Should We Blame Quinn, Patricia or Players for Unsuccessful Lions Season?
By Jon Poole
Players – 15% Slice
The players haven’t been great this season, but really how many great players did you expect the Lions to possess entering the season? Even if we water down the definition of great to pro-bowl level? Darius Slay, Damon Harrison…maybe Matthew Stafford?
We’ve since learned Kenny Golladay deserves to be on that list as well, as long as Stafford is playing at least, but you can take Darius Slay and Damon Harrison off it.
Other notable good player performances would be Trey Flowers, Marvin Jones, Frank Ragnow, Danny Amendola, T.J. Hockenson & Tracy Walker. But beyond Flowers and Golladay, it was really just Matthew Stafford, and an excellent crop of C and D grade players sprinkled in with some promising young talent.
Most notable disappointing performances so far for me would be Damon Harrison, Jarrad Davis, Romeo Okwara, Devon Kennard, Mike Daniels, Rick Wagner, & Jesse James.
Notice the most prominent underperforming players are all on the defensive front, specifically Damon Harrison and Jarrad Davis, right up the middle of this Detroit defense…giving the Lions a leaky gut all season.
‘Snacks’ Harrison being the biggest disappointment, as there were more expectations from him than Davis, All-Pro expectations. Harrison was getting pushed around and tired late in games early in the season but has played a bit better in recent weeks, though not even close to his ‘best run-stuffing DT in football’ days. So far this season, PFF has a 66.2 grade on Harrison after a 92-grade last season. That comes (3) weeks after his first good game in Oakland as well, according to Ben Cooper of Pro Football Focus.
"In last week’s iteration of 20 Stats to Know, I mentioned that Damon Harrison Sr. “continues to have a down year in the run game.” Well, Harrison seemingly took notice, putting together his most complete game this season in run defense. He notched five run stops on just 19 run-defense snaps after having five combined in the first eight weeks."
For Davis, it’s pretty clear he is not the middle linebacker for this defense. He is too small to fill the gaps in Patricia’s scheme, and he still looks like someone learning to ice skate for the first time when trying to change direction, which is a problem in any scheme. It’s frustrating to see him get a great jump and rush finally, only to be too hyper to finish and let a Philip Rivers juke him out.
Before the Dallas game, Jarrad Davis had a 32.9 PFF grade this season, which was dead last at his position. His play verse the Cowboys has since boosted him to all the way to… 41.4. Aka, still a1st round bust.
I could argue that individually, there are more players having excelled expectations than not. But who is failing expectations, especially on defense, is far more significant.