The Lions' starters wrapped Monday's practice with a rather familiar sight: a stand for the defense. Facing 4th and 3 in an end-of-game scenario where the offense started at midfield trailing by three with a little less than a minute to play, Jared Goff dropped back and fired incomplete over the middle to Kalif Raymond, who couldn't shake DJ Reed.
It's common in training camps around the NFL for the defense to be ahead of the offense. It's a bit of a break from the norm around here, where the Lions have been carried by their offense to consecutive NFC North titles. The defense, right now, looks like the stronger unit of the two, especially with Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport healthy and wreaking havoc again up front.
Asked after Monday's practice if he can tell Detroit's defense is better this season, Goff said, "Oh, hell yeah. Oh yeah."
"They’re much more confident and comfortable," Goff said on 97.1 The Ticket. "I think mostly just because they’re a year older and all their dudes are back. It’s fun to practice against, it is. It’s a challenge. They make it really hard, Coach Shep’s making It really hard on me. Those two guys in the backend with Kerby and Branch, I can’t imagine a better two to practice against every day. DJ Reed’s been a tremendous addition for us, from leadership to pure ability. Obviously the linebackers have done great, and then Hutch has been pretty unbelievable."
Hutchinson has been so dominant, in fact, that Dan Campbell sometimes has no choice but to let a play continue after No. 97 blows it up for a sack so that the starting offense can get the reps that it needs. With Taylor Decker just returning to practice after offseason shoulder surgery, Hutchinson has been feasting on backup left tackles Dan Skipper and Giovanni Manu; he's also won his fair share of reps against star right tackle Penei Sewell.
"It’s like Aaron Donald back in the day," said Goff. "It’s the same way. He’s a guy who can ruin a game, he’s certainly ruined practice for us a couple times offensively, and I’m so happy he’s on our side and I don’t have to play against him."
Hutchinson has shown no ill effects from the fractured leg he suffered last October. Manu has bore the brunt of it recently, admitting Monday that he's grown a lot this summer mostly because "I get my ass whooped out here" in practice, "so that when it comes down to the game, everything is so slow to me.
"Even when I get beat I go up to Hutch and I’m like, 'What made you beat me here, like, what made you feel like you could take my inside here?' And he’ll be like, 'Oh, you’re just over-setting, dude. Just narrow up, set square,'" said Manu.
The Lions finished 20th in the league in total defense last season, beneath a mountain of injuries. (They did finish seventh in scoring defense.) They're still missing a major piece up front in tackle Alim McNeill, who's slated to return midseason from his torn ACL, but they already look more disruptive. Starting linebacker Derrick Barnes, who missed most of last season with a knee injury, was talking to Hutchinson the other day about the depth they're rediscovered on their side of the ball.
"He brought it up," said Barnes. "He was like, 'Man, you know how good it is to feel when you’re out there with the team and you look at the other 10 players around you, like, wow, one, I ain’t gotta be the only person they can play, and then it’s like, man, everybody on this defense can make a play. ... We’re really stacked at every position."
Fellow linebacker Alex Anzalone, who missed six games toward the end of last season with a broken forearm when the defense started to leak oil, said the Lions are installing "some new defenses" under first-year coordinator Kelvin Sheppard where "we’re pressuring a little bit more. And it's giving the offense a little trouble."
Detroit pressured frequently under former coordinator Aaron Glenn, second in the league last year in blitz rate. It's not that Sheppard has been "more aggressive," said Anzalone. "I’d just say more creative. He gives us a little more freedom on the ability to change a pressure. We would pressure with AG, it was just a little more set in stone as opposed to us having the freedom to switch it."
"Shep’s calling the hell out the plays," said nose tackle DJ Reader, who's been a force on the interior of the line, especially against the run.
Detroit's defense will get a good test against a new opponent later this week during joint practices with the Dolphins, who tout some explosive playmakers in receiver Jaylen Waddle, running back De'Von Achane and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (receiver Tyreek Hill has been sidelined by an oblique injury.) It will be another chance to measure their growth.
"The hardest piece of injuries midseason is you're just not comfortable with the guys (who step into bigger roles)," Reader said. "You gotta make sure they trust themselves and trust everybody around them."
In a new year, the defense is feeling more like its old self.
"Man," said Reader, "it’s amazing to have all the guys back doing their thing."