If there's one positive to take away from the preseason that'll surely carry over into the Detroit Lions' regular season, it's how unbelievably disruptive their defensive line has been throughout.
Head coach Dan Campbell told reporters on the Tuesday ahead of their last preseason game, and cutdown day, that their D-line is looking unbelievably deep right now.
"The D-line room, man. That one is, I mean, that could go any way right now. It really can. I mean, there's a number of guys in there. The hard thing is you can't keep all those guys. You just can't, not without it hurting the rest of your roster. And, there's some good players in there. There's some veterans, some young guys, there's raw talent, and there's things in there that you really like."
Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams, and DJ Wonnum highlight the room at the moment, but there's still a wealth of talent in players like Skyler Gill-Howard, Derrick Moore, Levi Onwuzurike, Tyler Lacy, and others.
It's a great problem to have if you're Detroit, especially since pressuring the quarterback and controlling the ground game might be the only two controllable factors on defense for them this season.
Lions' defensive line helps quell some concern in secondary
Detroit's secondary is...fine. It's not fully on fire, as some might want you to believe. D.J. Reed looked spectacular in his only preseason snaps last week, and Rock Ya-Sin keeps making great plays in training camp against Detroit's starting offense that should make fans excited about him facing off with far less talented wide receiver rooms.
Nick Whiteside has also gained praise, and rookie Keith Abney II keeps working his way up the depth chart and impressing. And, Ennis Rakestraw and Roger McCreary - previously potentially on the roster bubble - feel close to locks for the final roster.
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But, despite all that encouragement I just gave you about the room, it's nowhere near as good as their defensive line right now. Reed is (likely) the only star in the starting secondary as of now, and the team still hasn't given a concrete timeline for a return for either Brian Branch or Kerby Joseph, their star safety tandem.
That leaves a rotation of Chuck Clark, Avonte Maddox, and Thomas Harper. Clark has looked spry in camp, and Maddox has been great in preseason. But, they're not Branch and Joseph.
In 2025, Detroit was just 26th overall in pass rush win rate and 29th in run stop win rate, abysmal numbers considering they rostered a healthy Hutchinson for the entire season. Health on their front seven, though, was an issue then.
Relying on a refreshed D-line unit to be a force feels a lot more feasible of a request than expecting this secondary to suddenly be an All-Pro caliber unit. And, that's not a terrible thing. Detroit had to improve in both their run defense and pocket pressure, and both seem well on their way to improving heading into Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints.
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