The Detroit Lions may be headed for a different kind of defensive test this season, and Jordan Love is right at the center of it.
Last year’s NFC North race was tight enough that a couple of swings in the right direction could have changed everything. If the Lions had just split their season series with the Green Bay Packers, they would have reached the playoffs.
Instead, Love made life miserable for Detroit in both meetings, throwing six touchdown passes with no interceptions while completing 65.4 percent of his throws. Those two games also gave him the second- and third-best passer ratings he posted all season against the Lions.
That history matters because Kelvin Sheppard is now in charge of getting this defense to a better place in his second season as coordinator. There are already signs that Detroit is moving away from leaning so heavily on base personnel and toward more nickel, which would put another defensive back on the field more often.
That kind of shift feels like more than a tweak. It would be a real step in Sheppard making the defense his own, and it probably should have happened a year ago. Personnel changes have pushed the conversation in that direction anyway, but the Lions may finally be ready to make the adjustment.
The numbers also point toward a change in approach against Love specifically. According to FTN Fantasy, via Aaron Schatz’s Football Almanac, the Packers were the No. 1 team in the league against man coverage last season and eighth against zone. Love was just as sharp, ranking No. 1 among quarterbacks in DVOA against man coverage and No. 9 against zone.
So while no coverage type really shut him down, the message is pretty clear: man coverage is not the lane Detroit wants to keep driving into.
That’s a notable departure from what the Lions have done under Aaron Glenn and then Sheppard. Detroit played man at one of the highest rates in the league, and last season Sheppard kept that basic identity intact. The Lions finished with the third-highest man coverage rate at 32 percent, according to Sharp Football Analysis, and they were only .1 percent behind the team in second.
But with the secondary battered by injuries, continuing to leave cornerbacks isolated like that was always going to raise questions. A more varied coverage menu would help protect those defensive backs and could also give the pass rush a better chance by making quarterbacks hold the ball longer.
Against Love, that kind of change looks especially important. And it may not stop there. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was also a top-10 quarterback in DVOA against man coverage last season, which only adds to the case for Detroit to lean more heavily into zone as it shifts toward a more modern defensive structure.
More nickel. More zone.
Less of the old man-heavy formula. For the Lions, that may be the new plan.
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