The teardown came first. To build out of the rubble, Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell needed pillars. Jared Goff was the first to arrive on offense, familiar with Holmes from their time with the Rams. On defense, it was a linebacker familiar with Campbell from their time in New Orleans, with a mane of blonde hair and a lesser-known name: Alex Anzalone.
"I feel like if you ask my coaches and scouts and GM, and even talking to Brad when I got here, it’s like, it was always in me," Anzalone said this week. "I was able to turn the injury corner and just put it all together consistently. It’s just timing."
At the time Anzalone arrived, the Lions were headed for their fourth straight last-place finish in the division, their worst stretch in a franchise history littered with lows. They brought Anzalone aboard on a one-year deal to give their defense a rudder, someone to steer them through the storms they knew were coming. It's so long ago now that Anzalone's co-captain on defense that season was Trey Flowers.
The storms came, alright. Anzalone remained a steady hand for Campbell and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn in a three-win season, and re-upped for another year with a slight raise. He broke through in 2022; so did the Lions, putting the league on notice with a surge to the finish and a signature win in the season finale. Anzalone, who was all over the field that frigid night at Lambeau, got his first real reward that offseason in the form of a three-year, $18.75 million deal.
Anzalone was hoping for an extension entering this season. Holmes and the Lions decided they weren't in position to give him one. Anzalone's contract expires after this season, which itself might expire in the next three games, the Lions needing three wins and some help to squeeze into the playoffs. There's still a world in which Anzalone is back next year, but it's quite possible that he runs out of the Ford Field tunnel on Sunday for the final time with the Lions.
Anzalone's 40th home game in Detroit, playoffs included, could be his last.
"I thought about it over the weekend a little bit," he said Wednesday. "It’ll be interesting. We’ll see how I feel. Hopefully it’s not, but we’ll see. I gotta treat it as such, I guess, just being in the moment. It’s kind of crazy."
Anzalone said he'll try to soak it all in. Detroit is more than just the place where he's had some of the best moments of his career; it's become home for his wife Lindsey and their two kids. Their oldest, a boy named Cooper once known for exuberantly tackling his classmates in preschool -- with proper form, of course -- was born the year Anzalone arrived in Detroit. A daughter has followed, with another on the way.
Sunday's game against the Steelers kicks off at 4:25, which is typically too late for the kids to attend. The parents are making an exception for Cooper, who will be there with his mom.
"They definitely wanted to be at this one," Anzalone said.
Asked about potentially being introduced with the defensive starters for the last time at Ford Field, he smiled and said, "Maybe that's when I’ll get all the feels."
Anzalone, 31, has a scar that runs down the inside of his left forearm. Beneath it is a steel plate inserted last November when he broke his arm in a win over the Jaguars. Anzalone returned six weeks later for what he called a "legacy game" in the season finale, played all but one defensive snap, led the team in tackles and helped the Lions beat the Vikings to win the NFC North for the second year in a row, for the first time in franchise history.
"To be where we're at today, from 2021 to now, it's amazing," he said that night.
When he was asked a few moments later what, exactly, he wanted his legacy to be with the Lions, Anzalone said he wasn't yet sure. There were still games to be played, and perhaps championships to be won. The same is true now. But knowing that he might be nearing the end in Detroit, Anzalone had an answer for the question on Wednesday.
"I feel like what I’ve done here is brought some sort of consistency in the linebacker room," he said. "I know that had been an issue in years past, for one reason or another. But growing up, my dad would always say that you want a place to be better if you were there than if you weren’t, and leave it better than how you found it, so I feel like that’s my legacy. Just being a leader and a captain for the last five years, it’s been cool to be a part of it."
Anzalone is far from done playing. This is not a man pondering retirement. He still has the competitive desire, and the ability. His next season, whether it's here or elsewhere, will be his 10th in the NFL and "I feel like I got a solid three or four more in me, like, four years, honestly," Anzalone said.
"Obviously depends where I’m at and how the family’s feeling, but as far as me playing and my want-to and how my body feels, I feel like I’m still playing the best I’ve played," he said.
Anzalone is on pace for 100-plus tackles for the third time in the past four seasons, and was on track to get there last year before his injury. He remains one of the better cover linebackers in the league, which is a skill the Lions otherwise lack at the position. He's allowed a passer rating in coverage this year of 77.7, seventh best out of 59 qualified linebackers.
Anzalone isn't the biggest believer in Pro Football Focus, he'll have you know, but he grades out as one of the top 25 linebackers in the NFL for the second straight year, among those who've played at least half their team's defensive snaps. (He believes it when it's right!) Jack Campbell, who's taken over for Anzalone as Detroit's green-dot linebacker getting the calls to his teammates, ranks second overall and first against the run. His emergence in Anzalone's former role has lightened Anzalone's load and allowed him to play a tick faster. Maybe that plays a part in the Lions' decision on Anzalone this offseason.
Asked if the door is open for a return, Anzalone said, "Oh yeah. Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for. That's what I told Brad. And I think that’s what was communicated during training camp, is, that door’s not closed, it’s just not something they wanted to do at the moment. There was some uncertainty, which I get, with who they have to pay and all that stuff. But my focus is just taking it all in this week and trying to get these three wins."
Of course, Anzalone will want to be paid fair value to stick around. The market for linebackers has soared in recent years, and there's a pretty clear case to be made that Anzalone warrants a raise from his $6.25 million salary, which ranks 35th at his position. The Lions did give Anzalone a slight bump this year with some extra guaranteed money and playtime incentives in an agreement they reached in camp, but it wasn't the resolution Anzalone was hoping for. He accepted it to put an awkward situation in the rearview, for the good of the team.
Regarding what talks with the Lions might look like this offseason, Anzalone said, "I don't even know where they’re at, so it’s hard to say what to value and what to really take into account. You don’t really know until you get in it and until that tampering period starts, because I’ve been through free agency before and you don’t really know (your value around the league) until some numbers start flying around."
It's hard to put a price on this, but no defensive player has meant more to the Lions' rise under Holmes and Dan Campbell than Anzalone. The head coach, in fact, singled Anzalone out last season when he was said the Lions have built with a "true foundation" of draft picks, a few holdovers from the prior regime "and we brought in a couple players, particularly a player — Alex — in 2021."
"That group of players has been here going on five years, all of us together, so that’s what it’s about, this group, all of us now," Campbell said. "We’ve seen the ups and downs, we’ve been through it."
The Lions have been through as many downs as ups this season after last year's 15-2 joyride through the regular season, but there's still time to end it on a high. The defense must stiffen up starting Sunday against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, having allowed an average of 34 points in the last four games and a season-high 519 yards in last Sunday's loss to the Rams that served as another reminder that the Lions have fallen from the top tier of the NFC.
Injuries in the secondary have hurt, "but we’ve been through this before," said Anzalone. "It’s just about playing sound defense at the right times, in these critical situations not giving up these big plays."
"It's these explosive plays that we have to limit, and whether it’s from mental errors, or leverage, or a missed gap or something like that, it’s just stuff that you have to clean up and lock in on," he said. "You get in these important games and going against a really good team, it’s going to be more exposed."
For weeks, Anzalone acknowledged, the Lions have talked about playing with a heightened sense of urgency. But they haven't won back to back games in two months. They'll have to win three straight to give themselves a chance to make the playoffs for the third year in a row, where anyone in the NFC could be a threat.
"We just gotta get in," he said, spoken like it was December 2022 when the Lions were coming to life.
Now they're trying to stay alive in December 2025, "and the core guys here have been through tough situations before," said Anzalone.
It might be Anzalone's last chance to guide the Lions through the gale.