Detroit Lions: 5 best individual defensive seasons since 2010

The Detroit Lions have had some impressive individual defensive seasons since 2010.

Once the dust settled on a miserable 2019 season for the Detroit Lions, much of the blame was attached to a maddeningly underachieving defense, which failed to affect the passing game and force turnovers with any consistency. Some of the players on this list certainly could’ve helped fix those issues.

As we did in our offensive list from last week, we are looking back at some of the Lions’ best individual seasons since 2010, this week on the defensive side of the ball. It’s tough to imagine after last year’s bottoming-out, but believe it or not, the Lions have had some excellent defensive performances during that stretch.

Of course, there were some worthy candidates who wound up being tough cuts. Linebacker DeAndre Levy’s impressive 2013 campaign in which he picked off seven passes was a tricky omission. Also difficult to leave off of the list was cornerback Chris Houston’s 2011 year, when he tallied five interceptions of his own, including two pick-sixes.

Here are the five that we have chosen, representative of the highest levels that Lions defensive players have reached since 2010. Note, as with last week, for this list, while some players were certainly deserving, no multiple entries per player were considered.