Among the many areas for improvement in 2022, the Detroit Lions defense has one critical one. The Lions must escape the bottom rung of the NFL’s pass defenses in the QB Rating allowed metric.
It’s been too long since the Lions finished in the top half of the NFL for the full season in QB Rating allowed:
2021 – 101.0 (30th)
2020 – 112.4 (32nd)
2019 – 99.6 (27th)
2018 – 102.7 (30th)
The last time Detroit was in the upper half of the league was 2017, when Teryl Austin’s defense under head coach Jim Caldwell. That Lions defense, featuring a great secondary built around All-Pro CB Darius Slay and safeties Glover Quin and Quandre Diggs, allowed a QB Rating of 84.1 that ranked 14th in the NFL. Not coincidentally, that was the last season Detroit posted a winning record. The league QB Rating allowed average hovers right around 86.0 each year with some wiggle room.
While QB Rating isn’t a flawless metric, it does provide a pretty accurate assessment of how effective a pass defense is going against it.
Adding DE Aidan Hutchinson can only help the pass rush, one of the core components of keeping the opposing passing game under control. The secondary will need to create more interceptions and perform better in the red zone, two other areas where QB Ratings get fluffed up against a bad defense. That’s one key area for improvement for Aaron Glenn’s defense in 2022.
