Will the Detroit Lions secondary really be a weakness?

Defensive depression

Yet even with the question marks surrounding the offensive line, the offense is still the Lions biggest strength. The reason plain and simple is how bad this team has been defensively outside of half a season two years ago.

If fans are inundated with ‘offensive optimism’ many more are wallowing in ‘defensive depression’. Last season’s defense couldn’t have been much worse.

As former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach John McKay once said when asked about his team’s execution, ‘I’m in favor of it.’

For the first eight games of last season, it was amazing to watch Matthew Stafford work magic without a rushing attack and mediocre offensive line play at best. Yet no matter how many points the Lions offense scored, the defense was more than capable of giving up even more.

It was sad and pathetic all at once. The 2019 Lions defense couldn’t stop the run, but as McKay might have said, ‘they made up for it by not stopping the pass’.

Now as we gaze ahead at the fast-approaching season, the big question is; has the defense improved enough to give the Lions a chance to win games? A simple question that should have a simple answer.

There is no doubt that the Lions needed to improve in all phases of the defense this offseason. Improvement would mean taking a huge step forward towards being competitive.

Last season the secondary was the silver-lining that actually carried the defense early, yet as the season wore on the Lions defensive backs were being burnt to a crisp with regularity. Suddenly all that luster was nothing more than fools gold.

Some pointed to the trade of Quandre Diggs. The former Texas Longhorn was the leader of the Lions secondary, yet apparently he didn’t completely buy-in to Matt Patricia’s system.

Whatever the reason we want to give for the trade, it ripped the heart out of the defense and they played like it. Despite having a second-half lead in 12 games last season, this franchise only managed a 3-12-1 record.

Under the circumstances, the results were very underwhelming.