5 Detroit Lions who must improve after the bye week

In six games this season, Flowers has 1.5 sacks, 22 total tackles (one tackle for loss) and three quarterback hits. He has still been showing up on the injury report with the knee injury that cost him two games, and it’s worth noting he played just 20 snaps in Week 8. So the bye week will probably do him good health-wise. And despite plenty of speculation, he was of course not traded by the deadline.

If Flowers can be healthy and look like he did in his first season with the Lions (seven sacks, eight tackles for loss and 21 quarterback hits in 2019), he will help the Lions defense a lot and bolster his value as an offseason trade candidate.

After being dominated on the ground by the Eagles in Week 8, the Lions are 30th in the league against the run (134.5 yards allowed per game). Brockers got a new contract after being acquired from the Rams in the offseason, and he has promptly delivered one sack and three quarterback pressures in eight games.

Brockers has tried to come off as team leader, preaching accountability and more recently his own need to be better. If he had been playing better, he probably would have been gone before the trade deadline.

Ideally, with an eye on the big picture, Brockers will see his playing drop some after the bye. But he absolutely needs to play better, if only (like Flowers) to pave the way for an offseason trade.