Lions News

[-Deborah-]

It's been a couple of years since we started a new thread for Lions News. I will move over a few of the recent posts from the old thread.

[DanO]

"Remember when Gibbs was a horrible reach at #12, and a consolation prize for missing out on Bijan Robinson?"
-------------------------------Oh I remember it well. I've said/written I want those idiot draft ex[erts and pindits to make a public apology to the Lions for their idiotic opion on the matter.

[El Axe]

Remember when Gibbs was a horrible reach at #12, and a consolation prize for missing out on Bijan Robinson?

I remember being surprised because it was clear by their actions that they considered Gibbs at least the same value as Bijan if not better. I thought Gibbs size and subsequent difficulty blocking would turn off the Lions. Bijan has also been a stud, but Gibbs' speed is really a special weapon and his blocking is better than I thought.

He had that really nice blitz pickup Monday night. He had to throw his entire body into that LB to keep him off Goff.

[whatever_gong82]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2025/01/01/detroit-lions-undefeated-road-record-has-them-prepped-for-playoffs/77379381007/

[whatever_gong82]

The Athletic

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6028409/2024/12/31/bears-coaching-search-ben-johnson-lions/

Chasing the Lions and impressing Ben Johnson requires changes from the Bears


Adam Jahns
Dec 31, 2024


If the Chicago Bears are going to woo Ben Johnson away from the Detroit Lions, then chairman George McCaskey and president/CEO Kevin Warren must learn where their rival’s turnaround began. They have to know why the Lions hired Chris Spielman.

Before Detroit hired general manager Brad Holmes or head coach Dan Campbell, principal owner/chair Sheila Ford Hamp and team president/CEO Rod Wood brought in Spielman, a former Lions All-Pro linebacker, a fan favorite and a longtime broadcaster for Fox at the time.


Spielman’s official title? Special assistant to the president/chairperson.

“Hamp told Spielman this mission — the fixing of the unfixable — had become personal for her,” The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner wrote in September 2023. “She asked him for help and told him that, with trust and communication, they could give Detroit its football team back for the first time in 75 years.”



Spielman — whose brother, Rick, was the Minnesota Vikings’ GM from 2012 to 2021 — didn’t want to be the Lions’ GM. He just wanted to help the team that drafted him and that he loved.


“I do know what works and what doesn’t work by being 30 years in this business and traveling around to 32 teams, year in and year out, and having a brother in the business — watching and learning, conversations with him about what works for him, what doesn’t work, to be able to build what our goal is,” Spielman told reporters after he was hired.

The Lions did what the Bears have never done under McCaskey. They asked one of their beloved players for help in an official capacity. Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders was also part of the Lions’ three-person search committee.


Chris Spielman, special assistant to the Lions’ president/chairperson, has been a key figure in the Lions’ turnaround. (Junfu Han / USA Today Network)
Under McCaskey’s leadership, the Bears have had eight losing seasons and two playoff games in 13 years. The Bears’ next coach will be McCaskey’s sixth since firing Lovie Smith after the 2012 season. Ryan Poles is McCaskey’s third GM, and Warren is his second president. Caleb Williams is the Bears’ third quarterback drafted in the first round since McCaskey has taken over.


If the Bears aren’t going to hire a president of football operations — which McCaskey has long opposed — adding someone like Spielman almost makes too much sense. This isn’t the same as hiring Ernie Accorsi or Bill Polian as consultants and allowing them to run the team’s searches and have significant influence.

The Bears need someone who knows what it means to be a Bear, what it’s like to play in this city when things are good or bad, has experience dealing with the media and more.


As Jon Greenberg wrote in a recent column, there are plenty of former Bears players to turn to for help. It’s easy to put together a list of options: Tom Waddle, Jim Miller, Olin Kreutz, Charles Tillman, Gary Fencik, Tom Thayer, etc.

But it would still be surprising if the Bears made such a move.



The Lions turned to their past in Spielman to move forward. Similar to the Bears right now, the Lions were a mess when Spielman was hired on Dec. 15, 2020. The Lions fired coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn earlier in November. Detroit was 31-43-1 under Quinn, including 13-29-1 with Patricia.


