Allen Park — For now, it’s mostly just talk, at least from the outside listening in.
But if you ask anyone in attendance at the Lions’ mandatory minicamp this week, they’ll tell you that seeing is believing. Maybe hearing is, too.
And with most of the noise on the practice field coming from that revamped defensive secondary, it’s just one more reason to take notice of a position group that has gone from a glaring weakness a year ago to a perceived strength this offseason.
“It’s loud back there,” defensive end Romeo Okwara laughed Wednesday after practice. “Those DBs, they know how to make it loud.”
But that’s a good thing, he added. And it’s a good sign of just how everyone feels as the Lions finish up their spring work and get ready to take one last break before training camp begins in earnest in July.
A year ago, the Lions finished last in the NFL in total defense, even after a second-half surge — fueled by forced turnovers — that nearly earned them a playoff berth. But it was the big plays that proved particularly costly all season, and it was the secondary that seemed most responsible as Detroit’s defense allowed 60 pass plays of 20 yards or more, third-worst in the league.
No surprise, then, that it was that part of the roster that general manager Brad Holmes targeted for an overhaul, spending a healthy chunk of his free-agent budget to bring in veteran starters in Cam Sutton (three years, $33 million), C.J. Gardner-Johnson (one year, $8 million) and Emmanuel Moseley (one year, $6 million).
Moseley is still working his way back from a torn ACL suffered with San Francisco last October, but he’s expected to be ready for the start of the season. The other two already have started to assert themselves as leaders for defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, though, with Sutton manning one outside corner spot for the first-team defense and Gardner-Johnson moving back and forth between nickel corner and safety, just like he did playing for Glenn in New Orleans at the start of his career.
The 28-year-old Sutton, who spent his first six NFL seasons in Pittsburgh, allowed just a 47.9% completion rate when targeted by opposing quarterbacks last season. Gardner-Johnson, 25, led the NFL with six interceptions, half as many as the entire Lions roster did in 2022.
“Look, it’s early — we’re in spring,” Campbell said. “But there’s a reason why we went and got Cam Sutton. There’s a reason why we got C.J. There’s a reason why we got Moseley. Because we believe they certainly upgrade us production-wise, but also, they’re football guys. They fit everything that we’re about, the way they go about their business. They’re veteran guys, they’ve got skins on the wall, they come from winning programs and they just play the game the right way.”
Strong first impressions
And for now, if nothing else, they’re part of the reason why the Lions’ highly-touted offense is having some trouble finding a rhythm — or much success — on the practice field.
That’s usually the case, as defenses typically are ahead of the offenses in May and June and often even when training camp starts in late July around the NFL. But through three weeks of OTAs and the first two days of a mandatory minicamp, perhaps nothing has stood out more than the way that new-look secondary has routinely made plays in full-team drills — interceptions, pass breakups, simulated sacks on blitzes, you name it.
“Yeah, it’s much stickier this year, I feel like, and whether that’s a product of new players or just having another year in the scheme, I can’t tell you,” said quarterback Jared Goff, who was intercepted by safety Kerby Joseph a deep ball early in Wedneday’s practice. “But it’s been much stickier and harder for us to gain separation at this point in OTAs, and I think they’ve done a hell of a job making it harder on us and growing as a unit over there.”
Head coach Dan Campbell called it “a big transformation” Wednesday, and amid all the crackling enthusiasm and cackling voices in Allen Park, that hardly seems like hyperbole.
It’s not a guarantee things will be dramatically different starting in September, either. But between Gardner-Johnson’s “contagious energy,” the return of safety Tracy Walker from his torn Achilles, and the confidence gained by last year’s rookie surprise, Kerby Joseph, everything is amped up, including the trash talk.
“And I think that makes everybody around you better and more competitive,” Campbell said, “because if you’re not reaching that level of intensity in practice, you’re probably going to get beat.”
Picking passes, and brains
You’ll hear about it on the field when you do, of course. But the conversations that are happening away from it are just as important.
“I always tell the guys, ‘Never be in a rush to get out of the building,’” Sutton said. “But this is a group that’s not scared to ask questions. It’s a young group, but we’re always around each other, we’re always picking each others’ brains.”
And for third-year safety Ifeatu Melifonwu, it’s easy to pick up on the change.
“Yeah, I feel like we know it is contagious from our room, and it trickles down to the linebackers and the D-line,” he said Wednesday. “We kind of set that energy.
“It’s a different vibe. I feel like we’re closer this year, and there’s no hostility. Everyone wants to see everyone be great and push each other.”
Campbell referenced that point Wednesday as well, noting the benefits of having veteran leaders in every position room for what is still one of the NFL’s youngest roster. It’s why Holmes brought in Michael Brockers to help mentor the defensive line the last two seasons, and part of the reason why Alex Anzalone has been a mainstay here at linebacker since Campbell arrived.
“But we never quite got that in the secondary and I wish we would’ve done that, because I just think it just helps the whole room,” Campbell said. “But that’s really what we’ve got now.”
And, really, I think that’s what we’re seeing — and hearing — play out in front of us this spring. And this fall, when it really matters?
“Stay tuned,” Walker says.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo