On a team for the ages around here, Derrick Barnes is the man of the hour. He
can't leave home without getting noticed: "It's like everybody in Detroit knows me." As a crowd of reporters gathered around his locker on Friday, Barnes was asked about Aaron Glenn's comment the day prior that the Lions' defense might not be the fastest or strongest but they'll "bite somebody's face off." Barnes, grinning, replied, "What you mean? I’m fast and I’m strong."
"Nah, I’m joking with you. That’s just the mentality that all the guys we’ve drafted have. That’s what we’re all about, that’s what gives us an edge. I think we’re talented, I think we’re strong, I think we’re fast, but a lot of people don’t know what happens until they play us, what’s hitting them. They think ‘Oh, it’s the Detroit Lions,’ until you play us and you’re like, ‘They're the real deal.’ High respect to the team we’re playing, but we know what we're about," Barnes said.
This is what Brad Holmes set out to build three years ago, beginning in the 2021 draft. The first girder was Penei Sewell, the snarling offensive tackle who went seventh overall. The steal to Sewell's steel was Amon-Ra St. Brown, the fourth-round star who will never forget the 16 receivers drafted before him. Those two, along with third-round defensive tackle Alim McNeill, buttressed the roster as rookies when the Lions won three games and grew more than the rest of the NFL may have realized.
"My draft class, we all came in together, so we feel like we were kind of the start," St. Brown said this week as the Lions prepare to play the 49ers in the NFC Championship. "We witnessed the start of Coach Campbell, the year we went 3-13-1. To be a part of that, to see the struggles, it’s awesome when you sit back and really think about what it was like two years ago and then where we are now.
"But we gotta keep going. This is not the end."
The Lions turned the corner last season with St. Brown and Sewell leading the way. McNeill pushed them further this season, the driving force of a run defense that refuses to budge. And the Lions are one of four NFL teams still playing, just 60 minutes away from their first trip to the Super Bowl, because fellow 2021 draftees Ifeatu Melifonwu and Derrick Barnes have provided a boost of their own, like teammates pushing the pile a few extra yards.
"It means a lot," said Barnes. "Credit to the guys who started off hot early, some guys can do that. For me and Iffy, you can call us late-bloomers or whatever, but sometimes it’s injuries or sometimes it takes time mentally to get where you want to be. I do believe that me personally, that has been my life story: As I get older and I grow from year to year, you just see a huge jump from where I am."
A fourth-round linebacker, Barnes arrived with high expectations. Holmes had traded up to draft him because he said he couldn't bear to miss out, and Dan Campbell later uttered Barnes' name in the same sentence as Ray Lewis. The Lions viewed him as a cornerstone. But Barnes struggled to adjust to the speed of the NFL, then watched the Lions draft another linebacker in the first round of last year's draft and started sweating his spot on the field and his place in the team's future. He took a deep breath in training camp and won a job as a starter.
"There were some times where I started doubting things, but then I had to really step back and think to myself, ‘You know who you are, you know what you can do, you know the ability that you have and it’s time to use it.’ That was my mentality this year," said Barnes. "Whatever happened is the past and now it’s the future, so it’s good to show what I’m about and what I can do."
With the season on the line last Sunday, Barnes and Detroit's defense took the field. A stop would send the Lions to San Francisco. On the second play of the drive, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield fired a pass over the middle for tight end Cade Otton, trying to exploit Barnes in coverage. Barnes exploited the opportunity, jumping in front of Otton and snaring the pass for the first interception of his career.
After Barnes celebrated with his teammates in the end zone as the ground beneath him shook, the first two players to greet him on Detroit's sideline were McNeill and 2021 second-rounder Levi Onwuzurike. Onwuzurike said Barnes had no idea what he had just done; Barnes admitted it didn't fully hit him until he saw the offense taking a knee. McNeill is already calling the play The Pick, which might one day live in Detroit sports lore like The Block by Tayshaun Prince.