Firing Poles would require McCaskey’s approval. He is the one who hired Poles in 2022. If the Bears haven’t done so already, they will have to decide soon whether to extend Poles’ contract before they begin interviewing candidates to replace Matt Eberflus.

All of this matters when it comes to appealing to Johnson, who will be the most coveted offensive-minded candidate on the market.


Johnson was hired in 2019 by Patricia as the Lions’ offensive quality control coach. He was later retained by Campbell in 2021 as the Lions’ tight ends coach before being promoted to passing game coordinator and taking over as the play caller after Anthony Lynn was fired.

In other words, Johnson knows what changed for things to work in Detroit. He has gone from worst to first because of it.


Five days after defeating the Bears at Soldier Field with “Stumble Bum” and more, Johnson revealed that in addition to some assistant coaches, Spielman has provided ideas for trick plays.

“That’s every week,” Johnson told reporters on Dec. 27. “Chris Spielman’s the same way. He’s just all over the place. And so we’ve got to dial them back a little bit.”


Johnson smiled when he said that.

“The best part of what we do is the head coach (Campbell) knows no bounds, and so he wants to push the limits as much as anybody,” Johnson said. “And when you’ve got a guy leading the charge like that, the rest of us are, ‘Oh, really, you want to do that? All right, all right, we’ll give it a try.’”


How does Johnson say no to Spielman?

“Very gently,” Johnson said, smiling, then laughing.



That could be an example of the organizational alignment Johnson is seeking. Do the Bears have that in place for him? It’s the most important question McCaskey and Warren have to be asking themselves before their search begins.


In March this year, the Lions announced that Spielman received a multiyear extension.

“In his current role, Spielman helps across the organization and has been an integral part of re-establishing a culture that he embodied on the field for the Lions,” the team said in a statement.


Neither Accorsi nor Polian could do that for the Bears as consultants. In 2016, Detroit hired Quinn after using Accorsi, the former GM of the New York Giants. A year before helping the Lions, Accorsi led the Bears’ searches that led to GM Ryan Pace and coach John Fox. Accorsi later helped the Giants in 2017 with their next GM search, which ended in the hiring of Dave Gettleman. None of those GMs is still running an NFL team.


Having Spielman around full-time is different. Johnson knows that. Warren could learn about Spielman’s value from Spielman’s brother. Rick Spielman and Warren worked together in Minnesota from 2006 to 2019.

Everything still starts and ends with McCaskey, though. The onus is on McCaskey again to make the right changes at Halas Hall that can lead to different results on the field.



Adam L. Jahns covers the Chicago Bears as a senior writer for The Athletic. He previously worked at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he started in 2005 and covered the Blackhawks (2009-12) and Bears (2012-19). He co-hosts the "Hoge & Jahns" podcast. Follow Adam on Twitter @adamjahns

[CGVT]

The best safety in the league is not going to the pro bowl.

Kirby got screwed

[Sanders Fan]

Safety Brian Branch, running back Jahmyr Gibbs, center Frank Ragnow, right tackle Penei Sewell, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and punter Jack Fox join Goff from the Lions.

From ESPN.

[-Deborah-]

The best safety in the league is not going to the pro bowl.

Kirby got screwed

Bigtime miss there.

[Coop]

Absolutely can not worry about next season and what happens with Johnson and AG. Both I think are smart enough to know what they have here in Detroit.

[whatever_gong82]

Meet Brad Holmes' lieutenant who has helped Lions patchwork roster through unprecedented injury woes in 2024

Justin Rogers
Jan 2

Detroit Lions director of pro scouting Rob Lohman.jpg



Detroit Lions director of pro scouting Rob Lohman and his department have had a busier than normal year helping the team plug mid-season roster holes. (Photo courtesy the Detroit Lions)


Allen Park — After the Detroit Lions beat the Bears in Chicago late last month, pro personnel director Rob Lohman waited for the frustrating but familiar text. The one that, in many ways, has defined Detroit’s 2024 season.

But the communication from the team’s locker room never came.


Anxious it might have been sent, only to get chewed up and spit out by the concrete bowels of Solider Field — landing wherever it is all lost texts go — Lohman couldn’t wait any longer, opting to make first contact.

