Thinking about our D I know they were bad brutal even but that was with Fat Matt as coach so what do we really have honestly do we know other than our LBs.
It’s so bad, they’ll write books on this defense on how not to play defense.
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Only D in the NFL that repeatedly only required 10 players.
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Patricia was the weak link in our defense. Watching our defensive schemes and then watching a playoff teams defensive strategy was night and day.
Not good when a casual fan can predict offensive and defensive plays a majority of the time.
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I posted a long reason why I think we are a lot better. We have released or not offered contracts or it wasn’t rich enough for some 12 D players so far.
We have added 9 new younger players plus we have one coming off season ending injury who we drafted last season Jashon Cornell DT 6’-3" 290 Joel Heath 6’6" 303 Michael Brockers 6-5 322 That helps the players on DL we kept We have 5 lets call them rush DEs we have 2 new LBs an brought back two…Major changes in secondary an likely more to come added two Safeties an two CB;s The D is better just with new staff plus got rid of a lot of players just looking for pay day,
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The truth is we don’t know yet but no way we are bad as last season. There’s a chance we are actually a middle of the pack defence just based on getting rid of Matt Patricia. Who knows what Okudah offers this year and what we still add in the draft. I expect a big step forward for the entire D just by the upgrade at coaching.
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100% agree! The Lions D might really surprise some teams next year. The main reason is going to be a massive upgrade on the coaching staff and defensive scheme. Patricia was so stubborn and refused to make adjustments to his scheme, his plan to cover RB’s and TE’s in cover 0 with big, slow linebackers was painful to live through. High school coaches across the country have better ideas than he did.
Hindsight is 20/20, but when you hire a morbidly obese former backup D3 offensive lineman to run your defense with a pencil behind his ear, we got what we deserved. Thanks Bob Quinn, hopefully you have learned that hiring your fat buddy from your former job is a great way to commit career suicide. lol
There’s reason to be optimistic to. Okudah coming out was a lock top three pick wether anyone here wants to admit it. How good are we if he becomes the man this year? Walker to. He looked to be on a pro bowl type path until last season. I actually like where our DLine is at heading into the draft. Brockers was a massive upgrade inside. Bringing Romeo back was huge, Hand should improve. Bryant and JOk should take a step forward. AO looks to be developing at CB. Our LB’s need some youth added and another Saftey to complement Walker would be massive but if our coaches use our players to their strengths we have some pieces and I expect we will add some in the draft as well. Gotta love the approach we took in FA with adding some Vets with a lot to prove on short term deals. I expect after this season and the coaches know exactly what they have we will see some bigger changes.
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Yeah I don’t know why anyone even bothers speculating, at this point. It’s almost a completely different defense, with so much player turnover this off season. Add to that the fact that we will have a different scheme, different coaching, different attitude and still don’t know what pieces we will add in the draft and post-draft FA…I just don’t see how anyone can think they know what to expect.
That being said, of course people will make guesses because it’s fun and that’s kind of what boards like this are for to begin with. I just think every guess we read should be taken with a grain of salt the size of Mt Rushmore.
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That’s exactly what might help us. The unknown and being unpredictable, no one has ever seen AG call a play before.
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Exactly. How many times have we all seen what we thought were decent players become all pro in the right scheme. Glover Quinn was a good example. He was a solid safety. Then he signed with the lions and became a pro bowl player.
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IMO coaches, strategy and schemes make or break many players careers. The draft is very important, but having coaches that develop players and bring out the best in them is way more important.
This is often why free agents fail chasing the $$$.
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I may be in the minority here, but our defense could be worse this year than it was last year. We have new players all over the place, and an entirely new coaching staff that will have very little practice time and less preseason than usual. The start of the season is going to be BRUTAL. I expect to give up 30+ppg over the first half of the year. Hopefully they show improvement down the stretch, but let’s not pretend like this team is going to turn it around instantly and be a decent defense.
I really don’t think that’s possible. Seriously.
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Finally a voice of reason. I get that fan is short for fanatic, but man there is some major koolaid being passed around when it comes to the defense. This is not an NFL roster on defense. On top of that they have a new coach, new scheme, and a first time coordinator who will experience some growing pains. I’m not sure what out of that formula makes people think “yea this team will rise 10 spots in the rankings at least.”
I think if there was some basis for it other than “new coach has got to be better than the last coach” then maybe I’d subscribe. I also think being on this board forever has allowed me to see this cycle. Lions fans ALWAYS think the new coach is going to be way better than the last one by default (including Patricia when he was hired).
Talent matters. A lot. This defense doesn’t have nearly enough of it. Until that changes Glenn is going to have a rough introduction to being a DC. And if he somehow doesn’t - if Glenn can take this Arena Football League roster and make them a middle of the pack D? He’s GONE next year as the hottest HC candidate in the nfl.
If you doubt the Lions ability to suck at historical levels year after year, I don’t know what to tell ya. They’ve proven capable of that time and again. And we are basically admitting we are going to suck this year.
Honestly I think a lot of fans over estimate this roster on both sides of the ball. We have replacement level wide receivers, a mediocre QB, a talented but often injured swift (really like the Williams signing to back him up). A solid but not spectacular line with no depth and a good but not special tight end.
On defense we have a couple lineman in flowers, brockers and okwara that can play but aren’t game changers… our secondary has not one proven nfl starter and our linebackers are lead by a skilled, but known to give up when he’s not winning, player in Jamie Collins. Anzalone was a backup / specialty player for the saints and he’s our next best. And also… we lost prater and replaced him with a kicker that can barely attempt anything longer than 48 yards. And we lost our good returner too.
I like the staff, and I see how we are setting things up for the future… but our roster as it currently stand is like 30th in the league in talent. We were a 5 win team that lost our really good QB, our 1, 2 and 3 wr, (all better than their replacements) and our stud kicker. On defense we mostly just trimmed fat. But don’t have much left over.
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Always lots of optimism when it’s,“out with the old and in with the new”. You really could call what we’ve got, “2nd Hand Lions”. This year I expect them to simply figure out what it is they have. Most teams know by the end of preseason but I think we’ll still be rearranging some deck chairs on the Titanic at that point. Looking up and down the roster my take is that you take BPA over need all day long in the draft. If you can trade out of #7 and get a fair return, do it. Fans tend to hype the best season a player ever had, what a new staff and scheme will mean, etc. The reality is that we need time and talent to shake this thing up.
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Look, there’s no denying that we have a sub-standard roster. I’m not saying they’re going to move out of the bottom third of the league. I am saying, however, that I doubt they’ll be as futile as the 2020 defense, which was challenging the 2008 defense in futility.
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I’m not saying it definitely will be worse, but to say it’s not possible is a stretch. We know the Lions can (and may) set a new record for bad defense.