DeAndre Levy should be ready for the start of the season, which means the Lions defense should be significantly better in 2016.
When Jim Schwartz was building his wide-nine defense around Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and Stephen Tulloch, something was always missing despite having elite talent. The Lions had the nastiest front four in the league for a few years under Schwartz, but the secondary could never hold up when it counted. Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and pretty much every above average quarterback torched the Lions’ pass-defense in those days. It wasn’t because of talent, it was because Schwartz was stubborn and stuck with a scheme that had big flaws when it came to stopping the short-passing game.
In 2014, when Teryl Austin took over the defense, the Lions became arguably the unit in the league (ranked 2nd overall). Now, it is true that Austin had that success when the team still had Suh and Fairley on the roster. But the difference that year was the significant jump in the secondary. A lot of that came from the coverage abilities of DeAndre Levy and Tahir Whitehead. Both greatly improved that season in Austin’s hybrid version of Schwartz’ defense. The team was more aggressive and guys in the secondary were able to make plays.
Austin got corner Darius Slay to go from a slightly above-average player to bordering on shut-down corner status. He helped Glover Quin become one of the league’s best free safeties. Suh had his best season since he was a rookie and James Ihedigbo had a short career revival in Detroit, with 4 interceptions. My point is Austin was able to do things during his first year taking over an NFL defense that Detroit’s former head coach never got close to in five years. Mainly, he fixed a horrific pass defense and made it one of the best in the league.
2015 was a different story without Levy diagnosing each play, seemingly always aware of the ball’s destination. Without him, Tulloch got exposed over the middle where he became a liability in coverage. The same can be said for strong safety James Ihedigbo, who the Lions were using more like a linebacker.
The defense came back to earth last year, finishing about middle of the pack without Suh, Levy and Fairley. Most attributed the drop off in 2015 to Suh more than anything. I suggest that defensive pressure wasn’t as big of a problem last season as was losing the chemistry of a really strong back seven. The Lions were weaker up front without question, I am not disputing that. They had an injured and ineffective Haloti Ngata with a rotation of defensive tackles less talented than 2014’s group. However, looking back on the games, guys like Devin Taylor and Ziggy Ansah stepped up in Suh’s absence and at least somewhat picked up the slack. Where the team fell off last year was in the secondary.
Levy and Whitehead made Detroit’s defense dangerous at all three levels. They could both stop the run and Levy, in particular, became one of the best coverage linebackers in football. 2015 was a different story without Levy diagnosing each play, seemingly always aware of the ball’s destination. Without Levy, Tulloch got exposed over the middle where he became a liability in coverage. The same can be said for strong safety, James Ihedigbo, who the Lions used more like a linebacker. The team moved Whitehead to the outside to help compensate the loss, but he wasn’t nearly as effective.
It’s hard to find a linebacker that can cover and do all the other, dirty jobs it takes to play in this league. It’s rare you find one that has both pass and run-stuffing skills. Just look at Kyle Van Noy, who hasn’t been able to get playing time because of his inability to handle pass-coverage. Van Noy has been making good progress in recent weeks, but you get my point. DeAndre Levy is a huge piece to this defense, and like all great players, has an ability to make the players he plays with better. If Levy is back this season, the Lions will be a better team in 2016. If they’re a .500 team without him, I think they are a Playoff team with Levy out there leading the way.