"Does this mean there're no injuries?" he sent.


It’s difficult to read skepticism or cautious optimism in that single line without context, but rest assured, both were woven into the message. With nearly two dozen players on injured reserve, including more than half the team’s starting defense, Lohman has grown as accustomed to bad news emanating from the training room as much as anyone.

This week would offer a welcomed reprieve from the routine of trying to find another player outside the walls of team’s practice facility to urgently fill a void. But Lohman was ready because it’s his job to be.


Surviving changes

Maybe you’ve heard Lohman’s name before, but there’s no shame if you haven’t. Only a fraction of the fanbase knows the makeup of Detroit’s front office beyond Brad Holmes, and an even smaller percentage understand the roles of the people who support the general manager in crafting Detroit’s roster.

Lohman has been with the Lions a long time, more than most. He was hired by Matt Millen in 2007, promoted by Martin Mayhew, retained and elevated to his current role by Bob Quinn, and has managed to stick through the transition to the current regime.


When you unpack Lohman's journey here, to the upper ranks of an NFL front office, it’s filled with the familiar hallmarks of passion, hard work, almost unbelievable connections, and a handful of lucky breaks.

Raised by parents with little interest in sports, Lohman fell in love with them as a kid anyway. But he never had delusions of playing one professionally.


“I like to joke that my first scouting job was looking in the mirror and saying, 'You don't have much of a career playing,’” Lohman said.

Still, he sought an opportunity to turn passion into a profession. As a high school junior, he researched college programs offering degrees in sports management, and when a recruiter from South Carolina’s football program rolled through town, Lohman’s football coach, Frank Luisi, pitched his pupil for a role helping the Gamecocks coaching staff.


After touring the university and earning an academic scholarship, the plan almost unraveled when the coaching staff was fired. But Luisi stepped in and found another connection at the school, helping Lohman earn an opportunity to work as a recruiting assistant.

From there, internships took him back to New York; one with Hofstra University’s football program and another with the NHL’s Islanders. After graduation, Hofstra offered Lohman a full-time position in the recruiting department with one catch — they couldn’t pay him.


So Lohman moved back home, his mom packed him lunch daily, and he made the 20-minute commute. There, the high-level connections started piling up. Hofstra’s recruiting coordinator is current Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn. The fifth-year senior with no remaining eligibility helping out in the department? That would be Falcons coach Raheem Morris. Additionally, assistant coaches Joe Woods, Dave Brock and Kyle Flood would go on to far bigger jobs.

Lohman was only there a year, but it provided tremendous experience. Not only did he work in recruiting, but he pitched in everywhere he could, from filming practice to serving as an on-field assistant to position coaches.


That led to an opportunity to work as a graduate assistant at Syracuse, coached by Paul Pasqualoni. Yeah, that Paul Pasqualoni, who served as Detroit’s defensive coordinator a few years back. There were a couple other future Lions connections among the GAs, as well. Current assistant outside linebackers coach David Corrao was there, as was former head coach Matt Patricia.

Lohman parlayed his time with Syracuse into another college offer, to lead the recruiting department for some coaching upstart named Urban Meyer at Bowling Green. But Lohman had eyes on going to the NFL. The Houston Texans were getting ready to launch as an expansion franchise, and benefitting from owner Cal McNair being a South Carolina alum, the door opened for an internship with the team in 2001.


Lohman spent six years with the Texans, working as an advance scout for coach Dom Capers — who also ended up with the Lions as a senior assistant in 2021 — before shifting to college scouting.

This takes us to Detroit, where Lohman started in a strange and exhausting hybrid role for Millen.


“I had a weird position that didn't exist anywhere else,” Lohman explained. “I advanced scouted every (pro) game and I had 30 colleges. I was traveling non-stop. I was so worn out by the end of that year.”

The next year, while Lohman was on a college scouting trip to Wisconsin, writing up reports on the Badgers prospects that included future Lions draft pick DeAndre Levy, he took a break for lunch. At the restaurant, he looked up at the TV and caught some breaking news.


“I had left my phone at the hotel and was in the room with two veteran scouts watching film all day,” Lohman said. “Then we go to get lunch and I look up and the scroll said 'Matt Millen: Fired.' Luckily I didn't have my phone that day because I wouldn't have gotten any work done.”

