The Detroit Lions are still struggling to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, but Dan Campbell has some ideas to help it get better.
Last season, the Detroit Lions came in near the bottom of the league in any pass rush metric you can find. This year so far it hasn’t been much better, with seven sacks through five games (third-fewest in the league) and just one sack over their last three games.
Five of those seven sacks came in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders, led by three from rookie Aidan Hutchinson.
On Monday, via Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit, head coach Dan Campbell talked about ways to fix Detroit’s lagging pass rush.
"There’s a number of ways you do it you either pressure, pressure, right,” Campbell said. “So, you’re bringing five or six-man pressure. You either just stunt or you let them just fan it out and let them go. Go win a one-on-one or you guys that have it, straight rush. And so, we kind of tinkered with everything, but we’ve got to hammer down on some things that we think we can help them with.”"
Varied scheme and bolstered personnel will only help lagging Detroit Lions’ pass rush
Much has been made of how predictably blitz-happy defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has been when the situation may suggest it, to the point of an opposing player calling it out .
The numbers back up the aggressiveness to try to get after the passer. The Lions have the third-highest blitz rate in the NFL through Week 5 (35.9 percent). That’s translating to an 11.5 percent hurry rate (tied for third-best in the league). But their quarterback knockdown (8.8 percent) and pressure (22.9 percent) rates are middle of the pack, and along with sacks those are the most tangibly impactful pass rush metrics. Dialing up pressure and not getting home in a meaningful way has also put pressure on a struggling secondary that has been hit by some injuries.
A notable loss along the Lions defensive line has been John Cominsky, who leads the team with 10 pressures despite missing the last three games after wrist surgery. He may be back after the bye week.
Last year’s sack leader for the Lions, Charles Harris, missed Week 5 with a groin injury and he has one sack in the four games he has played (also in the Washington game, for a safety).
The Lions are also set to welcome rookie second-round pick defensive lineman Josh Paschal into the fold soon. He has been recovering from spring hernia surgery, and his 21-day practice window to be put on the active roster was opened last week.
Via Reisman again, Campbell spoke about getting key pieces back for the defensive line.
"We’re hopeful for Paschal, we don’t know. He just started practice last week,” Campbell said. “We get him, let’s see where he goes, see if he can help us there inside. Cominsky’s coming back at some point here, hopefully by Dallas, but we’ll see. And then, hopefully, Charles (Harris) will be back. And so, that alone will give us a little bit of juice in there. So, that’ll help with what we’re doing.”"
Campbell also pointed to doing more one-on-one work in practice, with helping pass rushers develop their moves as one of the benefits.
Glenn needs to adjust his defensive play calling, players could be moved around a little more and the Lions certainly could use some talent reinforcements. All of those elements, separately and together, can only help a pass rush that needs to improve–and needs to do it quickly after the bye week.