The Detroit Lions and the Wide 9: Do the Lions Ignore the Cornerback Position?

There is a widely held perception that the Detroit Lions ignore the cornerback position. Those who hold this opinion point to their cornerback play as a weakness and view it as a problem that the Lions won't be able to overcome. The games they played against Green Bay (Week 17) and New Orleans (2011-12 playoff game) certainly make their argument seem valid.

The Detroit Lions run a defense called the wide nine. It can essentially be described as a defense that lines up the defensive ends wider than normal. Most defensive ends play the seven technique. The seven technique is the position that is on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle.

The Lions line up their defensive ends in the nine technique on the outside shoulder of the tight end (or where a tight end would be) and try to use the larger area as a weakness for offensive tackles. It is accurate to portray offensive linemen as players that move well in short, smaller distances.

If you make a lineman back pedal laterally while trying to cover ground they are not used to covering, it will give a defensive end an advantage. This advantage really stands out with defensive ends that are superior athletes. It exposes offensive linemen to a multitude of moves that a defensive end can use from the bull rush to the inside move.

The Lions use the pressure that their defensive line generates to set the tone for their defense. They have an inordinate amount of talent across their defensive line and they will go as far as this unit takes them. This brings us to how this scheme impacts the rest of the defense.

Cornerback is a position that some consider one of the most important on a football team. In the new NFL where quarterbacks are slinging the ball all over the field it seems like a common-sense approach to cover the wide receivers. It appears that there are multiple ways to do this.

The Lions feel that they can effectively cover wide receivers by reducing the amount of time that the quarterback has to throw the ball. Looking at their results it is easy to see that the Lions have some reason to believe that what they are doing is paying dividends.

These dividends come in the form of sacks and interceptions. The Lions had 21 interceptions in 2011, finishing fifth out of 32 teams. They also had 41 sacks which put them in a tie for 10th in the NFL.

It appears that the cornerback position is not a position that the Lions prioritize. That’s not to say that they don’t value good cornerback play. Their approach to the position confuses and angers fans as evidenced by the reaction they had with the player the Lions selected in Round 2 of the 2012 NFL draft.

The Lions passed on a cornerback to draft a wide receiver and fan reaction was, at best, described as tepid. There was anger also as fans had a hard time believing that wide receiver was a player the Lions needed.

We should all know by now that talent trumps need and their approach to take the best player available means that we are going to be surprised at times. They definitely have earned some sense of trust as they have gone from winless to the playoffs in three years. Take a peek at the 2008 Lions roster and see for yourself how devoid of talent it was.

It seems that some believe that there was a cornerback available in Round 2 that could help them now. That logic is flawed, however, and I fully expect to take a lot of heat for writing that. This league is all about what is happening now. There was simply no cornerback that was going to positively impact them in 2012.

This brings us back to their scheme and what the Lions do on defense well. They get after the quarterback and pressure him into making mistakes. When they get pressure, they get good cornerback play and when they don’t they look very bad, especially when injuries force their nickel and dime corners into starting roles.

Even the best cornerbacks in the league can’t cover wide receivers for a long time. The defensive line makes it all go and the Lions can get away with average play out of their secondary as long as they get a high level of play from their defensive line.

You can look across the NFL today to see how some of the best teams are built. The Green Bay Packers are a great team but when their defensive line doesn’t get pressure they give up a lot of yards and points. The same can be said about the NFL champion New York Giants.

The Lions appear to be at the front of the curve, with some other teams, when it comes to building a championship-contending team. They are a very young team that is just arriving onto the scene but they are building it just like the elite NFL teams do. You can see it from looking at the numbers from the 2011 season.

When it comes to pass defense the statistics are surprising. The Giants finished 29th in pass defense, the New Orleans Saints were 30th, the New England Patriots were 31st and the Green Bay Packers were dead last. These teams are powers in the NFL but they struggle to defend the pass, especially when their defenses can’t pressure the quarterback.

Looking at each of these teams’ draft classes is also interesting. The Giants took a running back and a wide receiver in the first two rounds. The Saints didn’t have a pick in the first two rounds. The Patriots took a defensive end and a linebacker with their first two picks and the Packers took a defensive end and a defensive tackle with their first two picks. 

Every one of these teams ignored the cornerback position at the top of the draft even though they ranked very poorly in 2011. You can attribute some of it to these teams having a lead and forcing their opponent to throw the ball but the bottom line is that they struggle with their secondary play unless the front seven of the defense gets pressure.

It seems as though the Lions are building their team the same way as the teams above do. Does anyone think this is a bad thing? Would we not all be happy with the results that these teams have had? Is there a Lions fan anywhere that wouldn’t be happy with a Super Bowl victory?

The Lions are on the right track and are becoming a team to reckon with. It is hard to think that they are given their history, but they are right where they need to be from a developmental perspective.