Shortly after Millen's dismissal, Mayhew reorganized the front office and moved Lohman to the pro personnel side. It’s been a steady climb from there, including a promotion to assistant director in 2016 before taking over the department in 2019

Detroit Lions director of pro scouting Rob Lohman_1.jpg

(Photo courtesy the Detroit Lions)


Heart of the job

So what does the pro personnel department do?


There are two primary responsibilities during the season, both critical to a team's success.

There’s the advanced scouting component where Lohman’s staff plays an integral role in gathering the initial wave of data on the upcoming opponent to facilitate the formation of that week’s game plan.


“I have a great staff,” Lohman said. “We've been together for six years. Joe Kelleher, assistant director, Justin Licker, pro scout. He came on as a scouting assistant (in 2018), and when I got bumped up, he got bumped up. We obviously know each other really well; good camaraderie, good chemistry. Blake Ask was added last year, but technically this year. He's an assistant pro scout.”

The advanced scouts not only study film but typically attend the upcoming opponent’s game the week before they play Detroit, watching from the press box. This past week and next, the staff will be spread out around the country, consuming all of Detroit’s potential playoff opponents. They turn their notes into a packet that’s presented by Lohman to the coaching staff. The emphasis is on lineup changes, injuries, who is playing well, and who they think might be struggling. It's all critical when trying to determine the matchups to exploit.


“Those guys are a huge resource for us,” coach Dan Campbell said. “They give us the first, I guess, vantage point of what that team is, where they’re at, how they’ve had success, where they’ve struggled, injuries, which is huge. …They give you the jump-start going into the week.

“Those guys have done an unbelievable job for us,” Campbell continued. “They’re very thorough, some of the best that I’ve been around. What I love about them is they give you just the nuts and bolts of what you need. …It’s a huge role to what we do.”

continued..

[whatever_gong82]

The other component, and one that’s been as critical this year as any, is being ready to add a guy to the roster. Lohman and his staff have a deep knowledge of every player who is a free agent or on another team’s practice squad. They’ve studied their film, written reports, and graded each of them.

During the season, Lohman keeps a thorough database, first sorted by position and further categorized by experience. There are the young players who have been in the league fewer than two years, younger veterans, and a third group, with the most experience but on the back end of their careers.


Lohman obsesses over the database, tweaking the lists daily. Each player who is released by another team, his staff meets on them. Every practice squader who gets elevated and sees snaps, they watch that film and update their reports and grades.

Minutes before we sit down to talk, it’s learned the Washington Commanders are waiving defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis. The former Alabama standout was a second-round pick three years ago. Lohman makes it clear he’ll be checking out the tape shortly after we wrap up.


The next day Mathis is claimed off waivers by the Jets, but it’s reported four teams put in a bid. One of them was Detroit. Lohman's crew must have liked the potential he saw on tape. Plus, it's no secret the Lions love Alabama products with four on the 53-man roster.

The diligence of the pro personnel department has paid dividends in 2024. The Lions have had to tap into their work and recommendations more than they could have imagined this year, signing multiple players to plug and play the following week. That includes four defensive additions taking the field during the first two series in an early December game against Green Bay.


“It's definitely been crazy,” Lohman said. “If you would have told me earlier in the season we would be bringing in all these linebackers when we had seven on the roster that we liked (to open the season), I would have told you that you're crazy.

“But I would also say this, I remember — all the years kind of get squished together — but I think it was two years ago when (Taylor) Decker got hurt in practice and missed the first six or seven games,” Lohman said. “Then, the next year, Jonah Jackson hurt his hand and missed a few games. Those experiences reinforced that you might feel great about a position right now, but you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month.


“In my position, I'm always looking at my list,” Lohman said. “I have to be thinking, OK, if we have an injury, who is the next guy at that spot? Even at linebacker. We had seven. I wasn't expecting to have to add all these linebackers, but in my mind, I was ready.”

A secondary element for the department, at least during the season, is the ongoing preparation for next year’s free agency. Teams don’t have the luxury of waiting until the end of the season to write up approximately 800 reports ahead of the start of the new league year in mid-March. Lohman's group is constantly picking away at that list between the advanced scouting and updating the database of immediately available talent.


