Is Detroit Really Doubling Down On Man Coverage?
Credit: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images
The common joke about Dan Campbell is that he’s the type of guy who hits on 19 at the blackjack table. Known for his aggressive philosophy on fourth down, it wouldn’t be surprising if the head coach of the Detroit Lions plays Russian Roulette in his spare time.
The man loves to take risks, and that’s especially true on the defensive end. Detroit’s defense was a mix of high blitz rates and heavy use of man coverage under Aaron Glenn, and most of last offseason was spent finding corners that could meet that criteria. While Glenn is gone, the philosophy remains the same, and it could help Campbell cash in by doubling down on man-coverage corners in free agency and the draft.
This begins at the top. Glenn left to take the head coach position with the New York Jets and Kelvin Sheppard was hired to take his place. Sheppard played for a variety of defenses during his career under brilliant minds like Lou Anarumo and Steve Spagnolo.
Sheppard played for Anarumo in Miami in a scheme that emphasized simulated pressures before and after the snap. While Shepard only made 24 tackles in his first season with the Dolphins, he had the best year of his career in 2015, racking up 105 total tackles with 13 for loss. Anarumo was at the helm of a Cincinnati defense that struggled this season but still had a lot of those core philosophies. The Bengals ranked 12th in the league with a 23.2 percent pressure rate, but ranked 21st with a 21.7 percent blitz rate.
When Sheppard hit free agency, he traveled to the New York Giants to play under Spagnuolo. While Anarumo loved to show that he was sending pressure, Spagnuolo usually wound up bringing it, and it continues to be the case in his current stint with the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City’s defense has been the strength of the team this season by logging a 31.6% blitz rate. While Spagnulolo has a different philosophy, the key point is getting home, ranking fifth in the NFL with a 26.1% pressure rate that was just under Detroit’s 26.2% clip.
You may wonder if we’re straying from the focal point of this article, but those are Sheppard’s primary influences, and what Detroit’s new defensive coordinator decides to do in the front seven matters. The Lions ran short on edge rushers last season but will finally get Aidan Hutchinson back. The Lions also have a talented trio of Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell, and Malcolm Rodriguez at linebacker, giving Sheppard the option to use some of the simulated pressures that he saw under Anarumo while also attacking the quarterback like Spagnulolo’s defense does in Kansas City.
If the front seven does its job, it comes down to the secondary. Brian Branch (32.9%), Cameron Sutton (30.3%), Kindle Vildor (29.9%), and Jerry Jacobs (28.4%) all played over 25 percent of their snaps in man during the 2023 season, but Branch was the only player that had a PFF grade over 60. The Lions tried to address the problem last year and the man rates of their top four corners doubled. Vildor led the way with a 55.1% man coverage rate while Amik Robertson (50.7%), Terrion Arnold (47.1), and Carlton Davis III (45.1%) followed. But once again, the Lions only had one corner with a PFF grade over 60 in man coverage (Robertson, 64.2).
Perhaps a different coach would look at this and decide to take a different approach, but that’s not what it sounded like when Campbell was asked what he wanted his defense to look like following Glenn’s departure.
“I want to play man — we want to play man,” Campbell said via The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy. “I’m going to pressure a little bit. So, these things are not going to go away. We are what we are, but ultimately, it’s always going to be about ‘How do we put the players we have in the best position to have success, which in turn gives us the ability to have success?”
A refreshed front seven should do wonders, but the biggest question could be whether the Lions can find corners that excel in man coverage. Detroit has $46.6 million in salary cap space according to Over The Cap, and Minnesota’s Byron Murphy Jr. is the only one of the top seven corners listed in the top 50 of PFF’s free agent list who finished in the top 50 of PFF Man Coverage Grades last season.
Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Mississippi’s Trey Amos also placed in the top 50 of man coverage in PFF’s college grade. But Hunter’s status as a top prospect in the draft puts him well out of Detroit’s range, and the Lions may not want to pin their secondary’s improvement on a rookie in the middle of a championship window.
Regardless, this is the biggest challenge Campbell and Sheppard face following Glenn’s departure. If they can find corners that can thrive in man, Detroit’s defense can be even better next year. If not, the Lions will have an Achilles’ heel that a team like the Washington Commanders could expose next postseason.
Up Next