It’s no surprise that the Detroit Lions were one of the NFL’s most competitive teams in 2021 after seeing them in the first two episodes of the HBO series Hard Knocks in 2022. Seeing head coach Dan Campbell deliver his “training camp welcome” speech will make anyone ready to jump out of their seat and run through the brick wall to win.
“It doesn’t matter if you have one cheek or three fingers, I’ll beat your ass.” This has got to be one of the most non-discriminatory motivational quotes in the history of the series.
Despite a clear rebuild in 2021, after swapping the all-time franchise and bringing leader Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff and three picks for the draft (one pick from the third round in 2021, one from the first round from 2022) and one type from 2023 in the first round), the Lions made their way to the finish line in all 17 games in Campbell’s first season.
Detroit held the third-best record in the NFL against spread (11-6) last season despite having the second-worst record of wins and losses (3-13-1). The Lions had by far the worst result among the top NFL teams against the spread. How it’s possible? Well, the Lions had six defeats one goal, tied for second place in the NFL, and only the Minnesota Vikings had more (eight), and found their groove at the end of the season by playing .500 football (3-3 W-L). ) in the last six games after the 0-10-1 start.
The youth movement
Defense was apparently Detroit’s most glaring weakness in 2021 as it was in the top five of the entire league in many categories.
Lions 2021 defensive rankings
The Lions were unable to make their second pick in the 2022 NFL Draft – defensive Michigan Wolverines and impersonating Michael Jackson Aidan Hutchinson – fast enough. After the Jacksonville Jaguars voted Travon Walker No. 1 in the Georgia Bulldogs overall standings, the Lions sent their pick to Hutchinson in under a minute.
“We gave the card back so quickly the league is furious with us,” Lions rep told Peter King of NBC Sports. To see also : USDA Identifies Feeding Families by 2022 Helping Combat Food and Nutrition.
Hutchinson’s 14 bags were the third largest in college football last season, so the Lions expect his presence to bring much needed juices to their defense. Their leader last year was Charles Harris who was only 7.5. Hutchinson’s pre-season debut against Atlanta Falcons turned out to be promising as he made two tackles in 10 defensive strikes, earning him the highest Pro Football Focus score for a defensive rookie in the first week of preseason (88.0). Only one Lions rookie had double-digit bags in his first NFL season. The only other defensive lineman the team picked in the top five who had double-digit volts last season at college was Ndamukong Suh (10.0 in 2010).
“I’m learning a lot at the moment. I feel like I take so many steps every practice and I feel really good every time I touch the pitch, ”said Hutchinson after losing the preseason 27-23 Lions on August 12. when asked about the development of the NFL. “I feel like I’m not even close to my ceiling, I have a lot more to do and see it in practice every day, just learning so much and reflecting on how we go.”
He showed his explosion away from the skirmish line, pushing the Falcon’s second and short run for a loss of four yards.
“It was amazing,” said Hutchinson. “I am glad that I have the opportunity, I am glad that the plays came out according to my wishes. It’s just my job to create them.
The last player from Lviv to hit more than 10 bags in one season is Romeo Okwara, who in 2021 comes down from a torn Achilles, which meant that he missed the last 13 games of the season. Between Okwara’s final recovery and the addition of Hutchinson, their rush could take a big step forward in 2022.
Secondary Detroit is in a similar position to the defensive line, except that it has one budding star that has proven itself in the NFL. While Lions missed their third selection in the 2020 draft, Jeff Okudah in all but one game last season, due to a torn Achiiles, defender Amani Oruwariye in his third season at the age of 25 made six steals in 2021. Oruwariye was third overall. the league behind only Dallas Cowboys defender Trevon Diggs (11) and new Los Angeles Chargers defender JC Jackson (8), who played for the New England Patriots last season.
Oruwariye was not only a rotating magnet in 2021, but also a consistent range, allowing a passing score of 36.0 when serving as a main defender in range. This number ranked the former round five player as the sixth best player with at least 300 photos in reach last year at the PFF. If 23-year-old Okudah manages to rebound, the Lions could end up on a corner in the foreseeable future between the former top three and Oruwariye.
Jared Goff, the first overall type of The Rams in 2016, returns as a Lviv starter in 2022, achieving his best career completion percentage in 2021 (67.2%) and the third best passer (91.5) of his career. But last season he didn’t stretch the pitch with the lowest score in the NFL (6.4), while he only made 17 passes for over 25 yards (26th in the NFL).
