Detroit Lions Mailbag: A scheme change seems to be coming, the most underrated battle, and is the Altmyer buzz real?
This week’s Detroit Lions Mailbag uncovers early 2026 pressure points. From a potential defensive scheme tweak to a sneaky RB3 battle and rising young QB talent, with a lot of buzz that fans want to know about being real or not.
Less than 100 days to go before the Detroit Lions open up their season, and there are a lot of questions flying around. Let’s answer some of them.
A lot of people are saying the Lions’ safety position is in better shape than we realize. How credible do you believe that is?
Very credible. The Lions knew what they were doing at safety this offseason and protected themselves pretty well for the possibility that Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch could miss time. Thomas Harper and Avonte Maddox were Pro Football Focus’s 10th and 11th-highest graded safeties last year, Chuck Clark has 80 starts at safety in the NFL, and Christian Izien is a versatile safety on the rise. He also has plenty of starts in his three-year career.
They’re deep at safety, and it makes you wonder how much benefit this can be when Joseph and Branch are back. Some of these guys, like Maddox and Izien, can move around and play cornerback, too.
The defensive front is concerning. Though not much is said or written about him, what assessment and projection could you give about Tyleik Williams going into a second year? He and Alim have to come up big for us.
Tyleik Williams is so much like Alim McNeill as a player on the field, and I think he’ll be similar in terms of career growth as well. Like Williams, McNeill didn’t start a lot in his rookie season, but started his full second season, and you saw a lot of growth from him from year one to year two. I think, like most Lions players, year three is the real breakout, but Williams can still be pretty good this year. The benefit he has over McNeill is that he is surrounded by a much better defensive line.
I know he runs stuff and space eat, but this year I’m intrigued to see how he does taking advantage of the attention that Aidan Hutchinson, McNeill, Derrick Moore, and D.J. Wonnum get. Can Williams get to the quarterback?
Who do you think will win the number 3 running back?
This is going to be an underrated camp battle that I’m totally looking forward to. I think everyone will immediately say this is Sione Vaki’s job to lose, and that may be so, but I think Jacob Saylors has a real shot to disprove that. There’s also Jabari Small and Kye Robichaux. But I think the real battle here is Saylors vs Vaki.
It’s going to come down to special teams value. Vaki is great in the tackling department, but Saylors has shown he can be a reliable return man. Preseason should be fun for this one. At this point, I’m leaning towards Vaki because I wonder if he can return kicks as well, on top of being a sure tackler.
Why did they (Lions) not play Ahmed Hassanein in the last game against the Bears? He was healthy, and it was the perfect time to try him out
At the end of the day, I get what you’re saying, but I think the Lions were thinking more along the lines that he got hurt fairly early in training camp, and then remember they actually cut him. So he wasn’t with the Lions again until mid-November. He had no real understanding of what the Lions’ defense was doing at that point in the season and hadn’t played a live football game since August, and he was green then.
So the thought process was probably, let’s get through this season, and then we’ll get a clean start with him at OTAs and go from there. It just doesn’t really help to get him out there for one game, then have the season shut down and have him not do anything until June.
Do you think with a little truth serum that Lions would admit they should’ve given Derrick Barnes’ money to Alex Anzalone instead?
Personally, I don’t get what fans have against Derrick Barnes. Yes, the Jameis Winston thing was embarrassing. Other than that, he’s been good, and he’s been what they want him to be. A solid run defender who can drop into coverage when needed. You can make the argument that 2025 wasn’t his best season, but you can also make the argument that he wasn’t very far off from where Anzalone was in 2025. Plus, he’s nearly five years younger than Anzalone. Barnes is still just 27.
In addition to that, it’s not like Barnes is making crazy money, and the Lions could only give it to one linebacker and chose Barnes over Anzalone. They wanted to get younger, and Anzalone didn’t fit that ideal, and his play had been declining. It’s that simple.
The narrative around Luke Altmyer is rather strong for an undrafted player. Is this just pajama buzz, or do y’all really see some legit potential in the rookie?
I see potential, but I do think fans need to temper their expectations for what that potential is. I’ve seen some thinking he’s the next Brock Purdy and could be a starter someday. Anything can happen, but that is something that is a long shot at this point. Right now, Altmyer’s ceiling is shocking everyone and beating Teddy Bridgewater.
I don’t know if he hits that ceiling. It’s a pretty high one. What I think he can do in 2026 is convince the Lions that they need to carry three quarterbacks this year. But before we get carried away, we need to see him at training camp and the preseason with pads on and a real pass rush coming his way. Until then, it’s pajama stuff.
Do you think we will see less 3 lb sets since AA is gone? Thinking we will see more nickel/dime packages with an extra corner/ safety taking AAs spot?
We should definitely be seeing more nickel in 2026. Kelvin Sheppard has already talked about this just last week.
“The nickel position, a critical position within the defense, wanting to expand upon how much volume we use the nickel,” Sheppard said. “Who is that going to be? It was Amik Robertson the last two years. So who is that going to be? It’s a lot of guys that are in flux, but a guy that’s kinda popped to me early Roger McCreary has come in and done a great job.”
So yeah, with Anzalone gone, we should be seeing a lot less three-linebacker sets. The Lions’ scheme as a whole should be a little different all over in 2026. We just won’t know how different until training camp opens up and we start seeing what they’re doing on the field.
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