Then the process starts all over again during training camp, when there are temporarily 2,900 players employed across the league, with more than 1,000 who won’t make a 53-man roster when final cuts go down. Calling in some help from other departments, 12-15 Lions staffers work through that massive list.

“You evaluate all those players, some of them make rosters, obviously, some get cut and sign with practice squads and some linger on the street,” Lohman said. “We get through that initial 53-man cut and I spend the next three or four days just sorting through all those names.

“All of that work lays the groundwork for the additions we're making now in November and December.”


Much like when Lohman evaluated himself in the mirror in high school, there are no delusions he’s going to unearth a star in the middle of the season. But a contributor, someone who fits the ethos of the team under Campbell? That Lohman can do.

“The player you have available in March and April is distinctly more talented than the player you have in November and December,” Lohman said. “But, the thing is, everybody knows that. You're not going to get the same level of player, but you can find the same level of effort, competitiveness and toughness. We can still find our type of player, even if they have a lesser skill set. You won't sacrifice that for anything.”


A valued voice


What shouldn’t go unrecognized is Lohman’s job satisfaction. He’s never taken for granted what he does, but the work hasn’t always been gratifying. That’s a relatable sentiment in most professions.


But there’s a reason he’s continued to survive and thrive with the Lions. It’s a simple formula, reinforced by former Lions assistant coach Don Clemons, who spent a remarkable 27 years with the team, surviving multiple regime changes long before Lohman did the same.

“I used to joke with him, 'How have you stuck around so long? Do you have pictures of somebody?'“ Lohman said. “He's like, 'No, you just have to work hard.'


“There's no secret formula,” Lohman continued. “You just have to work hard and realize you're here to be in service to the general manager. We're here to help him be successful and the team to be successful. Whatever your role is, you have to figure out, what does the GM want from me? What can I provide them? It's about figuring that out. Working for Bob Quinn has been completely different than working for Brad Holmes.”

As a pair of former college scouts, Lohman knew Holmes before he was hired, but they didn’t have anything more than a surface-level relationship.


While Lohman broke off into pro personnel, Holmes stayed on the college side, eventually becoming the Rams director of college scouting — parallel to Lohman’s role in Detroit — before the Lions hired Holmes as their GM.

Under Holmes, the Lions wanted to be a team built through the draft, which has been the foundation of their remarkable rebuild from a perennial bottom feeder to a legitimate Super Bowl contender. But when he was hired, Holmes readily acknowledged he had some blind spots on the pro personnel side. He plugged some of that by bringing Ray Agnew on as his assistant general manager, but also by leaning into Lohman’s experience and expertise.


To have his input sought to that degree was an adjustment for Lohman, but it’s turned out to be the best part about working for Holmes.

“The buzzword around here is collaborative, but we are,” Lohman said. “Whatever job you do, you don't want to do work and feel like it's not impactful, the work you're doing doesn't make a difference. Everything we do here feels like it adds value. …He listens. He wants to know what you think. I believe that's all you can ask for in my position. Ultimately, he's the final decision-maker. He and Dan are going to work together on the big decisions of who to add to the roster and what moves to make, but he values our input.


“...It's not always that way. It certainly hasn't always been that way for me.”

It’s more proof the culture in Detroit is as healthy as it has ever been. It’s made Lohman’s job easier in more ways than one. Not only does he feel validated through his work, but there’s been a noticeable shift when he reaches out to agents about their clients.


These days, it doesn’t take much convincing to get players to want to join the Lions. It’s easy to sell the team's success, Campbell’s energy, and a verifiable meritocracy when it comes to earning a role and playing time.

“That's something I tell agents all the time and I have multiple examples of players like that,” Lohman said. “It doesn't matter when you got here, how you got here, if you're on the practice squad or active roster, Dan has proven if you're the best player and you can help us, you're going to play. We'll elevate you, we'll sign you, we'll play you."





Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net

X: Justin_Rogers

Bluesky: Justin-Rogers

[whatever_gong82]

Pride of Detroit Direct

By Ty Schalter, exclusively for Pride of Detroit


The Detroit Lions got the revenge they wanted against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night–but once again, their depleted defense was exposed for all to see.


