With the Eagles' rout of the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, the question for the Lions is, "What's the missing ingredient?" And the answer is clear, according to Costa & Jansen:
"It's pass rush. It's Myles Garrett," says Jansen. "And honestly, this year you could say the missing ingredient was health. You look at, how did the Eagles defeat Patrick Mahomes? The No. 1 reason, the most glaring one, is they were able to apply pressure with four, dropping seven, never having blitzed, and they harassed Patrick Mahomes and took Kansas City out of their game plan and walked away with the title."
Costa agrees that the answer for Brad Holmes and the Lions is to assemble "a ferocious front" by making an aggressive move this offseason.
"Because the Lions are going to face all of the great QB's next year. And if they're going to win the Super Bowl, they're going to have to face some great QB's along the way. The Eagles did it through first-round picks on their D-line, Holmes hasn't used his first-round picks the same way. You can still add to the D-line. Myles Garrett's out there. And if it's not Garrett, it's gotta be somebody. You have to beef up this defensive line."
Aidan Hutchinson led the Lions in sacks this season by a wide margin despite missing the final 12 games with a broken leg. The next closest was Za'Darius Smith with four sacks in eight games after being added at the trade deadline, followed by Alim McNeill with 3.5 in 14 games before going down for the year with a torn ACL.
The Lions will face a gauntlet of elite quarterbacks on the road next season, including Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts and Matthew Stafford, not to mention the athletic, young QB's in their own division.
"You have to be able to apply pressure on quarterbacks. And trying to crack the code of mobile quarterbacks, the one way to do it is to constantly harass them," says Jansen. "Even if they get outside the pocket, if you're dropping seven into coverage because you believe that you can get after the QB with four, or even three and you drop eight, there are very few holes to drop that ball into."
Costa says "the No. 1 takeaway" from the Super Bowl for the Lions is "go get Myles Garrett. If you're on the fence, if you're Aidan Hutchinson going, 'I don't know if you can have that many dudes (on the D-line),' yeah, when you've got four up front like that, it's the fastest way to topple a great quarterback. It's the best recipe to win a Super Bowl, and it's something the Lions don't have right now."
Costa says Brad Holmes and the Lions need a bold move this offseason like the Eagles did last year in signing Saquon Barkley:
"They were aggressive. And I think that's the takeaway. Brad Holmes has to keep up. Your bold move isn't going to be Saquon Barkley, because you have Jahmyr Gibbs, but your bold move has to be getting a front like Philadelphia's. It's going to cost a lot, but the most straightforward way is to add the best player on the market in Myles Garrett."
