Lions defense gets a bad rap

And sometimes, people try to make it more complicated than it is.

When you pay for a bad defense, sometimes that’s exactly what you get.

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Okay man, so did the defense get a bad rap or not.

Yes

I think you can answer that any way.

Yes they were bad, so no they aren’t getting a bad rap in that sense.

Given the talent accumulated by Holmes (or lack thereof), expecting them to be better than they were probably is a bad rap.

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Thank you.

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Don’t forget the second part . . .
and your welcome :slight_smile:

Look, they were bad, easy enough. Will they, should they be better? Sure, but one doesn’t negate the other.

The only thing I’m talking about is last year, we paid to have a bad defense and that’s what we got. If you or others thought the defense should have been better than they were, then IMO, yes, they are getting a bad rap.

We should be better this year, but I wouldn’t expect miracles, we will be better if we are healthy, we lost some of our best players to injuries last year. We added some good young players in the secondary and re-signed some key players. But at the end of the day, we will once again be spending near the bottom of the league on defense.

So if we suck again, I wouldn’t be surprised. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

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See here is where I disagree.
Last year we only had 5 players on Defense with 5 or more years of experience. The plan was to get young and they did that. Result is a lot of players on 1st contracts and yea the spending was low because they wanted to go young. But with a years of experience for last years rookies and more experience for the 2-3 year players, the defense should be taking bigger steps than just expecting us to suck again.
This is where the money spent should start deviating from the narrative that the defense will suck based on it. If the drafting is on point and the young players are developed before their rookie contracts are up than we should expect the defense to get better…
Now this is based on the coaches being able to develop the players. I’m not a believer yet that AG can do that on the defensive side.

There is nothing wrong with the plan to get younger, but it does come with growing pains especially when Bob Quinn leaves you a roster to work with.

No one gets better without investing cash into their players. We paid for a bad defense and that’s what we got, but it’s better than the MIN, SEA, JAX who paid for a good defense and got a bad one or GB, MIA, PIT who paid for an elite defense and got an average one.

It’s not any harder than it needs to be, if you want to get better, you pay for it and we haven’t done that.

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Personally I will be surprised if we are relatively healthy and still suck again. I like our defensive talent 2nd best in the division and probably have us middle of the pack in the conference.

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Yeah, it was still a matter of, “You can’t fix everything”, and there’s only so much money to go around. I’m still wondering about DT but in general I think they will field a much improved D. They were young, there are guys who stepped up late, the guys they brought into the secondary from FA…it says improved. Right now it’s next level, offense wins games and D wins championships. Gotta walk before you can run.

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The defense was bad last year. At times biblically bad. Serviceable at other times. Never good. The run defense was bad all season. It was never a strength or average.

The first step is they must be able to shut down the run game on the early downs so they can force 3rd and long. Which then allows you to get after the QB and also relieves pressure on the secondary. Because now you can stand up at the markers 8 yards out. When you need 2 yards on 3rd down it just makes it impossible for the defense.

I am with most that the defense improved and was I would say serviceable by the end of the season. But I would challenge anyone stating it was ever good or a strength.

This is the group on the team that must get better. It needs to be serviceable at worst every game and maybe have some good/great games. This is a must to get to 11/12 wins.

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.well put…i agree 100% with you …inho the first 7 games the lions defense was biblically bad…in the last 10 games the defense was serviceable…the point of the post is the sports media is sayong the lions defense was the worst in the league at the end of the year…they were not a good defense but serviceable one by the END of the year…and with all the changes from last year and the new fa and the draft it is on the way to being a good to very good defense at the beginning of this year.

We go to the playoffs if we could stop the running game of a team with a non existent passing game. We didn’t. It did not get a bad rap.

We killed jacksonville 45-14 they went to the playoffs with same exact record as the lions …and they went to the playoffs and won a game…

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Once Houston came on the scene and Commish returned from injury, one thing the defense was doing much better was creating turnovers and getting sacks. Kerby became a ball hawk in the 2nd half of the season.

I think the Lions may still give up a lot of yards in 2023, but we have some real playmakers now. Sutton had 3 INT’s last year, Gardner Johnson had 6, Kerby 4, Hutch 3. I also think we have a chance to be a top 10 sack team. Better secondary with year 2 of Hutch, Paschal and Houston could be a big step forward. QB’s are gonna have to hold onto the ball a bit longer with such an improved secondary.

Now again, it all comes down to stopping the run. Will Jack Campbell make an immediate impact in that area!? Can we start scheming better to stop running QB’s? We got Fields twice, Lamar Jackson, Jordan Love twice and Mahomes on the schedule to name a few QB’s that can really move.

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You would lose that challenge, and we already explained why.

so how do our injuries weigh in as to having a bad defense last season???

Yesterday I post this, today…

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