 10 pass attempts (including a dump off to St. Brown nullified by penalty and a shot to the back of the end zone when the Lions were on the 14-yard line). That’s better than the 6.5 intended air yards per target he averaged last season, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, but on the low side by NFL standards.
Last year, nine quarterbacks who attempted 150 or more passes averaged less than 7.4 yards per attempt: Goff, Andy Dalton, Teddy Bridgewater, Alex Smith, Dwayne Haskins, Cam Newton, Nick Mullens and noodle-armed future Hall-of-Famers Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger.
“Preseason is totally different than regular season,” Goff said. “I think in the preseason, we’re running our plays. No matter what they’re putting out there on defense, we’re running our plays, just trying throw completions, move the ball down the field and I thought we did a pretty good job of that on the second drive. … In regular season games, there’s different plays and different calls and different looks you’re looking for to take those shots.”
Goff is 100% right. Offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn was calling specific plays Friday to get those looks on film. The Lions also were without Goff’s top target, tight end T.J. Hockenson — whose presence undoubtedly will open the passing game — and one quarter is hardly enough of a sample size to draw firm conclusions.
But the reality is, the Lions’ offense in the first quarter Friday — when Goff attempted two passes over 10 yards against a mostly second-team Buffalo defense and got sacked two other times when none of his receivers appeared open — looked a lot like what we’ve seen in camp, which makes me think we’re in for a long season.
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Lions have depth at RB, but I am concerned about D’Andre Swift’s extended absence
Swift is one of the few legit playmakers on the Lions offense and he has barely practiced this summer because of a lingering groin injury.
Campbell insisted Friday the Lions are just “being conservative” with their second-year back, which is the right approach since we are four weeks from the regular season.
“I chose to just, let’s sit him,” Campbell said. “Let’s sit him and let’s rehab it and let’s strengthen it a little bit. He was fighting through it. He was doing a good job, but it just didn’t feel like it was getting better fast enough, so let’s just sit him. He could have gone if we really, really needed it, but it’s not worth it right now.”
Jamaal Williams is a solid No. 2 back, and rookie Jermar Jefferson and maybe even free agent find Craig Reynolds have potential. But Swift can catch 75 passes if healthy and brings needed versatility and firepower. If his groin injury lingers into the season, it will make life even tougher on Goff and Co.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.