Have the Detroit Lions become the NFC North cellar dwellers?

Now the truth of the matter is that after a whole offseason of molding their roster, there is definitely reason for concern when this franchise is re-building their defensive front seven through the waiver wire in the final week before the season opener.

Let’s just say that it could be considered ‘bad karma’.

However, the reasons for this are many. Let’s start with the overabundance of gusto that general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia used to secure all the personnel they felt they needed to fix the ground game and for the most part ignored the defense.

The Lions were basically unable to stop the run last year and outside of three games that Ezekiel Ansah played like the Hall of Famer they are generously paying him to be this year, they couldn’t generate any kind of pass-rush.

Yet as putrid as the front seven were in most facets of the game, the Lions prioritized the ground game over the defense because this Lions defense was going to be much better simply from basking in the glow of Matt Patricia’s beard.

The truth about the allocation of their resources almost entirely to the improvement of the Lions moribund rushing attack, is that it was really a catch-22 one way or the other.

If the Lions had bulked up on defense, then the ground game would still have no pulse. Let’s be honest, it took almost all of the Lions resources to feel confident they have improved the ground game. It wouldn’t take the exact same resource commitment to truly feel like they had done enough to re-build this defensive front seven.

Like it or not, one of those two facets was going to suffer. The Lions chose the defense with the hopes that Patricia could make enough of an impact to coax the defense into improving from last year. Yet it’s still a players league. Good players make coaches look much smarter.

Any guesses as to where all next offseasons resources will be directed?