The Detroit Lions are looking to build on some of their successes last season.

With a relatively young team, there are sky-high expectations for the Dan Campbell lead team. Our very own A to Z Sports Film Room broke down why the Lions' defense will make or break their 2023 season.

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Disclaimer: The following is a transcript of a YouTube video titled "Why the Lions will MAKE OR BREAK their 2023 Season: Film Breakdown" The content is for informational purposes only and was originally presented in video format.

The Lions have arguably the best offensive coordinator in the NFL, an elite offensive line, a solid quarterback, and dynamic weapons, especially once Jamison Williams comes back. So this should be one of the better offenses in the NFL. It's the reason that Detroit has higher preseason expectations than they've had in recent memory. But they were one of the worst defenses in the NFL last year, and there's a lot of pressure on this defense to hold up their end and not let this season be a wasted opportunity. They've invested a lot on that side of the ball, and there's reason to expect significant improvement. So, in this video, we're going to look at why the Lions defense couldn't stop anyone and how they can take a step forward heading into next year.

Before we get into the video, make sure to like and subscribe. Also, follow us on all of our social medias. You can find the links to those in the description below. The Lions had one of the worst defenses in the NFL last season. They ranked 31st in EPA per play and 28th in success rate allowed, and when you have a bottom-five defense, the natural instinct is going to be to blame the defensive coordinator.

I do think Aaron Glenn deserves some blame, but without a certain level of personnel, there's only so much a play caller can do to manufacture a quality defense. In terms of coverage calls, Aaron Glenn was trying everything, but it was basically just throwing stuff at the wall hoping it sticks, and no matter what the Lions ran, there were coverage busts all over the field. When they ran man coverage, they couldn't trust their corners to hold up on the outside.

Jeff Okudah has just never developed into a consistent cover corner, and Amani Oruwariye had one of the most surprising falloffs I've ever seen. He went from being a really promising DB to pretty much unplayable. He was never this lockdown, tight coverage every snap type of player. He was someone who's going to get beat occasionally, but he makes enough plays to kind of offset that. But last year, it seemed like he just forgot how to play. I don't know if there was an injury he was dealing with, but what the Lions got from their starting corners over the first half of the season was not good enough to be a competent defense.

It doesn't matter how great of a DC you are; if you can't play man coverage on third and medium in the NFL, your defense is not going to be very effective. But nothing they tried outside of that worked either. When they would run zone coverage, you really saw their weakness at linebacker. They would bite so hard on play action and wouldn't recover depth quickly enough, so there were wide-open gaps in the middle of the field, and they didn't really have good enough safety play to compensate for that.

So a major part of being a good defensive coordinator is your ability to install plays and teach your players to execute. And maybe Aaron Glenn was doing a bad job of that. Without watching practice, I have no way of knowing. But if you're getting gashed for 20 yards no matter what coverage you call, I think a lot of that falls on the players.

But I do think Aaron Glenn was too aggressive, trying to overcompensate for his lack of personnel. He used a lot of exotic coverage disguises with the idea that if we can't stop them one-on-one, let's at least try to confuse the quarterback. But this secondary already struggled playing straight up, single coverage. Adding the extra motion of rotating out of a disguise and then trying to pick up your assignment was just too much, and the result was just more big plays. And he also blitzed a good amount, but the pass rush wasn't getting home quickly enough, so there was just less help on the back end to prevent explosive plays.

So for the first half of last season, especially, the Lions just didn't have the secondary personnel to really do anything at a passable level, and Aaron Glenn was kind of exacerbating the problem by trying to do too much. I understand the thought process behind trying to muddy up the picture for the quarterback to make up for your coverage weaknesses, but it didn't work, and I think the answer should have been to simplify instead of making everything more complex.

But there is a major turning point for this defense in the middle of the season. They went from having the worst passing defense in the NFL weeks one through eight to having the 17th ranked passing defense weeks 9 through 18. And there were a couple of things that happened after their week 8 loss to Miami that I think had a significant effect.

They fired defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant, and again, I'm not in the DB room, so I don't know specifically what his issues were or what he should have been doing differently. But when you look at the marginal development from Jeff Okudah and the regression of Amani Oruwariye, it's easy to connect the dots and say these guys are too talented to be playing this poorly. So, it seems like a pretty easy decision to make there.

But I think the most important change that probably got less coverage was Jerry Jacobs returning to the starting lineup. Jacobs was an undrafted free agent in 2021, and his rookie year was shortened by an ACL injury, but he came back in week nine and was a significant upgrade. Jacobs was the Lion's best cover Corner last year, and he allowed Aaron Glenn to call man coverage without it being an automatic explosive play for the offense. The first eight weeks of the season, the lions were the second worst man coverage defense by EPA per play, but weeks 9 through 18 they ranked ninth in the NFL in man coverage efficiency, and that's with Jeff Okudah regressing as the season went on. 

