Considering he had 5 sacks which by definition are behind the LOS and also had 68 defensive stops which are defined as “tackles that lead to unsuccessful results for the offense” more specifically:
On a first down, if the offense gets 45% of the way to a first down or less
On a second down, if the offense gets 60% of the way to a first down or less
On a third or fourth down, if the offense doesn’t get a first down.
It would seem to indicate that your 8-12 yards downfield comment is nonsense derived from anecdotal evidence of “i seen it so there for i’m right” however if you can come back with an actual sourced stat backing your claims i am sure we would love to see it.
you can’t have your HC and Morton trying to call shit I’m not 10,000 percent that Mort was just BAD, I think he was in over his head, didn’t know what changes to make, what packages to call in X circumstances, I don’t feel he knew what he had -player wise and didn’t make changes based off the plays he was seeing. when your in a fight, you have to do several things to keep winning , I think Mort was “deer in the headlights” at times and didn’t do anything MUCH to help us Defensively—I hope this season is better, but you got to know how to be flexible and change and move to combat opposing offenses….not act as if we’re good.
Look beyond the media glazing… Out of 176 tackles, 108 of them were not defensive stops by your definition. Detroit’s average time to pressure of 2.92 seconds was the slowest in the NFL. Opposing passers averaged nearly three seconds to get rid of the football, the highest in the NFL. Jack has talent but he’s not worth the contract he’s going to command. The Lions need more pressure and paying a pass rusher is way more important than paying someone who’s biggest value is “stopping the bleeding.” I would much rather not bleed.
Do you think Jack isn’t really an All-pro talent at linebacker? Was that selection incorrect? Or are you saying that All-pro MIKE linebackers shouldn’t be retained?
I think Jack is an All-pro because the scheme sets him up to have a ton of action. With that said, I think the scheme is absolute trash and way outdated. MIKE LBs that command pass rusher money shouldn’t be retained. In today’s NFL you should only pay big money to pass rushers.
This may be an old thread but it’s also a problem the Lions did not address in the off season. Seeing as the draft is coming up, I find this particular thread current and very relevant.
Okay, I will bite. Injuries played a part in the decline of the team. The identity of the team was lost a little bit last year. Before all the injuries hit the secondary our defense was top 10. The defense dropped drastically once the secondary began to fall off. There were games where the Lions did as well as can be expected trotting out the Legion of Whom. Did anyone know who harper was before he was thrown into service? In 2024 the lions did a fantastic job attempting to ducktape that defense together…..it’s not as simple as “the niners did it”, so did the lions…in fact…the Lions are the only franchise in NFL History to have a winning season(s) with two of the most injured defenses since 2001. So Detroit’s defense was historically injured in 2024 and 2025.
Also: Detroit’s identity is offense. They are built to destroy teams, the defense just has to be average. And if they stay healthy they can be average. They lost last year because of Rags and his lack of communication, John Morton and his ineptness and Dan’s sudden lose of identity. Detroit has the ability and the superstars on offense to be the number one offense every year until said otherwise.
Shep needs to improve and there is no denying that but you can’t ignore the injuries…….
Man is your thread title misleading. The lions were the lowest in Sub packages. That doesn’t make them the worst scheme.
So they played the most base defense.. of any team. And no it wasn’t a nickel base defense…. I still can’t believe some here actually think nickel is a base defense. Nickel is a sub package.
The Lions played plenty of sub packages early on. They were near the league average in fact. They also played gap control with an aggressive down hill LBer and safety play early on.
Unfortunately injuries to S and CB stripped them of the personnel needed to be able to play an effective sub package. Then they chose to ask their LBers to stay in coverages and play read and react style. They did this to help the secondary from giving up the big plays. This in turn severely hurt our run defense.
Toss in the fact that AA wasn’t as effective in coverage and the effective range of our LBers declined last year and suddenly we had a recipe for a ton of base defense by necessity.
This is in part why I think the Lions will draft a new age style LBer. Smaller, faster better coverage skills and the ability to play in subpackages will greatly help this defense.
Both situations ultimately led to similar outcomes, and I agree on that point. The key difference, however, lies in the circumstances. In our case, the lack of a secondary wasn’t due to injuries. It was a result of insufficient talent. Financial constraints also played a role, as we were managing salary cap issues stemming from a poorly structured contract handed out during the Quintricia era.
By contrast, the Lions approached their rebuild by prioritizing the trenches in their first two drafts. That strategy limited their ability to invest heavily in the secondary at the time, leading them to opt for more cost-effective options. Now, they do have talent in the secondary, but injuries have hindered that unit.
In the end, it’s a case of different paths leading to a similar destination.
Normally, I would agree. Unfortunately, the players that started the season were Man specialists. They were drafted or signed because of their M2M abilities.
It’s kind of hard to change the coverages you’ve been playing all season, just because guys get hurt. The guys that played later in the season, were also Man guys. They just weren’t as good at it as the starters.
That’s why they were available.
This isn’t Madden. You don’t just call a play and the players run the play. You have to train guys’ eyes. Practice isn’t as prevalent during the season as it is in the offseason. So, zone coverages with route matching, etc. isn’t as easy as you guys think.