{"id":783,"date":"2025-07-16T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:16:08","slug":"analyst-ranks-detroit-lions-2025-defense-among-best-in-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst Ranks Detroit Lions 2025 Defense Among Best in NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Lions<\/a> closed out the 2024 season as one of the top-10 scoring defenses in the NFL. In fact, they finished with the No. 7 defense based on points allowed (20.1\/game).\u00a0<\/p>\n

And when you look at the Lions\u2019 <\/a>\u201ctrue scoring defense,\u201d which disregards scores yielded by the offense (pick-sixes, safeties, etc.) and special teams (return touchdowns), you’ll find that the team’s defense finished No. 8 in points allowed (19.6).<\/p>\n

The Lions return a variety of key players from last year’s unit, including Pro Bowlers Brian Branch and Aidan Hutchinson<\/a> and All-Pro Kerby Joseph. Additionally, the organization used its first-round pick this past April on interior defensive lineman Tyleik Williams<\/a>, and inked cornerback D.J. Reed to a free-agent deal.<\/p>\n

However, Detroit<\/a> will be without its defensive play-caller from a season ago: Aaron Glenn. Glenn, who served as the Lions\u2019 defensive coordinator from 2021-2024, departed the organization this offseason to become the head coach of the N.Y. Jets. To fill the void, the Lions tabbed Kelvin Sheppard<\/a>, who was the team’s linebackers coach from 2022-2024.<\/p>\n

With all that said, will Dan Campbell’s squad have a top-10 true scoring defense once again in 2025? NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice<\/a> believes so.<\/p>\n

Filice, who recently ranked the top-10 units in the league, placed the Lions<\/a> at No. 6. He believes the Sheppard-led unit’s strengths are up the middle, calling the defense \u201cas stout a unit as you\u2019ll find up the spine, starting with a deep group at defensive tackle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also is a fan of Detroit’s linebackers group, spearheaded by Jack Campbell, Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes<\/a>. Plus, he credited the Lions with the \u201cbest safety duo in the game today: Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the defense’s weaknesses, Filice started with the EDGE position. He labeled it as an area of concern because of Hutchinson’s<\/a> injury past and the lack of depth at the position behind him.<\/p>\n

The NFL.com written content deputy editor is most concerned, though, about the transition from Glenn to Sheppard<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest question of all, though, could be the man in charge,\u201d Filice expressed. \u201cAaron Glenn is gone, having taken the Jets\u2019 head-coaching job in January. Dan Campbell\u2019s right-hand man did an admirable job last season with a defense that was absolutely ravaged by injuries. Kelvin Sheppard was internally promoted to coordinator, and the franchise has high hopes for the 37-year-old former player, but this is the first time he\u2019s run a defense. Hope he has better injury luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the five teams with defenses ranked ahead of the Lions, only the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> (No. 2) also hail from the NFC. Meanwhile, Filice projects the Denver Broncos to finish with the league’s No. 1 true scoring defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions closed out the 2024 season as one of the top-10 scoring defenses in the NFL.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}