When Teryl Austin came to Detroit with Jim Caldwell in 2014, Lions fans were unsure of what they were getting. His time in Baltimore meant that most fans figured his defense would be aggressive and ball-hawking. This certainly proved true in his first season with the Lions. The defense finished second overall in scoring and yards allowed as well as first overall against the run. They also forced 27 turnovers including 20 interceptions and a league high seven INTs from safety Glover Quin.
2015 was a different story. The Lions lost their top three defensive tackles in free agency (Suh, Fairley, C.J. Mosley) and their star linebacker DeAndre Levy was essentially lost for the season with a hip injury. The 2015 Lions defense finished 18th in yards allowed, 23rd in scoring and 19th against the run. A significant drop-off but one that was at least partially expected because of the talent they lost up the middle of the defense. The defense also forced 18 turnovers with just nine coming by interception. A big drop from the previous year. Of course, 2015 was a tale of two halves. The first half of the season, the team was in disarray on both sides of the ball. The second half, both sides woke up and put together stretches of good play. The Lions held 5 of their final 8 opponents to less than 100 yards rushing and an average of just 16 points per game. Austin was largely praised for turning around a defense that started poorly and had lost its two best players.
In 2015, the Lions defense returned 8 of 11 starters from the previous season. For as much talk as there was this past year about the defense losing key contributors, the 2016 Lions defense could return just 3 starters from 2015. Those three would be Ziggy Ansah, Darius Slay and Glover Quin. Those are the only three 2015 Lions starters certain to return to the field next year. Of course DeAndre Levy will be back as well, adding a boost to a linebacking corps that is otherwise severely lacking.
That still leaves seven spots that the Lions’ front office needs to make decisions on. They’ve already made decisions on a couple of players, letting Stephen Tulloch and CJ Wilson know they won’t be retained. Rashean Mathis retired, clearing up one spot in the secondary while James Ihedigbo likely won’t be back as well. Haloti Ngata and Tyrunn Walker are both free agents, as are Tahir Whitehead and Isa Abdul-Quddus. Rounding out the list, Jason Jones may end up being cut as a cap casualty.
The Lions currently have about $31M in cap space to play with. If Calvin Johnson retires, that clears up another $11M.
When free agency begins March 9th, the Lions will certainly attempt to re-sign at least a couple of these guys. Whitehead, Walker and IAQ are a few guys that probably top that list. But are they all expected to be starters? If other depth guys like Devin Taylor, Kyle Van Noy and one or two of the young corner group of Quandre Diggs, Nevin Lawson and Alex Carter are moved into starting roles, that would leave a ton of holes on the depth chart. And that’s before the defensive tackle position is even addressed. It’s unlikely that the coaching staff would want to go into 2016 replacing 7 of 11 starters from within the depth chart.
The Lions currently have about $31M in cap space to play with. If Calvin Johnson retires, that clears up another $11M. Cutting Riley Reiff would clear up another $8M, although I think that’s unlikely to happen (FA tackles are expensive and Reiff is at least average). All said, the Lions have some money to spend and can use this offseason to build the kind of defense they want.
With the kind of turnover expected on the defensive side of the ball, it’s likely that GM Bob Quinn will be looking to add some starter quality players that can be had for a bargain. Think guys like S George Iloka instead of S Eric Weddle, or DT Akiem Hicks instead of Malik Jackson.
If the Lions keep or re-sign previous starters Jason Jones, Tahir Whitehead and Tyrunn Walker, the defensive needs look a whole lot less drastic. If that happens, and Diggs or Lawson step into the starting nickel spot, the front office would only need to address one defensive tackle spot, one rotational linebacker spot, one corner spot and one safety spot. In that scenario, they have players at most of those positions with starting experience. In addition, the NFL draft is deep at DT and this year’s FA class has some good CBs and at least a couple good safeties hitting the market.
While the Lions have to replace as many as seven starters on defense, it’s more likely that there will only be about three or four new faces starting on the Lions’ defense next year. Teryl Austin has shown the ability to turn around a defense that has to replace key starters and hopefully by having cap space to spend, the Lions can avoid trading future assets for one-year stop gaps and add key contributors in free agency that will help improve the defense for the long term. If they can land some starter quality defenders, or even one or two impact defenders, Teryl Austin will have his first chance to show what he can do with an upgraded defense instead of having to make the most of a bad situation.