Last year it was mentioned everybody played poorly in d line and that led to Hutchinson’s non impact . Is this a good year to evaluate Hutchinson? Overall our defense is bad ,I was wondering if Hutchinson can make an impact
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Who was that mentioned by- you?
Every year is a good year to evaluate everybody.
Debateable
Really? Can the best player on a ‘bad’ defense make an impact? That is your question?
Welcome back, espnbaby!
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I think the dline is better this year and honestly it has to be. I dont trust the back field at all
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Where ya been, bro @espnbaby? Man, with all the bad news in the world, havin’ you back is like an oasis in a desert of …
Who am I kidding, I’m scared as hell!
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To me, this is the greater concern unless and until Branch comes back. I’m not counting on Kerby Joseph–I think he’s done–or, at a minimum, will never again be the player we saw during his first three seasons. My concern is opposing teams could have Wooba Gooba with the green teeth at QB and the guy throws for 400 yards against our secondary.
With a healthy McNeil, and a better LB corps, I suspect the run defense will be better (teams will probably want to throw on our secondary anyway).
The pass rush should be better and more versatile. Indeed, I think there’s been a talent upgrade.
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Hutch’s non impact last year…. 
14.5 sacks, 4 forced fumbled, an interception, 14 tackles for loss and 35 qb hits. 2nd team All Pro, 5th in Defensive Player of the Year.
I can’t wait until he makes an impact.
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He’s a Lion, it will be flagged for sure.
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Depends on if we’re healthy. Reed, Rock, McCreary, Maddox and Clark were all at least average, if not better than average, according to PFF for 2025.
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sure, the sexy stats looked good. All the sacks and what not. But then compare that to average time to throw and average distance to quarterback during throw. Those two being the worst in the NFL virtually. It doesn’t paint a good picture.
i think a lot of last year was, Mac coming off injury. Wasnt fully healthy at all. And he wasnt a fan of how Shepherd was coaching
he said himself he felt like he was being asked to do something he wasn’t comfortable with, and that he wasn’t fully 100% healthy.
Now with Mac being fully healthy. Not having two guys you were hoping to have on the 53 Man roster be dead all year. That does help the whole situation
But the thing I am more worried about is Shepherd. He ran the most vanilla defense out of any team last year. Which I get, he was a first time DC. With a Mötley Crüe of players.
hopefully, he has learned from his mistakes and has learned how to adapt and make adjustments.
And somehow the overall DVOA for the defense was top 10… With a disgusting amount of injuries to key players. Can’t wait to see what they do this season.
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I disagree completely.
The Lions front DL is definitely the strength and clearly above average in depth and starters. There’s two probowlers starting in that front 4. Now we have incredible depth. Overall I think we can argue that the Lions DL is top 5 potential.
LBer wise the Lions will be running a lot of two LBer sets. One of those two guys is a probowler. The Lions LBer depth is clearly well above average. With White a former probowler as depth too. Overall I think it’s safe to say we have a top 10 or better LBer corps.
CB wise I think we’re average and lack a little depth too. With two veteran starters we have potential to be better than average but so far that’s arguable. With the Lions DL expected to apply some serious pressure that should help the secondary improve.
S Clark and Maddox are both veteran safeties. Clark is a lot better than people think and Maddox isn’t bad. NFL teams have been trending away from putting money and resources into safety. The Lions backups are veterans and better than most teams starters. If these two are forced to start the entire season then I’d rate them as average but if Branch and Joseph can contribute then suddenly this becomes a deep and strong group.
Overall I think the Lions defense is above average with the potential to be top 10.
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With an average age of like 25.5 and most under long term control. Pretty wild.
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Great description of said QB, and potentially accurate analysis of the secondary. We will see what happens, but on paper QBs have to be licking their chops if Branch & Joseph aren’t playing. It’s quite the lackluster looking group.
Maybe Reed will play lights out & Rakestraw will turn the corner
That didn’t happen until all the injuries mounted. Before that he was aggressive and mixing it up well.
Now he has a full offseason to implement what he wants to do and Dan is letting him…. I think you’re going to see an aggressive and physical defense as a result.
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I did not know you were a Michigan State fan
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Agree totally. If people think Sheppard’s defense is vanilla, again, look at the Baltimore game and see how Sheppard was running things when he had a full contingent of players. He had Lamar Jackson completely confused that game, and this coming when we NEVER stopped running QB’s.
Also, for the last Bears game, even with the completely gutted defense, Sheppard’s gameplan shut down the Bears running game and held the Bears offense to 16 points, shutting them out entirely until the 4th quarter. That was a game the Bears wanted to win, all of the starters were playing, and you know Ben wanted to win.
I do worry about the secondary depth, but that can be covered up to an extent. I’d be a LOT more worried where even if we had Joseph and Branch at full health, if our DL couldn’t stop the run, those guys can’t help too much. You always have to pick your poison, and if we don’t have the horses on the back end, then you compensate by forcing QB’s to make quick decisions and not get comfortable to pick out receivers.
I think the game Sheppard called against the Steelers is the biggest indictment people can use against him, that game was awful. Overall though, I think that game was more of an anomoly and there was plenty of evidence that he did what he could with what he had. Now this year, it looks like he is changing the defense entirely and going with more disguised coverages and pressures coming from everywhere. I like it. It will still lead to blown coverages and big plays, but that’s the give and take that is football. There is always a counter.
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It’s time to move on from that non-impact loser.
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That’s kind of my point though. He did not adjust well. First three weeks there’s not enough tape out there to identify your tendencies. After that opposing teams figured out the weaknesses of the defense. Couple that with a few injuries. And Shepherd did not know how to counter at all. From week 5-16 it was the same formations and same scheme every single week.
Especially when you look at the run game. Sure corners and safeties help the run a little bit. But there is absolutely no reason why the lions had one of the worst run defenses in the NFL last year with their starting front seven fully healthy. I don’t care who was hurt on the backend.
Espnbaby is back! Off season is officially over
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