The Dallas Cowboys got a front-row seat to a brutal reality in their primetime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: one new face was never going to fix a broken defense.
Dallas was supposed to debut recently acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in Week 5, after the team had apparently outbid the Detroit Lions for him. But Porter Jr. was ruled out because of illness, with footage showing him with a trainer and a trash can nearby. The Cowboys rolled on without him anyway, facing UDFA quarterback Jalon Daniels and a then-winless Buccaneers team.
That should have been enough. It wasn’t.
Instead, Dallas’ defense unraveled in a way that should sound familiar to Lions fans. Daniels threw for 189 yards and a touchdown and finished with a 110.2 passer rating.
The Cowboys had chances to make him pay for bad throws and came up empty. Penalties piled up, the run defense failed, and the whole night turned into a mess.
That’s the lesson Detroit can’t ignore: there is no one-player cure for a defense with major personnel issues and a major coaching problem.
The Lions are finding that out the hard way. Bargain shopping has not produced a respectable unit, and the list of non-impact additions tells the story. Rock Ya-Sin, Christian Izien, Thomas Harper, Chuck Clark, Devin White, and somewhat Roger McCreary have done little to steady things this season, and in some cases have been more harmful than helpful.
Detroit now has to patch things together on the fly. Porter Jr. is off the market, but Brian Branch is expected back soon.
Even so, that only solves one starting safety spot, and not with Kerby Joseph filling the other. D.J.
Reed also needs serious help in the secondary after struggling badly in coverage.
The numbers underline how ugly this has gotten. Detroit is last in the league in passing yards allowed per game, while Dallas is last in rushing yards allowed per game. Both teams are hunting for answers, but neither looks close to solving the deeper problems on their rosters or at defensive coordinator.
For the Lions, the shopping list is enormous: another starting safety, two starting cornerbacks, and legitimate depth behind them. That’s close to a full defensive overhaul in the middle of the season, which makes the task look nearly impossible.
And then there’s Kelvin Sheppard. The defensive coordinator has taken heat for failing to cover up the Lions’ issues, and he does not appear especially receptive to that criticism. He may not be the right man for the job, but there’s also a fair question of whether anyone could make this group look good.
This isn’t just a 2026 problem. It’s the kind of issue that could hang around for years, long after Sheppard’s run as defensive coordinator ends. One cornerback trade won’t be enough, and the Cowboys just proved how ugly that truth can look on a big stage.
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What makes this kind of early monitoring useful is that it goes beyond highlight chasing and into fit, with the Lions always looking for players who can match their physical profile and developmental timeline. Evans is one of the more interesting examples because of the position switch he made at Nebraska, while the others bring their own case studies in how much a strong stretch of fall football can move a prospects stock. For Detroit, the real value is in watching which of these players keep stacking good games once the matchups get tougher. [Read more 🡒]