The Detroit Lions showed a lot of three man looks in OTAs
By Ash Thompson
The Detroit Lions defense is going to look significantly different in 2018. The team ran a few three-man-line looks in 2017, but they are becoming a staple in 2018.
The beat reporters got their first look at the Detroit Lions defense Thursday. It was everything we have heard it might be by all reports. “My head was spinning from all the schematic and personnel changes, alternating between three and four-man fronts.” wrote Kyle Meinke of Mlive.com. “It’s barely worth noting who was starting there, because it changed so much and so frequently.”
Lions fans are no strangers to rotating personnel along the Lions defensive line. Former defensive coordinator Teryl Austin rarely had a player on the defensive line play more than 65% of the defensive snaps. Only three players in four seasons exceeded that mark. A general preference for what personnel would take most of the snaps was clear most seasons from the first time the team took the field, however.
When asked Thursday about what the defensive group was working on, Matt Patricia was careful not to give much away. “A lot of it’s real basic, fundamental stuff.” the head coach said. “There’s not a lot of big-picture concepts.” Teryl Austin was not a bad defensive coordinator by most reports. I certainly never read anything characterizing him as a stupid man, or his defense as particularly predictable. Matt Patricia’s “real basic, fundamental stuff” has the beat reporters who have been watching Lions practices for years shaking their heads in disbelief. That can only be a good thing for the 2018 Detroit Lions.
Devon Kennard has been lining up as an edge rusher from a two-point stance consistently beside a three-man line. A three-man line in the Patriots scheme under Matt Patricia meant two-gap defense. The Lions under Austin ran a single gap run defense the vast majority of the time. In the old scheme defensive linemen would try to get into the backfield as rapidly as possible. The idea was for the defensive linemen to get tackles in the backfield.
Under the new regime, the defensive linemen will try to hold an offensive lineman in place to clog the middle of the field. When the running back commits to a hole, the defensive lineman then commits with him. The linebackers job is to make sure that there is nowhere to go when the running back cuts back. Linebackers, not defensive linemen are the playmakers in Patricia’s defensive scheme. That fundamental shift is the reason that the Lions are bringing back just over half of the front seven starters from 2017.
Next: Blount and Johnson are the lead backs at Lions OTAs
Boiling defensive line strategy down to a terribly simple analogy, there are two types of defenses: those that try to break through the wall of the offensive line, and those that create a wall that the offense needs to break through. From 2014- 2017, the defense was breaking through walls. In 2018 they will be building them with three-man fronts.