The inclusion of the second year Amon-Ra St. Brown, a fourth-round player (112 in total) in 2021 who started only nine out of 17 matches, as a player in the Lions passing attack is likely to bolster Goff’s tendency and efficiency to go deeper. 90 caught by St. Brown’s and 912 yards of receptions are Lions’s biggest-ever rookie, and his 90 receptions tied for the seventh ever rookie in a single season in NFL history. He recorded more catches, yards and touchdowns as a rookie than the first Lions Hall of Famer vote for Calvin Johnson in his 2007 rookie season.
“He [St. Brown] looked great and is kind of making the jump we were expecting, ”Goff said at the end of July. “He’s a hell of a gamer and a hell of a pro. I love throwing him the ball. He’s doing a great job opening up.
St. Brown finished last season on a scale like every NFL receiver, with six straight games of at least eight catches and over 70 yards of receptions, while scoring touchdowns in five of those six matches. Its production coincided with the best success of Lviv in 2021, ending the 3-3 season.
Amon-Ra St. Brown in Weeks 13-18 of 2021 season
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St. Brown has already shown some of the most reliable hands in the league, with just two dips on 119 targets (a 1.7% percent drop, the second lowest in the NFL among players with more than 75 hitting just for Terry McLaurin from Washington). In the second episode of “Hard Knocks” St. Brown revealed his secret: catching 202 passes from a JUGS machine after each training session, a tradition that began when he was growing up to outdo his classmate.
Goff said the greatest improvement in St. Brown has nothing to do with his set of physical abilities.
“I think he has a bit of belt experience right now between the ears,” said Goff. “It’s like the biggest jump has always been the first to second year. When you see him a few times, you hope you don’t make the same mistake twice, and he really didn’t. gives him some freedom to make decisions about his routes, and he has done a great job of dealing with it by understanding coverage and asking the right questions. He’s the guy we expect to be a big part of our wrongdoing.
St. Brown will eventually be flanked by Jameson Williams, 12th in this year’s selection, as he recovers from a late-season ACL tear. The Alabama product led the Southeast Conference with 15 touchdowns, finishing third in all college football.
Detroit also signed a contract with a 25-year-old landing machine, D.J. Chark to a $ 10 million annual deal after the first four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He only played four games in 2021 due to an ankle fracture, but the 6ft 4.205lb Chark had 13 touchdowns for the combined 2019 and 2020 seasons. That’s the same number of touchdowns at the same time as DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals, new Cleveland Browns receiver Amari Cooper, new Los Angeles Rams receiver Allen Robinson and offensive player of the year 2021, and Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp.
Goff also has a fast-moving runner with soft hands in the air at his disposal, 23-year-old D’Andre Swift. In 2021, for The Lions, the former Georgia Bulldog had 62 feet, the fourth most runners and 452 yards in receptions, the fifth most runners, but missed four games with a shoulder injury. Totally healthy, Swift believes he can have a historic season that only three players in NFL history have achieved: over 1,000 yards of running and 1,000 receiving yards in the same season. This would place him in the club where the San Francisco 49ers get away with Roger Craig (1985), Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk (1999) and the Carolina Panthers get away from Christian McCaffrey (2019).
“I know [it’s a rare feat],” Swift said on the Detroit Free Press. – I know with [assistant coach and running backs coach] Duce [Staley] how he trains me and how I know what I can bring to this team, it can be done.
In particular, Swift said he now has a more holistic understanding of football thanks to Staley, the “Hard Knocks” star who has repeatedly said at Lions coach meetings and to Swift’s face that he can be “so unique and the best in the league. “
“He pushes me to the limit,” Swift said of Staley. “He pushes me to the limit in every way possible. Learning relationships, learning to defend yourself, just detailing my work on and off the pitch, so when I see it in the game, I’ve seen it in practice before. One of the best coaches I’ve been around to play. “
Campbell’s trademark: Aggression on fourth down
“We’ll kick you in the teeth and when you hit us we’ll smile at you, and when you knock us down we’ll get up and bite the kneecap along the way,” Campbell said at his introductory press conference on January 21, 2021. “We’ll get up and we’ll need two more. shots to bring us down. Read also : This pop-up African cuisine business won a $100,000 Hatch Detroit grant. We’ll take your other kneecap and get up, and we’ll need three shots to knock us down. And when we do, we’ll get another piece out of you.
The Lions mirrored Campbell’s mentality, taking fourth place 41 times in 2021, leading the NFL. It was not an entirely desperate late game maneuver as they tried to move to fourth place 25 times in the first three quarters, which was also the biggest result in the NFL. Both numbers were the highest in the NFL by a team in a single season since the beginning of the twenty-first century. They only converted 52 percent of those attempts in 4th downs, 22nd best in the league, but with a more consistent attack in their second year at Campbell, it is quite possible they could have become more successful in that area. Becoming a better fourth team downhill would increase the likelihood of scoring more points and also reduce the scoring ability of your opponents since their defense would not have to start at a disadvantage in the field.
