Can a healthy Detroit Lions offense carry them to contention?
By Robert Jones
After free agency and the draft, the Detroit Lions still have questions on defense. Will the offense be good enough to carry them to contention?
The Detroit Lions, as well as the rest of the NFL, are navigating unprecedented waters. Following quarantined free agency, they performed the first ‘virtual draft’ and now every team in the league has to assimilate their new pieces with the rest of their roster without the benefit of actually being in the same room, much less practice field.
It’s different from everything we’ve seen in the past, yet some team will have to rise above the others to win the Super Bowl next season. Provided it is able to be played as scheduled.
This past Monday Lions head coach Matt Patricia met the press, virtually of course, and discussed the challenges this offseason brings. Considering that both he and general manager Bob Quinn are on the hot seat, they will need to find a way to make the best of this situation and get the most out of their players when they eventually are able to hit the field.
Aside from the quandary surrounding the ability of Matt Patricia to get all of his players on the same page in a virtual, hands-off coaching environment, the Lions questions this offseason have turned completely upside down from last summer.
At this time last year, we were feeling confident that the defense was ready to start looking like what we had all bargained for when Matt Patricia was hired two years ago. Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia had weeded out most of their incumbent defensive players and were turning over the personnel on that side of the ball to suit the demands of Patricia’s complex multiple defense.
Heading into last season the question was; how long will the defense have to carry the team until the Lions new offense gets some traction? As it turned out the defense was in over its head right from week one.
The surprise was that Darrell Bevell’s offense hit the ground running and played pretty well in general, while quarterback Matthew Stafford played like an MVP candidate until he injured his back in Oakland ending his season. Expectations for next season are a little different.