Last Year: 

Record: 7-9

Offense: 346.7YPG (20th), 22.4 PPG (17th)

Defense: 349.6 YPG (18th), 25.0 (23rd)

Last season, the Lions were basically a middle of the road team. Not horrible, but was also never a true threat to make the playoffs. Despite Matthew Stafford having 1 of his best seasons, the Lions offense was only able to be effective in spurts, never fully maximizing all the talent they had. The biggest issues they had on offense were their offensive line play and a lack or a running game. Not a single player on the offensive line was overly impressive last year for the Lions, which really showed in the run game. No Lion rushed for over 600 yareds and the team only managed a 3.8 yards per carry average on the ground. Defensively, the Lions still haven’t figured out the secondary as a whole. Sure Slay emerged as 1 of the games best cornerbacks, but nobody else really stood out. Up front Ansah was a beast and Taylor wasn’t bad, but there is no interior pass rush presence as Haloti Ngata seems to be nearing the end of his career. The linebacking corps was mess from the very beginning after the Lions lost their best 1 in DeAndre Levy, who only played in 1 game the whole year. Also, MLB Stephen Tulloch was on the decline which certainly led to his release.

 

Offseason: 

Key Acquisitions: WR. Marvin Jones, WR. Anquan Boldin,

Key Loses: WR. Calvin Johnson, LB. Stephen Tulloch

2016 Outlook

Coaching Staff

HC: Jim Caldwell

OC: Jim Bob Cooter

DC: Teryl Austin

ST: John Bonamego

 

Projected Depth Chart

Offense

QB.  Matthew Stafford, Dan Orlovsky

RB. Ameer Abdullah, Theo Riddick

FB. Mike Burton

WR. Golden Tate, TJ Jones

WR. Anquan Boldin, Jeremy Kerley

WR. Marvin Jones

TE. Eric Ebron, Brandon Pettigrew

LT. Riley Reiff, Luke Marquardt

LG. Laken Tomlinson, Joe Dahl

C. Travis Swanson, Graham Glasgow

RG. Larry Warford, Geoff Schwartz

RT. Riley Reiff, Michael Ola

Defense

DE. Devin Taylor, Wallace Gilberry

DT. Haloti Ngata, Caraun Reid

DT. A’Shawn Robinson, Tyrunn Walker

DE. Ziggy Ansah, Anthony Zettel

OLB. Tahir Whitehead, Kyle Van Noy

MLB. Jon Bostic, Antwione Williams

OLB. DeAndre Levy, Josh Bynes

CB. Darius Slay, Darrin Walls

SS. Tavon Wilson, Miles Killebrew

FS. Glover Quin, Rafael Bush

CB. Nevin Lawson, Alex Carter

NB. Quandre Diggs

Special Teams

K. Matt Prater

P. Sam Martin

Breakdown

Offense: 

For the first time in years, the Detroit Lions offense will be without future Hall-of-Famer Calvin “Megatron” Johnson at receiver. Johnson announced his retirement immediately following last season. The Lions looked to free agency to replace his significant impact by bringing veterans Marvin Jones and Anquan Boldin into the mix. They, along with Golden Tate and the untapped potential of Eric Ebron at TE, certainly make for an interesting group of receivers that could be pretty good. In the backfield, 2nd-year man Ameer Abdullah will be the lead back as he looks for more touches and a bigger role in the offense. His backup, Theo Riddick, is a do-it-all change of pace back that can come in and run it, but is even better catching it as he finished 3rd on the team a year ago with 80 receptions. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is coming off a pretty good year where his 67% completion rate was the best of his career and his 97 passer rating is the best he’s put up since 2011. He’s never played a full season without the services of Megatron and it’ll be interesting to see how he adjust to that, but Stafford still has 1 of the biggest arms in the league and has mobility as well. The biggest cause for concern is on the offensive line. The Lions have 1 of the worst offensive lines in the NFL that is currently headlined by Larry Warford and Riley Reiff, who will hold down the RG and RT spots. Rookie Taylor Decker, the team’s 1st-round pick in this year’s draft, looks like he’s going to start the year at LT. However, that’s a very difficult position for rookies to play so who knows what to expect from him. Next to him at LG will be Tomlinson, who the team selected in the 1st round last year. He showed some flashes, but was inconsistent and struggled in the run game last year. And at center, you’ll have a battle of 3rd-round picks between incumbent starter Travis Swanson and rookie Graham Glasgow. My money is on Glasgow, who has significantly more power and run blocking ability. [Editor’s note – Kevin: After watching Glasgow throughout his career at Michigan, I think he’s got a lot of potential.]

Defense: 

Defensively, I expect the Lions to struggle. They are probably strongest up front on the defensive line and if Devin Taylor can continue to grow and become a double digit sack guy, the Lions can have 2 book ends to really heat things up with their pass rush. The addition of 2nd-round pick Robinson at DT should help the Lions run defense immediately, but does very little to help their interior pass rush, which was a big issue for them last season. At LB, it’s hard to know what to expect. The 1 guy with a real track record in Levy is coming off a season where he essentially didn’t play, but if he can return to his 2014 form where he was 1 of the best in the NFL, that will at least be 1 impact LB on the Lions roster. In the middle, John Bostic is somewhat of an unknown. In his 1st 2 seasons in Chicago, he started about half the team’s games each year and showed some flashes of being an okay run stopper, but he’s never been great in coverage and hasn’t done much of anything in the past 2 seasons, missing all of 2014 and only registering 2 tackles last season as a backup for the Patriots. And at the other outside spot is Whitehead, a 2012 5th-round pick by the Lions, who at this point has proven he’s really better suited as a backup. In the secondary, the Lions have some things to figure out. The number 1 corner spot however is not 1 of those things as they seem to be set for years to come with former 2nd-round pick Darius Slay. Lawson and Diggs appear to be options 2 and 3 and neither recorded a single interception last year. Those numbers can be a little misleading as both players showed flashes and played better down the stretch, which is why the Lions didn’t feel the need to draft a single CB or sign a big name free agent at that position.  They’re both young and could show significant improvement this season, but there is also no doubt that both need to show significantly more consistency and improvement if the Lions are to be better in coverage in 2016.  At safety, Glover Quin is the veteran and key guy. He’s the leader of the secondary and they need his awareness and instincts to help guide all of the young guys they have around him. It’s hard to say who will start at SS. Early reports are that Tavon Wilson, Rafael Bush, Miles Killebrew and Bademosi Johnson will all have a shot to compete for the job. Right now, I have to give the edge to the veterans Wilson and Bush to be the top contenders, but don’t count out 4th-round pick Killebrew, who could end up being a steal for the Lions. Overall, there are just too many question marks and too much uncertainty to have faith that the Lions can be a good defense in 2016. There’s a lot of youth and potential, but with that often times comes a lot of mistakes and inconsistent play and I expect to see plenty of both from this defense in the upcoming season.

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