The bottom line
For a long time, it has been barren for Lviv in terms of off-season successes, and even recently in terms of play-off performances. They have not been promoted since 2016 (linked to the third longest active drought in the NFL), and Detroit has not won a playoff game since 1991 (the longest active streak in the NFL). The last time the Lions won a play-off, “Hook” was America’s best film and Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” topped the music charts. Reaching the playoffs would likely be ahead of schedule in Campbell’s second season of rebuilding. However, Lions have added enough talent, in addition to the reasonable expectation of multiple returns from injury to hit at least 7-10, surpassing the expectations many have for this “Hard Knocks” team.
Other excellent regular seasons of the NFL Patriots 2007 are the first and only team in the 16-game schedule used between 1978 and 2020 to end the regular season undefeated.
What year did the Lions go 16 0?
| 2008 Detroit Lions season | |
|---|---|
| Home field | Ford Field |
| Results | |
| Record | 0-16 years |
| The place of division | 4. NFC North |
How many times have Lions gone 0 16? The Lions were the first franchise to complete a full (without shortened strikes) regular season with no wins or draws since moving to sixteen season games in 1978, reaching 0-16 in the 2008 NFL season.
What year did the Lions go 1 15?
While it was exceptional when it happened, the 2008 Lviv 0-16 record was later leveled by the 2017 Cleveland Browns, who had lost 1-15 a year earlier, breaking the Lviv record for worst after the merger two seasons record (Baltimore The 1982 Colts also didn’t win [0-8-1], but the season was cut by …
Who coached the Lions when they went 0 16?
And so begins the firing of the coaches. The Detroit Lions, less than 24 hours after the unrealistic 0-16 season that included their over 500-point defense, was dismissed on Monday by head coach Rod Marinelli.
What was the Lions worst season?
In 2008, The Lions had one of the worst seasons of any major American sports team. They lost all 16 games in the regular season. They were the first NFL team to end a season without victories and 16 losses after losing to the Green Bay Packers.
What team has gone for it on 4th down the most?
The Detroit Lions had the most attempts to make their fourth game by a team in 2021, with 41 tries.
What’s the fourth biggest down conversion in the game? In his 17th game, the First Year Leader set a new NFL record in attempts to convert a fourth down. The Lions tried to convert 40 times into fourth position, breaking the 1995 New England Patriots record of 39 attempts.
Should teams always go for it on 4th down?
Like many other advanced NFL statistics sites, we find that going 4th often leads to higher expected point values than simply kicking a goal out of the game.
What teams go for it the most on 4th down?
The Detroit Lions made the most attempts out of their fourth attempt by the team in 2021, with 41 attempts.
How often do teams go for it on 4th down?
On pure statistics, the team’s success rate in converting the fourth drop for the first, or the result, is around 50 percent when that fourth drop is short-range. But NFL teams only “pursue it” about 20 percent of the time.
What was Staffords worst season?
Why should 0-16 lions trade for Jay Cutler instead of plotting Matt Stafford. The Detroit Lions 2008 ended last year’s season with the worst NFL record of all time 0-16.
What was the worst season of the Detroit Lions? In 2008, The Lions had one of the worst seasons of any major American sports team. They lost all 16 games in the regular season. They were the first NFL team to end a season without victories and 16 losses after losing to the Green Bay Packers.
What was the Lions best season?
The 1991 Detroit Lions season was the 62nd season in the National Football League, and the 58th as the Detroit Lions. This is the team’s best season since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
What was Matt Stafford’s best season?
Stafford finished the 2013 season with 4,650 passes, 29 touchdowns and 19 steals. He finished 100th on the list of the NFL’s 100 Best Players in 2014.
Who has the best defense in the NFL right now?
2. Ranking of the best defenders in the NFL
- Shines.
- Ravens.
- Cowboys.
- Bronkos.
- Foals.
- Patriots.
- Steelers.
- privateers.
Who has the best defense in the NFL 2022? 1. Green Bay packers. The secondary Packer team was unanimously selected as the best unit in the league. Jaire Alexander has been among the elite in his position for several years, but it was Eric Stokes’ breakthrough debut season that helped take this unit to the next level.
Who has the #1 defense in the NFL?
1. Buffalo Accounts. The Bills had the number 1 defense in the NFL last season (18.3) and have improved this season.
