Containing Bryce Young in the pocket is a high priority
This ^
I expect Waller to have a big game
@RodWoodsonsACL
Dan Campbell’s been dying for someone like DJ Wonnum
For year, the Detroit Lions have been trying to find some sort of complement to Aidan Hutchinson on the other side of the defensive line. And it appears they finally got the players they want in DJ Wonnum. Campbell said they were “dying for,” a player like him, because he’s such a perfect fit.
“Man, he’s kind of this lunch pail guy at the defensive end. He does everything right,” Campbell said. “There’s nothing flashy yet. Man, he’s pretty crafty and he’s pretty smooth, but he can be violent on the edge. It’s so consistent and that’s exactly what we acquired. I love the consistency.”
Last week, Wonnum notched 2.0 sacks against the Jets, and Campbell believes it’s only a matter of time before Wonnum’s wins begin to trickle down to the rest of the defensive line.
“It started to come to life here. He’s getting his own wins over there opposite of Hutch. They’re using a lot of resources over there against 97 and man, now he’s starting to show up over there,” Campbell said. “Now they got to decide, alright, are we going to help there too a little bit? And now you’re opening up for (Lions DL Alim McNeill) Mac and (Lions DL Skyler Gill-Howard) Sky and those guys in the middle and (Lions DL) Tyleik (Williams).”
Does this sound like a man who targeted a marginal player?
He’s right about wonnum drawing attention. If he can just be above average it will open things up.
I definitely understand what you are saying, but this man is also the same man who targeted Marcus Davenport. Someone I wouldn’t even consider a marginal player.
Wonnum is the type of player we should have been looking for the past 2 seasons, not a Davenport. I’ve been impressed with him as a Lion. I posted it before, but just last game, Wonnum already passed Davenport with 2, vs Davenport with 1.5 in 10 total games across 2 seasons.
Agreed. But do we know the conversations and the logic that went into going after Davenport before year 1 and retaining him after year 1? Even I don’t know that and it’s fair to critique. The Lions are doing less injured but high upside stuff…that’s a good thing.
Agree on that. Every coach has blind spots. I’ve said this before, I think Dan has a bit of a blind spot for guys cut after coming off of injury, because that’s what he was in his career. He likes giving those guys another shot. Also, he had Davenport in New Orleans, so that I do think contributed to why he was so insistent that Davenport had something to offer the Lions, even though everyone else saw he was done.
As frustrating as last year was, in Dan’s closing presser, he said there would be a push to get back to doing what the team used to do before and had gotten away from. He didn’t specify what that was, but I think a lot of it was transitioning the team back to young up and coming pups that they would develop and teach NFL football to. I think we’ve seen that with the draft picks and free agents, and who they chose to part ways with. I like the general direction of the team. We gotta improve the CB room, and a Bates would be a godsend, but I do think we are seeing the ugliest part of the team performance and this team is going to come together and play their best football in December, leading into January.