Head coach Dan Campbell’s aggressiveness was rewarded with a win that was emotionally, symbolically, and momentum-ally huge, whether it ultimately means anything for the standings or not. Campbell also caught a break, in that no more of his players got broken.

But as Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy pointed out on Bluesky, the Lions’ elite defense has fallen off a cliff since Week 11. They were the third-best DVOA defense in NFL after their 52-6 beatdown of the Jacksonville Jaguars; since then Detroit’s been the third-worst DVOA defense.


What happened? Well, linebacker Alex Anzalone broke his arm.

Anzalone has led Detroit in snap count, snap rate, or both every season since arriving here in 2021. Despite losing better-paid, better-recognized players at more premium positions, plus a slew of role-players and backups, Anzalone turned out to be the one Jenga block that couldn’t be pulled from the Lions’ towering defense without the whole thing collapsing.


With Anzalone, according to StatHead, Detroit’s defense held opponents to the lowest NFL passer rating in the league (72). Without him, they’ve allowed the highest (109.7).

There is, of course, a ton of noise in those two data points–but they fit with a lot of other big dropoffs: from fourth-lowest completion rate allowed to 13th, from 14th-best yards per play allowed to dead last, and from the fewest tight-end fantasy points allowed to the sixth-most, per NFL.com.


Anyone who watched 49ers tight end George Kittle catch all eight of his targets against the Lions for 112 yards–the seventh-most receiving yards of any pass-catcher in the league last week–could tell Detroit simply didn’t have anyone on the roster who could keep up with him.


But it’s not nearly as simple as “No Anzalone” = “can’t cover between the numbers.”

If you’ve been following Erik Schlitt’s Snap Counts series, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn initially earned high marks for how he compensated for the loss of Anzalone with Malcom Rodriguez, Jack Campbell, and rotational outside linebackers. Across the first three games without Anzalone, the Lions held all tight ends and running backs combined to just nine catches for 104 yards!


But Glenn also lost Rodriguez along the way, forcing him to give Campbell Anzalone-like snap counts over the last few weeks. Campbell and company managed to keep a lid on the Chicago Bears’ tight ends and backs, with and without Rodriguez. But in between Bears games, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills shredded Detroit from every spot, slot, and level of the field.

There was hope that the return of Jalen Reeves-Maybin would staunch the bleeding, but the 49ers were an especially bad matchup for a Lions team trying to make up for a lack of linebacking athleticism and skill with aggression and heart.


In fact, as The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner pointed out on Bluesky, the linebackers’ aggression might be the problem.

“With or without a healthy front, they are so aggressive in the box and are biting/reacting so hard to every bit of cheese on these run action calls,” Baumgardner said, adding that it’s happened every time 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has faced off against Campbell.


Even with the limited TV broadcast view, Lions linebackers could clearly be seen getting sucked in by run action time and again, allowing wide-open space behind them. Detroit allowed a whopping 12.6 yards per play on play-action passes, per NFL Pro, compared to 8.4 without it. They also only pressured quarterback Brock Purdy on one of his 11 play-action passes, despite blitzing five times.

This isn’t just a Detroit thing, though. Across the season, San Francisco far and away leads the league in average yards per play on play-action with a whopping 10.6; that’s almost four whole yards better than their sixth-best 6.8 without it. EPA is a similar story; the 49ers average a seventh-best +0.27 with play-action, 13th-best 0.00 without it.


Shanahan also used pre-snap motion to devastating effect, not just forcing Glenn’s defenders to tip their man/zone hand but draw them out of position entirely. San Francisco went in motion on 35 of their 60 offensive snaps, and the Lions allowed league-high averages of 9.7 yards and +0.54 EPA per play when they did. Without motion? Detroit held the 49ers to just 5.4 yards and -0.01 EPA per play.

Strangely, this split in effectiveness with and without pre-snap motion hasn’t existed for either team across the season. But Shanahan clearly knew he could use it to manipulate the Lions’ patchwork back seven.


