Among the many reasons the Detroit Lions finished 3-13-1 in 2021, the tackling by the defense is one of the big ones. At all three levels of the Detroit defense, the Lions struggled to terminate plays more than any other team.
The Lions were runaway leaders in allowing broken tackles last season, according to NFL Inside Edge’s data mining. Detroit allowed 75 broken tackles, six more than the next-worst tackling team, the Atlanta Falcons.
The data from Pro Football Focus reinforces the tackling issue. Detroit scored a 32.7 grade from PFF in the tackling department, ranking 32nd out of 32. PFF charted 172 missed tackles, which encompasses broken tackles as well as missed tackling opportunities.
It wasn’t one particular player or position group that bore full responsibility. While linebacker Alex Anzalone posted a team-high 21 misses per PFF (15 of those came in the first eight games), he actually had a better tackling percentage than EDGEs Romeo Okwara and Austin Bryant. Rookie CB AJ Parker, NT John Penisini, CB Amani Oruwariye and LBs Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Jamie Collins all posted missed tackle rates that are far too high.
Reeves-Maybin and Collins are now gone, but the others all return. A switch to a 4-man front should help in the run game, where the linebackers have less responsibility to both take on blocks and finish plays at the same time. The Lions added sure tacklers in the draft in DE Aidan Hutchinson, DL Josh Paschal and LB Malcolm Rodriguez, too. But the coaching staff needs to coax better tackling out of the defense if the Lions are to rise up in the standings, no question about it.
