Detroit Lions player stock: Who’s up and who’s down after Week 3 loss

Continuing with Detroit Lions players who are trending upward.

Inside LBs

Last week against the Packers, Aaron Rodgers ruthlessly picked on Jamie Collins and Alex Anzalone, constantly targeting Aaron Jones and Robert Tonyan. Since then, Collins was benched and placed on the trade block opening up a spot for a combination of Jalen Reeves Maybin and Derrick Barnes.

They faced a tall task of slowing down arguably the best rushing attack in the league in the first week in the starting lineup. They definitely played up to the task. Anzalone easily played his best game of the year, and Maybin made some excellent tackles in the open field. This was a vast improvement from last week as the Ravens running backs only accumulated 58 yards total, and the Ravens only scored 19 points.

Okwara Brothers

The Okwara brothers had totally different 2020 seasons. Romeo had a career year with ten sacks and a contract extension while Julian essentially red-shirted his rookie season after coming off a broken leg at Notre Dame.

On Sunday, they both were disruptive forces creating havoc in the Ravens backfield. Romeo played every single defensive snap and continued his trend of solid play over the past couple of seasons. Julian, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised.

He lined up over the guards and on the edge and made some great plays getting after the passer. Julian showed that he should have a role as a pass-rushing specialist as he improves the other parts of his game.