The Detroit Lions finished the 2023 season with a 12-5 record and won their division for the first time in 30 years. They also won not one – but two playoff games for the first time in a single postseason and to say it was a successful season would be a major understatement. They were a field goal away from going to the Super Bowl as they lost to the 49ers in the NFC championship game with a score of 34-31. After what was the best season in Lions franchise history – they could have easily sat back and enjoyed hearing about how good their 2023 season was and coast – and hope that they can get to a Super Bowl this year. But they didn’t. And the Lions improved a lot from the end of the year until now – which is pretty scary for the rest of the NFL – considering how close they were to getting to the Super Bowl last year. And if a few things didn’t go against them – like an insane Brandon Aiyuk catch in the NFC championship game for example – they may have got to the Super Bowl last year. But with the improvements they made this offseason – and with the expectation of everyone young continuing to get better – the Detroit Lions are ready to win it all. And we’re going to break everything down in today’s video along with Lions safety Ifeatu Melfionwu. Now let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video by discussing what the Lions did in free agency and what they did to improve the roster this offseason. They lost corner CJ Gardner Johnson in free agency who signed a 3 year $27 million dollar deal with the Eagles and I know CJ has been good at times throughout his NFL career – like in 2022 when he had 6 interceptions during his previous tenure with the Birds – but CJ only played in 3 regular season games in 2023 before playing in the 3 playoff games with the Lions last year. So he played in 6 of the 20 team’s games – or just 30% of the teams games – and I don’t think losing him was that big of a loss because they had time to prepare for it last year. Not only that – but they also drafted corners with their top two picks and even traded for Carlton Davis from the Bucs this offseason – which I absolutely loved and didn’t think this move was discussed by the national media – as much as it should have been. Carlton is a solid defender and is absolutely an upgrade compared to what the Lions had at corner in 2023. And for reference – there were times where Cam Sutton was absolutely toasted in coverage throughout the 2023 season and this is per PFF – but Sutton led the league in opposing receiving yards allowed. Now I will say – there are times where if a defense is playing a standard cover 2 and if a corner or linebacker is playing a hook curl in zone coverage – that there are times where PFF will credit a player for – and is say this with air quotations but for “allowing a reception” in coverage – which isn’t exactly fair to the defensive player. But – leading the league in opposing receiving yards allowed is a little different than allowing a 7 yard check down twice a game on 3rd and 15 when the defense is just trying to protect the sticks. And leading the league in that doesn’t happen by accident. So while Carlton Davis isn’t an elite or all pro corner – he is an upgrade to the defense – which was vastly needed. And what also needs to be remembered with the 2023 Lions – is for as successful as they were offensively – they had a lot of trouble in the secondary – specifically at the cornerback position. They finished 23rd in points allowed per game last year and were 27th in passing yards allowed and 27th in passing touchdowns allowed. The main reason for this of course was Detroit was great against the run. They finished 3rd in rushing attempts against, 2nd in rushing yards allowed, and were 3rd in opposing yards per carry. And the big reason for the vast difference here wasn’t just because Detroit finished 12-5 and that the game flow called for the opposing team to throw the ball 70% of the game – but because opposing offenses knew where they could attack the weak link – which was at corner. Perhaps the best example of this was during the wild card round against the Rams in which former Lions quarterback Matt Stafford threw for 367 yards and two touchdowns. Their running back – Kyren Williams – had a phenomenal year and became the second running back ever – to finish top 5 in rushing yards in a season while missing 5 games – the other was of course Barry Sanders. But even with a player who finished top 5 in rushing yards last year – the Rams only ran the ball 17 times for a total of 68 yards because they knew where the results would come from. That’s not to take away from the Lions playoff win of course – as much as it is to credit what Brad Holmes did this offseason to fix a major hole – which they did by trading for a good starting corner – and by drafting two good corner prospects in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft
Now one other part of the Lions defense that also has to be better in 2024 is the pass rush – outside of Aidan Hutchinson of course. Aidan Hutchinson carried – and I mean carried the Lions pass rush in 2023. Hutch finished second in the NFL in pressures last year with 101 and finished just two behind the Cowboys Micah Parsons. As you can imagine with a player on a team who’s second leading pass rusher finished with just 34 pressures – Hutch was double teamed a lot. Double teamed, chipped, you name it – teams did whatever they could to slow down Hutch because there was no legitimate second option. Alim McNeil finished the year with 5 sacks in 13 games which certainly isn’t bad – but after Alim – the 3rd leading sack getter for the Lions along the defensive line was John Cominsky and Romeo Okwara who finished with a grand total of 2 sacks each. Cominsky had just 29 pressures on the year on 375 pass rushing snaps and the Lions addressed the pass rush as much as they could this offseason. The reality for Detroit is the magical offseasons of acquiring a generational tackle like Penei Sewell and Amon Ra in the same draft, or like the 2023 draft in which they set their franchise up for years of success – I don’t want to say are over because it still is entirely possible – but I certainly wouldn’t expect those types of drafts selecting near pick 28, 30, or even 32 in the upcoming drafts. The Chiefs had an absolutely insane 2022 draft selecting in the later part of the first round – but that’s not the standard. And the reason I wanted to preface that is because what Detroit has been doing to improve their roster since Brad Holmes took over has been insane – and not normal – in a good way by the way. So what Detroit did to address the pass rush was sign DJ Reeder from the Bengals who – is not exactly a pass rushing defensive tackle – but a player who offenses absolutely have to respect and a guy who will occasionally push the pocket – and sign Marcus Davenport. Now – Reader is a player I like a lot and I think he is a very good player – but he certainly doesn’t upgrade the pass rush coming off of a torn quad – which he suffered late in the 2023 season.
Marcus Davenport is the definition of a boom or bust player and I hope he works out for Detroit – but I wouldn’t have the highest expectations. He has just 2.5 sacks in his last 19 games played and it’s one thing to have a 9 sack season like he did back in 2021 – and to build off of that year – but it’s another to follow the career year up with two dud seasons. If you are planning on buying in with Marcus Davenport and thinking he’s going to be a great player for the Lions this year – and that he’s going to be the robin to Hutch’s batman – I would say be cautiously optimistic. He only played in 4 games last year and was not an impactful player by any means. Now for my concerns with the pass rush outside of Hutch – I like their linebacking core a lot which is led by veteran Alex Anzalone. Anzalone had nearly 130 tackles last year and has played the best football of his career since becoming a Lion prior to the start of the 2022 season. Jack Campbell showed flashes during his rookie year and he was a player I loved coming out of Iowa and a guy who I think is going to take a big step this year. And even during what would be considered his down moments last year – he was still very good against the run – and hell so was Anzalone – and those two are going to cause problems for opposing offenses – again. It’s not ideal for an opposing offense to have to play two linebackers with the size each of these guys have because it creates problems in throwing lanes across the middle – which they each flashed at times throughout the 2023 season. With the improvements Detroit made defensively this offseason – they should be far from a team that finishes 23rd in points allowed per game for the second straight year.
