During the bye week that conveniently comes at the midway point of the season, we’ll review each Detroit Lions position group.
Major moves in the first half: Lost Bill Bentley (ACL) and Nevin Lawson (toes) to season-ending injuries. Signed Danny Gorrer.
What has worked: While the Lions’ defensive line might be the team’s best unit, the secondary has been the most surprising.
Detroit knew it had a good safety pairing in Glover Quin and James Ihedigbo, but general manager Martin Mayhew deserves credit for signing Rashean Mathis last season and trusting Darius Slay this season. The starting secondary has been quite good as Mathis continues to play better than his age might indicate and Slay progresses into becoming a good starting corner.
Where this secondary has really worked, though, has been in the varying packages Detroit has. After losing Bentley and Lawson, coordinator Teryl Austin devised multiple packages for certain players. First Isa Abdul-Quddus and then Cassius Vaughn have been in a bigger nickel package -- when Abdul-Quddus is in, he plays safety and either Quin or Ihedigbo play closer to the line and when Vaughn is in, he’s in the slot. They also have a traditional nickel package with Gorrer and have found varying roles for Don Carey, who can play safety or nickel.
It has been, for the most part, a unit that has held up well.
What has not: The injuries to Bentley and Lawson appeared pretty damning at first and the Lions had seven players at nickel at some point during the first month of the season. At first that seemed like a detriment until Austin used it well.
Slay has had some rough matchups and has been a little inconsistent over the past few weeks, as the Lions have faced good offenses in New Orleans and Atlanta. Otherwise, he has been pretty good.
Prognosis: The Detroit secondary, once a likely weakness, is nowhere near that now. Slay should improve even more the second half of the season and seems poised for a potential breakout year in 2015.
Quin and Ihedigbo have very good chemistry and should remain as one of the top safety tandems in the league -- something Quin and Delmas were during the first half of last season. The common factor here is Quin, who is as valuable a defensive free-agent signing last season as Golden Tate was for the offense this year.
Quin has become a vital part of the defense as he rarely gets beat deep and is smart enough to often be in good enough position to make a play or force a running back or receiver to have to make an extra move to slow a play down.
It’ll be interesting to see how Austin handles his defensive packages as teams continue to learn what he’s about as a coordinator, but he’s done a good job of mixing up those packages now -- although Gorrer is almost like a third-down back on offense. Unless it is a third-and-short, his package is in.