"It's crazy to be even be a part of that in a city like this, a big city, a beautiful city," said Barnes, who played his high school ball at a Kentucky prep school of under 400 students. "I’ve seen how much this means to the fans, and it makes you want to work even harder. Like, I freaking didn’t realize. I knew because obviously I played for the Detroit Lions, but after that play, I go out and it’s like everybody in Detroit knows me.
"But it’s not even just me. It’s the love and how excited and how emotional they are because of this team, man. It’s unreal. And that’s what you do it for. That just reminds you of what you’re doing and how much it means to people around you. Man, it’s amazing. This city and this state definitely deserves it."
The Lions are propelled by their offense, but their defense held the Bucs at bay before the offense broke through. They attacked Mayfield and sacked him four times, twice thanks to Melifonwu. No one has had a bigger impact on Detroit's defense the last two months than the third-round cornerback, who has found his NFL calling as a blitzing, ball-hawking safety.
Melifonwu was hindered, and hidden, by injuries his first two seasons. All those lost reps came in the middle of a position change. He was relegated to the third-team defense this summer in camp, but the Lions kept him on the roster believing in his traits. The night Melifonwu was drafted, longtime NFL exec Louis Riddick assessed his combination of size, speed and athleticism and said, "No reason this young man shouldn’t be a superstar."
Midway through this season, Melifonwu started dominating pass-rushing drills in practice. Glenn decided he had to be on the field. Melifonwu stepped into the starting lineup for safety and co-captain Tracy Walker in Week 14 and has five sacks and two interceptions since, including the pick that sealed the Lions' first division title in 30 years.
"It just feels good to be an impact and contribute," Melifonwu said. "I feel like our class, we already knew. We’ve seen what each of us could do in practice for the last three years and it was just like, each person had their own time to really show that to the world. I’m happy, I’m blessed, and I thank god that my opportunity was this year, along with Barnes. Some people have different timeframes and different opportunities to present themselves."
Sewell said there's a friendly debate in the Lions' locker room about which of Holmes' draft classes is best. With the emergence of Barnes and Melifonwu, there's really no doubt that it's 2021 -- although Sewell admits that "this one we just had recently with everyone is kind of making it hard." Indeed, 2023 produced two nominees for Offensive Rookie of the Year in Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs and two starters on defense in Jack Campbell and Brian Branch, but we digress. Barnes said that when "Brad brings you in, you know what he’s about."
"You look around at the success that all of us in our class have had and the classes after, they call him the Draft Guru, it’s true," said Barnes. "He brings guys in who all have the same mindset, wanting to come in here and work and win and show our identity, and that’s having grit."
Sewell, St. Brown and McNeill beam when asked about the other, well, beams of their draft class. St. Brown remembers their first training camp together, a litter of professional pups "scrambling trying to figure things out, playbook, being in the NFL, what it’s like, the schedule, everything."
"And now that we’ve been in it for almost three years, to see the guys that I came in with out on the field doing what they love, playing the best that they’ve played since they’ve been here and come along kind of when we needed them most is amazing," he said.
Barnes thinks back to those early days with reverence for Sewell and St. Brown. He knew from watching them as soon as they arrived, "those guys are top-tier players," he said. "And I believe I can be a top-tier player, too."
"But the fact they could come here and do it that early is amazing," said Barnes. "Couple of the best I’ve ever seen, just their drive."
"Everyone grows and everyone learns at different rates," said St. Brown.
Barnes and Melifonwu have learned that good things come to those who wait, in a city that's been waiting forever for this team. They have grown by literal leaps and bounds, Barnes jumping into the air for an iconic interception, Melifonwu roaming the secondary and running down quarterbacks. They trained together last offseason and have pushed each other here, to the brink of the Super Bowl.
"Man, it’s awesome," said Sewell. "I’m happy for them. Everyone has a different timetable and I’m just glad they’re hitting it now. It’s like perfect timing."