On a crucial second-and-10 deep in their own territory with just 1:04 left in the first half, wide receiver Deebo Samuel motioned from the left to the right side of the formation, putting three wideouts to the right and only an inline Kittle on the left. Detroit’s coverage shifted a couple of steps to follow the motion–including Reeves-Maybin, who was in man coverage on running back Isaac Guerendo.

Guerendo leaked out to the left, Reeves-Maybin struggled to stay with him, and Purdy lofted it over Reeves-Maybin’s head for a massive 40-yard gain. That set up a scoring opportunity right before halftime that never should have happened.


Shanahan also clearly played into Detroit’s tendencies, baiting them with 10 first-quarter runs called against just six passes. In the second, he flipped that split: 10 passes and five runs. Then he only bothered running the ball three times in the entire second half. Meanwhile, only three of the 49ers’ first-half passes involved run action, but he dialed up eight play fakes in the second half. It ended up being the 49ers’ most pass-heavy game of the year: a 70/30 pass/run split, when the 49ers have averaged a 55/45 in 2024.

So the good news is not necessarily “Alex Anzalone is coming back,” though he might be in time for the critical regular-season finale against the Minnesota Vikings.


The good news is that the Vikings are not the 49ers.

Now, Minnesota’s no slouch at throwing off play action. In fact, the 49ers, Vikings, and Lions are 1-2-3 in average yards per play on play action (10.6, 9.8, and 9.4, respectively), and 4-7-8 in average EPA per play (Lions, +0.35; 49ers, +0.27; Vikings, +0.25).


But back in Week 7, the Vikings only called seven play-action passes against the Lions, their third-lowest rate of the year–and three of them went for two sacks and an interception. Admittedly, one did go for a stunning 51-yard bomb to Jordan Addison, but overall Minnesota’s use of play action helped Detroit more than Minnesota. And while the Vikings used motion on 65.4 percent of their snaps against the Lions, slightly more than their 2024 average of 61.4 percent, they weren’t meaningfully more effective when they did.

Meanwhile, Detroit blitzed Minnesota a whopping 51.4 percent of the time–and despite still only managing their fourth-slowest average time-to-pressure of the year, still managed their second-highest sack rate (11.4 percent).


T.J. Hockenson, as Lions fans well know, is not George Kittle. For one, Hockenson runs significantly more routes from the slot than from an inline position. Even so, he doesn’t take nearly as much advantage of open space; Kittle leads all NFL tight ends in YAC over expected, while the 34th-ranked Hockenson’s behind teammate Josh Oliver (27th). Kittle also leads all tight ends in catch rate over expected, receiving EPA, yards per reception, etc., and is top five in all counting stats, and Hockenson (who didn’t play in the first Lions game) and Oliver are…not.

Meanwhile, Anzalone logged his best coverage game of the year against Minnesota, locking down Oliver, tight end Johnny Mundt, and tailback Aaron Jones. Those three managed just four catches for four yards on five targets, per PFF, on the way to a season-high 90.0 PFF coverage grade.


Even if he does play, it won’t be fair to expect Anzalone to replicate that performance; as Reeves-Maybin reminded everyone against San Francisco, players typically need a game or two to get back up to speed after a multi-week injury. But Reeves-Maybin himself will have theoretically knocked some of that rust off on Monday night, and the Lions defense should be healthier than it’s been since Anzalone went down in the first place.

As Schatz said, it may well still be up to the Lions’ offense to outscore the Vikings (and every other opponent from here on in). But that’s no different than last year, when the offense was scoring 6.2 fewer points per game and the defense spent the last two months allowing almost 26 points a pop–and, as if anyone needed reminding, that was still good enough to get within a heartbeat of the Super Bowl.

 
Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036.
Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved.

[froot loops]

The Kerby Joseph Pro Bowl miss might be the all time miss of any all star games ever. The dude has an All Pro PFF grade.

[whatever_gong82]

It's been a couple of years since we started a new thread for Lions News. I will move over a few of the recent posts from the old thread.

There's been so much good news/bad news that you had to start a new thread.

The old thread's length was getting along the size of Biblical proportions.

[Meano.Culpa]

The Kerby Joseph Pro Bowl miss might be the all time miss of any all star games ever. The dude has an All Pro PFF grade.

No worries.

He wasn't going to be available anyway.

Game prep.