The Detroit Lions depth may not be as good as we thought
By Ash Thompson
The Detroit Lions depth was thought to be one of the teams greatest assets. The starting positions are locked up before a single pre-season game. That could be a very bad thing.
According to Dave Burkett of the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Lions starters appear to be all but set. There are only a couple of meaningful battles occurring at the top of the roster. There are two different interpretations of whether this is a good or bad thing.
Burkett claims that this is a good thing because if you’re searching for a starter you probably don’t have one. There is wisdom in that, I will grant you. NFL starters look like NFL starters, they are some of the world’s most phenomenal athletes. If there is a question as to whether or not a player is one, he very likely is not.
The counterpoint is that if there’s nobody challenging your starters your depth is probably not great. If the dropoff between an average starter and their backup is so visible that nobody even considers them an alternative, they are not going to do well if pressed into action.
Frank Ragnow stepped into the starting line up immediately. That sounds great on the surface, but the fact that there was no challenge from either the Lions free agent acquisitions or the existing depth players is troubling. That means there is a significant step down from the Lions rookie guard to the depth players along the line.
A new defensive scheme has entered the equation. Almost immediately all but one of the starting spots have been determined. The Lions don’t exactly know who is going to line up across from Darius Slay, in truth, it will likely be a committee based on matchups.
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Nobody is seriously challenging the linebacker spots though. Christian Jones, Jarrad Davis, and Jalen Reeves Maybin are the three players that will play meaningful snaps off the ball. One injury there and the quality of play will fall off a cliff.
The interior defensive line will be A’Shawn Robinson and Sylvester Williams with Ricky Jean-Francois as the third man in. Beyond that, there are players with no defined role but “versatility” on their side. When a player who hasn’t established himself is lining up all over the field, it is not usually because they are versatile in a good way. Most of the time it is because the coaching staff is trying to find something, anything, useful that they bring to the table.
This is why we hear that player getting reps all over the place in camp, and then see them replaced a short time later. They were brought in to do one thing, the coaches tried them out at another, perhaps even a third. Nothing worked and thus the player gets released. It may be that Jeremiah Ledbetter is, in fact, cementing a role for himself as a backup everything. It may also be that he isn’t going to make the 53 man roster because he isn’t good enough at any one thing to ever see the field.
Next. Curb your Kerryon Johnson enthusiasm. dark
The Detroit Lions depth needs to show itself in the form of dominating the backups of other teams before it can be believed. The only way they can prove they belong in the league is by setting themselves apart from those who do not in a real game situation.