One of the big keys for the Detroit Lions’ turnaround from a 1-6 start to finishing out winning eight of the final 10 games was the emergence of several young talents on defense. Led by No. 2 overall pick Aidan Hutchinson, the runner-up to the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, the precocious collection of youngsters improved rapidly as the 2022 season progressed.
The Lions had the NFL’s youngest defense in 2022 — and it showed. However, the emphasis on talent development and coaching up promising young players really started working.
Now the Lions are excited to see how much better that young core group can play with all the experience they gained last season. Detroit head coach Dan Campbell is banking on it.
In his NFL Scouting Combine podium interview, Campbell talked up the team’s expectation for growth from young players like Hutchinson, S Kerby Joseph, DT Alim McNeill and LB Malcolm Rodriguez.
“We’re going to continue to grow just by the nature of our young guys developing and learning football,” Campbell said. “Hutch is going to only be another year smarter. He’s got pretty high FBI (football intelligence). But Mac’s only going to get a little bit better, Kerby’s only going to get a little bit better.”
In a different interview from the combine, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn reiterated the same talking point. This regime is very bullish on the young defensive talent,
“You really do (have to account for jumps in young players),” Glenn said via Tim Twentyman of the Lions. “You really do. Especially those guys you just mentioned. They are going to get a lot smarter. A lot more understanding of scheme. Then when you start to add (other) players to that, man, that can make a really, really beautiful sight to see and coach.”
GM Brad Holmes, the man responsible for assembling the young talent, proudly spoke about his young defense in his Combine interview.
“We had drafted six defensive players last year and five of those six guys, they end up playing some key roles for us,” Holmes stated. “But they were rookies. You can look at the number of — yeah, we don’t want to be in the bottom five of the rushing and passing yard categories, but I will say the way we finished, winning eight of our last 10 and seeing those guys grow together and learn how to play winning football, I think it shows. I don’t think the cupboard’s bare on defense like (when) you look at the overall (defensive) ranking. But I think we got some good young players that show that they can really help us get on board.”
