Detroit Lions' Offseason State of the Union
When the president gives his annual State of the Union speech, pundits break down every syllable and search for nuanced meaning. You're never going to get anything close to that from the Detroit Lions' braintrust.
The most insightful thing general manager Martin Mayhew ever said referenced the injury his young nickelback suffered last year. Head coach Jim Caldwell mixes in tiny nuggets of information that may be fool's gold, but he's so indirect at times that it'll leave your head cocked to the side like a dog's.
So it's incumbent upon us to search for the truth, to pan our way past the layers of sand and silt to discover the bedrock of what this team has become, and to determine where this team is headed.
Passing Offense
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Detroit's 2014 aerial performance was its worst since 2010. That season saw a lot of Shaun Hill and Drew Stanton, two players who are fine backups but little else.
The same can't be said for last season. Matthew Stafford took every snap for the Lions, but Jim Caldwell's mistake-avoidant approach tempered the strong-armed gunslinger and kept him within the offense.
The result was just 12 interceptions that were offset by a mere 22 touchdowns. The approach worked, however, because the defense rose to a level of dominance unseen in Detroit for decades. Now, with the attention shifting back to an offense that couldn't keep the faucet on for long, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi is ready to let his quarterback loose, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press:
"Our biggest thing is in order to win football games you've got to first not lose them, and I thought that he played smart football (last year), and sometimes to a fault. We'll look to him to maybe take a few more chances this year with the football. He's got the arm to do it and he's got the receivers to throw it to.
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The initial results have been encouraging. Kyle Meinke of Mlive Media Group noted that there is a "growing efficiency [that] is unmistakeable." Caldwell enlightened us with "[h]e's improved." OK, Caldwell did also say "our timing's better, receivers have a better sense of the routes that they're running." It was more fun the other way, though.
Speaking of those receivers, Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate are two of the finest at their respective spots. It's the question marks after them that leave things open to discussion.
Eric Ebron has been up-and-down throughout OTAs and minicamp, and none of the guys vying for the third spot (Lance Moore, Corey Fuller, Jeremy Ross, Ryan Broyles and T.J. Jones) have set themselves apart.
For now, things are getting better as the good ball coach told us. We just need to see if the rest of the offense can help set the table for Stafford and if anyone else wants to join the receiving firm of Johnson and Tate.
Rushing Offense
2 of 7The Lions' running game didn't offset the backward steps in the passing game. It matched them.
Reggie Bush and Joique Bell put up similar 3.9-yard averages, as Detroit couldn't even crack 90 rushing yards per game. The former was released early in the offseason. The latter is recovering from surgery and should be the team's lead back this fall.
He will have some competition, though. Detroit drafted Ameer Abdullah in the second round, and the youngster has wasted no time making an impression on Matthew Stafford. The signal-caller told Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com that Abdullah has "great balance" and "good vision," both keys if Detroit keeps the outside zone in the playbook.
Abdullah won't be enough to make Detroit a ground-and-pound team. The offensive line (discussed later) will need to cooperate with those ambitions, but the former Cornhusker has caught the attention of the fantasy football crowd, as NFL.com's Michael Fabiano pointed out:
"Some fantasy guys I'm targeting in 2015: @brandincooks @Thee_AR15 @JRAN_1 @LataviusM @AmariCooper9 @Ameerguapo @ThaBestUNO @teddyb_h2o
— Michael Fabiano (@Michael_Fabiano) June 20, 2015"
The hope is Abdullah (@Ameerguapo) can do the things that Bush was supposed to do. The reality is he may do them better because of his get-up-the-field style.
Offensive Line
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Most of the players on the foregoing two slides get a slight pass—sorry, Eric Ebron—because if your offensive line doesn't give you time or create holes, there's only so much a skill player can do.
Regardless of the measure you use, last year's performance was downright dreadful. Detroit gave up 45 sacks (no playoff team allowed more) and rarely created holes in offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi's laterally moving scheme.
But that should all change this year. Not only did the Lions draft Laken Tomlinson, a wannabe Larry Warford in the sense that he loves to charge off the ball, but they're also shifting schemes to take advantage of the talents available.
Warford explained to Josh Katzenstein of the Detroit News that offensive line coach Jeremiah Washburn has been adamant that his group would play more aggressively at the snap instead of getting technical. The third-year guard went on to elaborate that he and his linemates wouldn't be so "robotic" this year and would be looking to "whoop some (butt)."
That will go a long way toward maximizing each lineman's skill set. With Tomlinson at guard and second-year center Travis Swanson taking over for Dominic Raiola, everything is set for a better performance from this group, albeit one filled with growing pains.
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Pass Rush
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The Lions pass rush will be different in 2015. In this context, that probably doesn't mean better.
Ndamukong Suh's pocket-pushing talents have been sold to South Beach, leaving Detroit with a gaping hole in the middle. Haloti Ngata is a solid pickup, but is better-equipped for stuffing the run game than penetrating pockets, especially as he ages.
That means the onus is going to fall on Ziggy Ansah and a crowd of unknowns to get the job done.
Ansah has progressed well in his two years in Detroit. He might have fallen a half-sack short of his rookie-year mark, but he increased the rest of his production to finish with Pro Football Focus' second-highest pass-rushing productivity score.
And this is his first healthy full offseason of his career. The hope is he used that time to speed up his rush just enough to convert his 34 hurries and 20 quarterback hits into sacks.
Defensive tackles Tyrunn Walker and Caraun Reid are the leaders to fill the Nick Fairley/C.J. Mosley spot. Walker had great production in limited snaps for the New Orleans Saints, and Reid spent his offseason working with Suh, coming back with a mean look and a new "mind-set."
If one of them can't build upon their success, the job will fall to rookie Gabe Wright. He has an explosive first step and could be a nice rotational piece, but his production fell his senior year without a high level of talent around him.
There are pieces here. While every player needs to contribute where they can, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin will be tasked with moving his guys around to put them in the best position to succeed.
Run Defense
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The same won't be true for the rushing defense. Even though the Lions set an incredible pace in 2014, finishing better than 10 yards ahead of the second-place Denver Broncos, all of the pieces are there for another incredible run (defense).
As mentioned before, Haloti Ngata is a block-eating big man who should help keep the linebackers clean. If Caraun Reid's improved body translates to strength once the pads come on, the interior will do its job.
Additionally, Ezekiel Ansah and Jason Jones are excellent run defenders. The former had the third-most stops on the team (33), meaning he often caused offensive plays to constitute failures, and Jones' true value is in setting the edge to contain running backs.
DeAndre Levy was the leader in stops with 80. Now that he has running mate Stephen Tulloch back, the defense could even take a step forward in this regard. Tulloch will return to making the calls and adjustments at the line of scrimmage, and his experience means he'll make the right ones to put his teammates in the proper position to stuff the run.
Secondary
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Gone are the days when the Lions had one or none promising players in the secondary. Last season saw all four starters jell into a cohesive sticky unit, and every one of them is back for another campaign.
Glover Quin's first Pro Bowl season signaled his comfort at the position after starting his career at cornerback. There's no reason to believe the 29-year-old safety will take a significant step back. And his partner in crime, James Ihedigbo, submitted such a solid season that he put on a short-lived holdout in the hopes of being paid for "outperform[ing his] contract."
The more promising angle is the arc of Darius Slay's development. He blossomed from an oft-benched rookie to a finger-wagging blanket and a top-20 cornerback who held opponents to a 79.6 passer rating.
So the only worrisome spot in the secondary supposedly belonged to the old man on the other side. Rashean Mathis actually bested Slay as the 12th-highest-graded cornerback, but he can't keep it up. Or can he? Kyle Meinke of Mlive Media Group sets the scene of one recent minicamp performance here:
"Speaking of Mathis, he might have been the best player on the field Tuesday. He certainly made some of the biggest plays. That includes the aforementioned breakup of Matthew Stafford's pass to Ebron, where he broke hard to get his hand on the ball at the last moment. He also broke up a corner route to Calvin Johnson in the end zone.
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If that's an indication of things to come, the defensive line's decline won't hold much meaning come January.
Special Teams
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Nobody cares about long snapper Don Muhlbach. That's a good thing. He goes about his job just fine, thus not drawing any attention to himself with poor snaps.
The same can mostly be said for punter Sam Martin. There was one terrible punt in the Wild Card Game, but had the eighth-most punts down inside the 20 with 29 on the season. His performance was good enough for Pro Football Focus to grade him as the third-best punter.
Meanwhile, kicker Matt Prater has continued to go about his business. After missing two kicks in his first game with Detroit, he only missed three out of the following 23, which would have ranked among the top 10 percentage-wise if we removed his debut.
The only true question mark centers around who will be returning kicks and punts. Jeremy Ross' hold on the job was loosened by too many mental mistakes, so the Lions have been trying out a few options, as Meinke noted:
"Kick returners were Quandre Diggs, Ryan Broyles, TJ Jones, Ameer Abdullah. Jeremy Ross was NOT with them.
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) June 4, 2015"
Regardless of who wins the job, it probably won't hurt or help the Lions all that much, so long as the chosen one makes good decisions and holds on to the ball.
All advanced stats, grades and positional rankings are courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
Brandon Alisoglu is a Detroit Lions Featured Columnist who has written about the Lions on multiple sites. He also co-hosts a Lions-centric podcast, Lions Central Radio. Yell at him on Twitter about how wrong he is @BrandonAlisoglu.
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