Hopes are high for the Lions, favorites in the NFC North. Their offense should be back among the NFL's best. Their revamped secondary should be much improved. Their pass rush should take another leap. Whether or not the Lions make good on the hype might come down to one of the simplest questions in football: Can they stop the run?
"I honestly believe we're going to be able to hold our own, and then some," Dan Campbell said Thursday on 97.1 The Ticket. "It's something we've put an emphasis on."
The Lions couldn't stop it last season, as big a reason as any why they got off to a 1-6 start. They wound up allowing 5.2 yards per carry, third most in the NFL. They did make modest strides down the stretch after Campbell and Aaron Glenn simplified the scheme up front, but they were also gashed on the ground by the Panthers in Week 16, a beating that basically ended their season.
From their first nine games to their final eight, the Lions went from allowing 5.3 to 5.1 yards per carry. Excluding the Panthers game from the final eight, they were down to 4.4 per carry, but that game was a definitive data point in their season. It was part of who they were. In 2021, when Glenn's defense operated more frequently out of a 3-4 base, the Lions allowed 4.4 yards per carry.
"We’ve gone back to what we originally did here two years ago, and that transformation really started in the middle of last season when we started making a push," said Campbell. "Man, it’s something that we’ve really made a huge emphasis on. AG hits it every day."
The Lions' first-team defense did a good job bottling up Saquon Barkley and the Giants in joint practices last week, and had another solid showing this week against Travis Etienne and the Jaguars. Both those teams were top 10 in yards per carry last season. One of the Lions' behemoths in the middle, Isaiah Buggs, said earlier this summer, "Every day we talk about it, man, stopping the run."
"Being violent, being physical, being smart," said Buggs. "AG, Dan and all the coaches address that every single day and I feel like we finally got a group of guys in the room that want to learn, grow and be better, man."
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Campbell singled out Buggs, Alim McNeil and Levi Onwuzurike as linchpins of Detroit's run defense, "unselfish, lunchpail guys" who are willing to do the dirty work on the interior. Third-round pick Brodric Martin is another who could emerge this season, along with veteran free agent signing Christian Covington.
"Those are hard jobs," said Campbell. "They double you and you’re trying to work the deuces and hit ‘em and man, you gotta be able to dig in in there. Play after play, just one more time be unselfish, don’t jump out of a gap, you can’t be too high. And I think those guys are doing a good job."
"So I feel pretty good about it. And if we can do that, which I believe we can, with Alex (Anzalone) and where (Derrick) Barnes is going and (Jack) Campbell and (Malcolm Rodriguez), and then the backend with (C.J. Gardner-Johnson), man, I do think we can mix it up pretty good."
Soon, we'll find out for real. If the Lions can slow down the run this season, they can live up to expectations. Perhaps exceed them. McNeill, who looks poised for a breakout in the trenches, said the defense is focused on being violent and relentless. The tone will be set up front.
"Feel like our mentality is completely different," said McNeill. "We want to be able to create an identity for ourselves, just like a lot of defenses in the past have done in the league. We want to be able to put on a performance every Sunday of, 'This is who we are.'"
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