Matt Patricia’s defensive scheme defies description
By Ash Thompson
Matt Patricia’s defensive scheme may simply not be describable in a soundbite or two. It’s not that he’s dodging the question, it’s that there is no neat answer.
Mike O’Hara of detroitlions.com put up an interesting piece of work about why Matt Patricia just kind of smiles and blows off the question whenever someone asks him about what the defensive scheme is going to look like from this point forward. Essentially the reason boils down to this: there is no way to answer that question in the way that the person asking it wants it to be answered. There is no zippy one sentence soundbite to describe Matt Patricia’s defensive scheme in New England.
On any given play there are defenders with one gap, two gap, or no gap responsibility. The players that start the game will not finish it. Some games Darius Slay will shadow the other team’s best receiver in man coverage, others the defense will spend the day in zone coverage. The reason he doesn’t answer the question is because there is no answer.
Kyle Meinke of mlive.com wrote an article about the Lions forgotten man in last year’s draft: Jalen Reeves-Maybin. Lions fans are salivating at the idea of drafting a Roquan Smith or Tremaine Edmunds in the upcoming draft. Their belief is that the Lions need better pass coverage linebackers. Maybin’s pro day in 2017 would have placed him in the better half of this season’s combine participants.
The Lions are apparently very high on him. Maybin started to take snaps away from both veteran Paul Worrilow and fellow rookie Jarrad Davis in passing situations toward the end of last season. While Maybin is not an elite coverage linebacker yet. His presence could allow the Lions to go another direction early in the draft, however.
Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press profiled the Lions new defensive line coach Bo Davis. Former players love the new kid on the block. He also has a solid reputation. Birkett quotes virtually every Alabama lineman at the combine in his article. All of them rave about “coach Bo.”
Justin Rogers of the Detroit News points out how bad the free agent crop of pass rushers is in 2018. Essentially, it boils down to late career one hit wonders, over the hill fossils, and players even more injury prone than Ziggy Ansah. Some of them may have been less expensive than franchise-tagging Ansah, but you get exactly what you pay for. The draft is also a wasteland for teams looking for immediate production. After Bradley Chubb, the question becomes how much of a project a team would like to take on. None of the other pass rushers are even close to being productive NFL players.
Next: Lions unlikely to bring back Travis Swanson
Free agency is only a few days away, and that will give us a better idea of what the Lions will do at the draft. The players they add, and those they choose to let go will tell us what to expect from the 2018 squad.