A Defense Built in His Image
Detroit's pass defense should look entirely different in 2024, and it should remain so for a very long time
There was something wrong with the Detroit Lions defense last year. They couldn’t cover anyone, with receivers running free in the defensive backfield all year. On the front side, they couldn’t generate any pressure either. While Aidan Hutchinson was, at times, a one man wrecking ball coming off of the edge, he had virtually no help.
This all led to the Lions having one of the league’s worst pass defenses. The 7.8 yards per attempt was second most in the NFL and they were one of five teams to surrender 4,500 passing yards. In an era where teams are throwing the ball around more than ever, it's astonishing that the Lions were 30 minutes away from the Super Bowl with a pass defense this bad.
It’s hard to think of anything that should be saved from last year’s secondary. And Detroit’s brass seems to agree.
Kindle Vildor will be the only cornerback who played meaningful snaps for the Lions last year that will return in 2024. Cam Sutton would have joined him, but has been released after being accused of domestic violence in Florida. Vildor may not ever make the roster this season, as he enters camp as CB6, behind a pair of rookies, two new additions at the position, and the return of Emmanuel Mosely, who basically missed the entirety of last season due to an ACL tear.
But it’s not just the personnel on the field that will look different in 2024, it’s the foundation of how they will. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has remade the cornerback room in his image and will change the way it approaches the sport of football.
“It’s no surprise that the new guys we got, they excel at playing man coverage,” Glenn told reporters at an OTA press conference. “Something that we want to do on defense, something we always want to do. And something we’ll continue to look at.”
For Glenn, who played 14 years in the NFL and made three Pro Bowls as a dominant man corner, building a defense that can excel at the same style of coverage that he did means more.
“It’s part of my personality,” he said.
By that metric, this offseason was a dream come true for Glenn. The biggest addition the team made in the early free agency period was trading for Carlton Davis, a big, physical man corner who played a key role in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl LV victory.
The defensive coordinator said he had watched Davis since he was at Auburn from 2015 to 2017 - well before he took the Lions job.
Like Glenn, Davis considers man coverage to be something running in his veins.
“That’s my identity. I’m a man-to-man corner,” Davis told reporters at OTAs.
Davis is a temporary fix, however. He has one year left on his deal, and the Lions already restructured his contract without extending him. It, in effect, tips Detroit’s hand that he is a one year rental for the team.
The former Bucs’ corner may not be missed, though. Detroit followed the addition of Davis and former Las Vegas Raiders corner Amik Robertson by double dipping at the position in the draft. The team traded up for Terrion Arnold in the first round of the draft, and then added Ennis Rakestraw Jr. in the second.
While every player is unique in some way, of course, Detroit also made it very clear that Glenn has a type of corner he likes. Arnold and Rakestraw are both remarkably similar to Davis as a corner.
So why do the Lions need three of them? Well, at least two should be on the field on every defensive snap. Furthermore, Davis is yet to play a full NFL season through the first six years of his NFL career. The rookies will surely be thrown into the fire.
But the addition of Davis and Robertson allows them some cushion, and even some time before they really have to take the field. And Glenn thinks they will need it. Both Rakestraw and Arnold played a tough SEC schedules, but the defensive coordinator noted that they “didn’t play Georgia every week”, and now they won’t get free weeks on the schedule against conference minnows and FCS teams.
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The Lions’ shift to man coverage will align the mentality of their defense with that of their offense. The same way Ben Johnson dials up trick plays and special play calls for fourth down, the defense should have more blitz packages and creativity with their pass rushing the more they play in man.
But a shift to a riskier defensive scheme while depending on two rookies to play key roles during their first year can come with significant downside.
It’s hard to imagine the Lions’ pass defense getting worse — I’ll forever have nightmares reliving the broadcast camera panning downfield to see Sutton trailing five yards behind and open receiver on the regular. If neither Rakestraw nor Arnold pan out, at least not in their rookie year, Detroit could once again be in a crisis. Kerby Joseph, while a fine free safety, does not provide the sturdiest of safety nets. Beyond him, the situation at safety is dire.
Corner is also a position with one of the steepest learning curves in the league. It is hard to step and instantly play like a CB1. This is why Davis is around, it gives Arnold and Rakestraw some room for failure.
Many have noted that the third round pick the Lions sent to the Bucs for Davis is too expensive for a one year rental. While true in a vacuum, Detroit really needs a quality CB1 in 2024, and after the draft they had, they may have two more quality corners in the pipeline.
In a way, the Lions cornerback room is built perfectly to both win in 2024 — to win the whole enchilada, as Dan Cambell puts it — while still having two starters waiting in the wing. Davis is a safe bet to be at least a decent CB1 for Detroit, and has been an above average corner throughout his career.
He isn’t needed for the long term because of the two rookies sitting behind him, but he is very much needed if the Lions hope to take advantage of their greatest ever opportunity to win a Super Bowl.
Detroit’s corner room looked like a disaster last year, but somehow, someway, it is not only a strong unit heading into 2024, it is set up to be good for years.
Brad Holmes has seemingly worked his magic once again.