I don't know if there was a single non-quarterback personnel change that had a greater positive effect last year than replacing Amani Oruwariye with Jerry, so heading into this off-season, cornerback was one of their biggest needs, but they did have one starting caliber player that you feel good about. Jerry Jacobs didn't fix everything; a lot of the same issues from the first half of the Season still showed up on tape. Right here they're running inverted cover 2 with a Sim pressure where the linebacker blitzes and Julian Okwara replaces them in coverage. Jerry Jacobs makes this play work. Aaron Rodgers' first read is this whole shot to Sammy Watkins, but Jacobs is able to press him at the line of scrimmage to slow down his release and then sink quickly and get enough depth to take away the vertical route, and Rodgers isn't able to get through his progression quickly enough, and the pass rush closes in. But if we look at the middle of the field here, you see the exact same problems. 

All of the underneath defenders are just running to spots; they aren't actually covering anyone, so you've got two wide open seams down the middle. Everyone's so focused on getting to an exact location they're letting these routes go right past them, so in my opinion, when you have linebackers who aren't great in coverage, you shouldn't be giving them these added steps that make their jobs more difficult. So now that we've set the stage for what this defense was last season and how they were able to at least get their head above waters as the year went on, let's look at how they addressed their needs this off-season and what we can expect in terms of development for some of their younger players.

The number one need this off-season was cornerback, especially with Jeff Okudah leaving, and they signed Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley in free agency, two very similar caliber players right in that high-end cornerback two-tier. They've got well-rounded skill sets, a lot of experience, and Moseley has kind of been injury prone for most of his career; that's why he only got one year, six million. But with Sutton, Moseley, and Jacobs, the Lions have three quality starters on the outside. I still would have liked to see them add a corner in the draft; this was a really deep class at that position, but I think they absolutely addressed this need. 

The second major need was linebacker, specifically someone who they could trust in pass coverage, and they took Jack Campbell in the first round. I think this will almost certainly be an upgrade to what they had last year, although my biggest negative for Jack Campbell was change of direction and his ability to move backward in zone coverage, so this isn't a perfect fit based on what they needed. But I can't be too hard on the Lion's front office for this pick because it was a huge need, and there were hardly any plug and play mic linebackers in this draft class. Their other options would have been taking some athletic project that's going to need four years before they can play at a high level, and Detroit can't really afford to waste time on that development. 

They also upgraded at nickel by signing CJ Gardner-Johnson and drafting Brian Branch. I'm interested to see how they sort this out positionally because I think they can both play safety or slot, but I would expect both of them to be starting by the end of the year, and they could realistically have plus starters at every position in the secondary. And then they took nose tackle Broderick Martin in the third round. I did think this was a reach based on my evaluation, but again, if you look at the nose tackles available at the time, there weren't many great options, and maybe he can develop into a replacement for Isaiah Buggs.

So I would have loved to see them add a premier cover linebacker like Tremaine Edmunds in free agency, but overall, Brad Holmes did a great job of addressing needs and restocking the defensive personnel. That alone should raise the floor of this defense, but it's also fair to expect second and third-year jumps from some other players. I think Alim McNeill is going to have a breakout season; his tape last year was really impressive. He was much more impactful rushing the passer over the second half of the year; he has rare quickness and explosiveness for a player of his size. He doesn't have great length, but he's really quick with his hands to disengage and get around the blocker's shoulder. He can win with speed and power, and he's a playmaker in run defense. He will get moved by double teams, so I think they need to find a true nose tackle that can hold his ground at the point of attack, but I expect a major jump from Alim McNeill in year three. 

Aiden Hutchinson had a really good rookie season, 53 pressures and 11 sacks, but he did play a lot of snaps, so if he can improve his efficiency in year two, that's going to take a lot of the pressure off the secondary. And then Kirby Joseph was one of Detroit's best defensive backs as a rookie; he made a lot of plays in coverage but he wasn't very reliable in terms of preventing big plays. Most of that came down to his tackling; he took some awful tackling angles as the last line of defense, so I think it's realistic to expect these three players to take significant steps for this year.

And then a few more players to mention that I have questions about. The first one is James Houston; he was one of the most efficient pass rushers in the NFL last season as a rookie, with his bend and flexibility at the top of the rush he was just unblockable at times, so if he's able to maintain that, the Lions could have one of the more dynamic pass-rushing duos in the league. 

But as a UDFA, you never know if year one was a fluke; now that everyone in the league has tape on him and how he wins, is he going to be able to continue to add to his pass rush moves and be a steady impact? And then you've also got players like Josh Paschal and Ifeatu Melifonwu, who I liked as prospects, but they haven't shown much in the NFL, so the way I look at it is whatever you get from those two players is icing on the cake. When you look at this defensive roster top to bottom, the personnel is objectively so much better than it was last year. 

I don't know that I see this being a top-10 defense; you're still relying on a lot of young players, but there aren't any major weaknesses. I don't expect the defense to hold this team back like they did last year.

PFF declares Lions position group one of the best in NFL

Pro Football Focus is the latest national outlet to sing the Detroit Lions’ praises in a recent list.

Featured image via David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports