How Much Improvement On Defense?

The War Room Detroit Lions — The Den
61

More reasons I think this defense will suprise - I am not sure what “talent” means to different people. I think it is made up of athletic ability, Intellect (football IQ) and desire. So lets look at how our defense breaks out:

CB -
Okudah - RAS 8.97
Melifowhu - RAS 9.69
Onwuzurike - RAS 8.52
Price - RAS 9.96
Parker - RAS 2.72

For the most part these young guys have shown to be hard workers and study the game. We have a good young coach to help these guys. Yes they are young and need to learn but I don’t get the “no talent” narrative. A lot of speed and athleticism to mold into a good unit and they all seem to put in the work to make it happen.

Safeties

Harris - RAS 9.66
Walker - RAS 6.8
Marlowe - RAS 4.89
Moore - RAS unknown

Arguably or weakest unit. Harris has the tools and supposedly had one of the best camps. Walker has proven he can play well when playing to his strengths. Marlowe and Moore are average at best. It will be interesting to see how they use this unit.

Linebackers

Collins - RAS 9.33
Barnes - 8.42
Anzalone - 8.03
JRM - 5.50
Pittman - RAS 6.8

This is not the same unit we have seen here the last decade, with one decent athletic linebacker and average to below average others. We have athletic linebackers, some young and some experienced. Add in the fact that they will have a good DL in front of them and these guys should easily outperform prior years.

DL

This is interesting because a few of the players who have proven they can play over the years are actually on the average to below average RAS scale.

Brockers - RAS 3.4
Flowers - RAS 5.66
R Okwara - RAS 4.89
J Okwara - 7.21
Harris - 4.26
McNeil - 8.52
Orzurike - 8.72
Hand - 8.9 (but never play)
Penisini - NA
Strong - 2.82
Bryant - NA

Mixed bag on RAS but the 3 best players historically are the low RAS guys. We added two rookies who have high RAS and now have mentors and a coaching staff to mold them correctly.

A lot of the defensive roster is filled with athlectic guys. The coaching staff kept players that put in film and work effort to improve.

Add in the addition by subtraction of Beavis and Butthead along with one of the strongest coaching staffs I have seen in years and I just find it hard to bet against this unit not overperforming. Could they use better depth at safety and LB? Of course - but I just don’t buy the narrative that this defense is devoid of talent. I think their biggest challenge is inexperience - not talent. I may be really embarrassed later on but for now I see a unit with a ton of potential.

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62

Makes me miss Lionsmom. Now I will be sad the rest of the afternoon. A true loss.

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63

Yep, Mikhael Ricks mom used to post too.

64

Yeah Kelly Stafford (JRLions) may be the last one we had. I find it fitting that she got banned the minute she moved to CA. Coincidence? Probably not.

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65

I don’t think I was paying that much attention to the board when JR was banned or left. Out of curiosity I did a handle search. This was the first content on the search:

“Dec '19 - JRLIONS: The idea that Quinn is a bad GM is ridiculous. The idea that the Diggs trade was a bad one is also ridiculous.”

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66

Wait. What? JR was banned?

67

Reminds me of a twitter rant I went on about Tavai after we drafted him.

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68

We traded him to the Rams.

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69

LOL - Love it!

70

Agree w/everythign you say. And I’ll repeat myself
Different players (with different health).
DIfferent coaches
Different ownership

Entirely different situation - no need to project the past into the future.

it was an analogy for projecting the past into the future.
Sure, never count your chickens before they hatch, but also- cuz the chickens didn’t hatch in the past doesn’t mean they won’t this time. Completely different scenario.

71

LionMom and ShesLion

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72

I don’t see how the defense will be as bad as last year. I mean we’re talking about a really really low bar here.

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73

I did not realize Will Harris’ RAS was that high.

On top of him having a good camp, I think he’s my vote for most improved player this year.

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He tests high but he doesn’t appear to apply it to the field. He even moves slower than guys who are notably less athletic than him on paper. I’m certainly hoping it was just the overthinking Patricia had everyone doing in his defense that slowed him down. And when you purposely don’t rush the QB…there’s ALOT of time to think back there. LOL

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75

Lolol right on!

76

If Harris, Okudah, and Walker can improve we’ll have a much better defense. I’m expecting a better pass rush then last year to help them out.

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77

If we have the 3rd worst defense of all time it will still be an incremental improvement from 2020.

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78

Sheesh… 3 of the bottom 7 spots, and all in the last 15 years? Ugh.

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79

Really awful.

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The defense is where I expect to see the most drastic improvement. I could see us going from among the all time terrible to maybe above average with some luck. It’ll depend on whether our young players improve and how much.

I’m afraid to get too confident in this opinion because I have no idea how these new coaches will perform. Everything has sounded great in the offseason, but our DC has never been a DC. We don’t really know what he’s made of yet. It appears they have upgraded the coaching staff and positional coaches, but the proof is in the pudding. Certainly having wisdom like Dom Capers on the staff helps and having a defensive minded higher up like Spielman also helps.

There is just a lot of unproven players and coaches to make a real solid guess. Certainly not putting my money where my mouth is. What I will say though is this:

I honestly don’t think the defensive talent is that bad. I hear a lot of talk about how talent-less the roster is, and to me, there wasn’t this same talk last year. The reason the roster is so “talentless” IMO is that we downgraded at QB and WR compared to last year. On defense we’ve actually improved the talent level. I would also argue the same on the O line is Sewell starts playing like a top 10 pick.

Where I get concerned is right up the middle of the defense. We added two outstanding young players (thus far IMO) at DT. So I think our DLine will hold up. But my main concern is how well our safeties support the run. This scheme, seemingly, runs on having 2 off ball LBs. Having safeties move up quickly to fill run gaps is going to be important. i really question our safety situation though. I think we’ll apply more pressure than Patricia (not saying much) and I expect at the same time improvement at the CB position. I think its reasonable to say Okudah will improve as its typical to see vast improvement year 2 from a CB, and add to the fact he was a top 5 pick. The talent should be there. We’ll see at the other two CB spots. I suspect we’ll be in the market to overhaul the secondary next year. I am not so concerned about our LB situation. This scheme (again I’m presuming what it is going to be) doesn’t rely on uber talented LBs. Its part of the reason we didn’t draft Parsons. We need guys who can cover and who can fly to the ball. I do think we have a talent deficit there, a little bit. However, I really like Barnes. I see him playing early. But the safety spots do have me concerned.

If the coaching is there (scheme) and the improvement is there (young players develop), I can see the defense surprising. Of course, ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’ll all have a Merry Xmas. Unless you don’t like candy and nuts. Personally I like Peppermint Bark myself and whatever that mocha is that Starbucks comes out with every Christmas. But I digress. We’ll see!!

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