One of the biggest questions that many Lions fans have about the team is the defensive line. It’s a position group that didn’t add much beyond third-round rookie Brodric Martin, who is raw technically.
The line wasn’t great (insert understatement cliche here!) last year. But Detroit head coach Dan Campbell has bold confidence in his line. He talked up the unit before Friday’s practice session, inserting an important disclaimer in his faith in the DTs.
“Yeah, I think more than anything, D-line, do your job,” Campbell told reporters. “The fundamentals, the technique need to show up. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve got (new DL coach) John Scott here.”
Coach Campbell elaborated on why he feels good about Scott’s group,
“I think everything starts – when you start talking about up front, everything starts with the fundamentals of how you play the position inside-out and stopping the run. And then you go from there, you build from there, as it pertains to pass-rush. But I think the fundamentals need to show up, our hands, our pad level, our strike, our shed, the violent shed, I think – that’s what I’m looking for, inside-out, period.
All those guys, do your job, do what you’re asked because if we do that, we have enough right now, I believe that. It’s early, I’ve got it, but we’ll see.”
One reason for the relative confidence is that the line is no longer being tasked with making so many plays. Detroit’s draft and free agency additions showed the schematic shift to emphasizing the linebackers and secondary as being more imperative to coordinator Aaron Glenn’s defense. In the early camp practices, we’ve seen the LBs make more plays in the run game while the interior linemen are tasked more with holding ground and preventing blockers from getting out to stop the LBs from doing so.
