The Detroit Lions didn’t exude much confidence on Friday night in Tampa Bay leading the team to look outside of Allen Park for help on defense.
After a lackluster outing in Tampa, the Detroit Lions are looking high and low for some help on the defensive side of the ball. It only took a little more than 48 hours for the team to announce an addition to the roster. No, not the one everyone got excited about on Sunday night.
It might be time to stop holding your breath that we’ll hear any more about Khalil Mack from a certain limo driver in Detroit. Instead, the Lions bypassed the words from a luxury vehicle operator and signed veteran defensive end Robert Ayers.
Ayers joined the Lions on Monday inking a one-year contract after spending time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Giants and Denver Broncos. His experience should pair nicely with the addition of defensive tackle Ricky Jean-Francois on the new-look defensive line.
The two sacks Ayers posted last year might not look like much, but the previous year he tallied 6.5 sacks for the Bucs. He posted 60 tackles in the past two seasons and has been talked about as a disruptor in the trenches by pressuring quarterbacks and enabling others to make plays. Check out this note from Justin Rogers of The Detroit News
"“According to Pro Football Focus, no edge rusher has registered more quarterback hits in the past two seasons than Ayers’ 35. He generated an impressive 45 pressures on the quarterback.”"
Those are things this Detroit Lions team can get excited about. The Lions were the only team in the league without a quarterback sack through the first two preseason games. Bringing pressure and quarterback hits from a player opposite star defensive end Ziggy Ansah would be a great improvement from what we’ve seen so far this preseason.
So far, the question of how this defense would perform under new defensive-minded head coach Matt Patricia has been answered with, “Ho, hum.” There hasn’t been anything pointing towards a solid foundation, especially when the starters were in the lineup and giving up touchdowns to Tampa Bay’s backups.
Signing Ayers might be the positive additive this defense needed to get things firing on all cylinders. It’s certainly a step in the right direction based on the production (or lack thereof) that we’ve seen so far. If this signing doesn’t pan out, the team might be kept waiting for more news from a certain limo driver.