The Detroit Lions lost SAM backer Derrick Barnes in the Week 4 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Rather than looking outside the organization to replace the unique skills Barnes brought to the role, the Lions gave the first crack at replacing him to young Trevor Nowaske.
Nowaske, reclaimed earlier this year after being poached from Detroit by the Arizona Cardinals a year ago, filled in for Barnes in a very limited duty against Seattle. His role expanded quite a bit in Detroit’s Week 6 blowout win over the Cowboys in Dallas.
Nowaske played 29 snaps in Dallas of a possible 69 defensive reps. I watched all 29, focusing on No. 53 and how he performed on each. I evaluated Nowaske on every snap, giving him a plus for a positive play and a minus for a poor one. Not every play earns a plus or minus. Here’s what I took away from Nowaske against the Cowboys.
Nowaske didn’t play in the first two defensive series as the Cowboys were almost exclusively in 10 (1 RB, no TEs) or 11 (1 RB, 1 TE) personnel packages; the Lions defense typically never uses the SAM (the 3rd LB) against those groupings. Dallas opened its third drive with 13 personnel (3 TEs), and that brought Nowaske onto the field.
Nowaske didn’t earn any mark on this play, a run that went to the other side of the formation. He did shed the block from the outside TE and got involved in the pileup after the tackle was already made, a good effort but not a consequential one for the play outcome.
The first plus came well into the third quarter, after Aidan Hutchinson’s unfortunate injury. Nowaske lined up in Hutchinson’s role as a stand-up EDGE against Cowboys RT Terrence Steele and immediately beat No. 78 with a bull move that he pulled off and shed to wrap up a fleeing Dak Prescott. It’s a clean-up sack, with Nowaske finishing what pressure DJ Reader and Isaac Ukwu started, but No. 53 did a great job here.
Nowaske earned his first minus on his next pass rush attempt, this time from the other side of the formation. He was easily nullified by Tyler Smith and didn’t do much with his hands or shoulders to try and break free.
The very next play was the Brian Branch “punchout” forced fumble, and Nowaske should have drawn a holding penalty on Smith on this one. Tough to rush the passer when the tackle has his full hand inside your shoulder pad under your jersey…
In an unexpected twist, Nowaske later earned a plus for his hustle and blocking on the Brian Branch interception that was nearly returned for a pick-six. Nowaske had a pass rush win on the play and then nicely got in the way of the Cowboys pursuit of Branch.
Overall tally for Nowaske
In the 29 snaps, Nowaske earned five plusses and three minuses. Nearly all of his grade-worthy action game while playing as the LDE in the base defense once Hutchinson left. The game was well in hand for the Lions by that point, for context.
In the run game, Nowaske earned one plus and one minus. Dallas barely ran the ball, so that’s not much of a sample size.
As a pass rusher, Nowaske picked up four plusses and two minuses. The plusses includes his sack and another QB pressure. His one rep in coverage was inconsequential.
I’d like to see Nowaske play with better pad level when setting the edge on the run. As a pass rusher, he did a pretty good job of not offering the blocker a clean target and generally (but not always) fought well to shed.