The B-Gap: In season of leaps forward, the next big step for the Lions is drafting a quarterback
By Sam Robb O’Hagan
When second-year Detroit Lions’ offensive tackle Penei Sewell lined up as a jumbo tight end on a 3rd-and-7 deep in the fourth quarter of his team’s win over the 10-3 Minnesota Vikings, you couldn’t miss him.
There he was — all 6-foot-5, 335 pounds of him — charging across the formation before the snap, ready to deliver a devastating block in front of a Jamaal Williams run.
Or so you thought. The Vikings defense, having being terrorized by the rampant Lions offense all day, certainly did. A couple seconds later, Sewell, one of the NFL’s best young offensive lineman, was airborne — gleefully diving across the sticks after catching a pass in the flat to seal the win and sign off on the statement that this young Lions team has spent the last month writing:
They are here.
Having won a combined 11 games in the last three seasons, the Lions have now won five of their last six, are still very much in contention for a playoff spot 14 weeks into the season. Their offense is top-five in both total yards and scoring.
Led by the excellent work from head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, Detroit is one of Football Outsiders’ 10 best teams by their DVOA metric, which measures a team’s efficiency by comparing success on every play to a league average based on situation and opponent.
It is a remarkable turnaround for a team who, this time last season, had won just one game after a 38-10 drubbing in Denver and were free-falling towards the second overall pick in the draft.
The most exciting part about all of this, all of the belief that is finally running through a perennially lifeless franchise, is that the Lions didn’t buy their way here. Their sudden revival isn’t a product of a “blank check” style of roster building, where the only thing stopping the reckless spending spree is just how far the GM and owner are willing to go.
The 2022 Lions are not the 2018 Chicago Bears, or the 2017 Los Angeles Rams or the 2016 New York Giants, who shot up the standings by pulling money out of the future and spending it on proven veterans approaching the wrong side of 30 that would carry them to the playoffs right away. The common denominator in the eventual fate of those three teams — you might remember — was their success ending just as quick as it started.
Holmes, having watched those teams try to buy themselves playoff success before tumbling back into mediocrity, immediately started selling. Out went the veteran stalwarts of failed Detroit teams of the past, and in came promising — and cheap — draft picks to build the foundation for the future. In Week 1 of the 2022 season, Detroit fielded the third-youngest roster in the league, with an average of 25 years, 9 months and 5 days.
Less than a month after Holmes was hired as GM, long-time starting quarterback and franchise icon Matthew Stafford was gone, and Jared Goff was in; a cheaper, younger passer brought in to lead the new-look Lions through their first steps in the pros. Goff wasn’t supposed to win Super Bowls, but to keep the train moving as Campbell — hired just days before the trade — developed the young players that Holmes was bringing in.
Along with Goff, critically, was the Rams’ next two first round picks.
The first of which, the 32nd overall pick in last year’s draft that was used to trade up for wide receiver Jameson Williams, was used to strengthen the young foundation that Campbell and his staff now have lighting up the league in 2022. Williams’ first professional catch off a torn ACL that led him to miss the first 12 weeks of his rookie season? An electric 41-yard touchdown behind a bewildered Vikings’ defense.
But the second of those two first-round picks, the Rams’ in the upcoming 2023 draft, is the defining asset in the Lions’ arsenal. It will be Holmes’ first opportunity — and probably his best — to launch his excellent young core into new heights.
The Lions are a good team in 2022, and that was all that ever mattered. But eventually, the Lions are going to have to become a great team, and that’s going to mean finding an elite quarterback.
Goff’s service to the Lions has been invaluable — just listen to the way Holmes and Campbell talk about him — but his role has always been as a bridge. He’s always been the man in the middle, brought in as Stafford’s immediate replacement to be good enough to keep the wheels from falling off before the long-term answer under center became available. Goff has been good enough and then some, the essential stabilizing force whose consistent play has allowed the Lions’ young offensive pieces to develop into the elite unit they have become.
But as the Rams limp into the cellar of the NFC following last season’s triumph, and their first-round pick shoots up to the top of the draft, that long-term answer for Detroit is now in sight.
The Lions have a very real chance of picking in the top-five, well within range for at least one of the draft’s three first-round quarterbacks: Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Kentucky’s Will Levis are all within reach as potentially the star quarterback to finish Detroit’s puzzle.
Young has special instincts and the jaw-dropping playmaking skills to keep up with a modern and still-evolving NFL that prioritizes out-of-structure ability like never before.
Stroud has poise, refined accuracy and an excellent understanding of how to play the position that could make him a perfect fit in an already highly capable Lions’ offense.
Levis has all the tools — the size, the arm, the athleticism — to become a draft darling for his flashes to some of the NFL’s most dominant quarterbacks.
None are perfect, but all three have something to be clearly built around, some X-Factor trait that with the right blend of coaching and supporting structure can be turned into a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback.
And that is why this 2022 season for the Lions was so important. The Lions knew they needed a quarterback before the season; they know they’re going to need one after, no matter how many wins are sprinkled in the middle. What they didn’t know is whether or not they have that blend of coaching and supporting structure to adequately accommodate and develop him.
They certainly thought they did — their preseason message was heard loud and clear on HBO’s Hard Knocks — but they didn’t yet have proof in a result-driven league.
14 weeks later, the Lions have proved they’re here. They’ve proved the hype from a charismatic and belief-filled training camp performance for Hard Knocks was warranted. Much like Sewell, second-year wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has proven he’s one of the league’s best at his position, so to third-year cornerback Jeff Okudah. Rookie edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, drafted with that 2022 second overall pick, has looked the part.
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has loudly earned his flowers. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has recovered a defense that started the season at the bottom of most conventional performance metrics into a solid, promising young unit.
Campbell, with every social media-worthy press conference tirade, every kneecap bitten, has proved his belief can be the glue that holds it all together.
Holmes, through clever roster construction, timely contract extensions and a knack for discovering late-round gems like St. Brown, has proven he can bring the talent into the building that makes it all possible.
As they boast one of the NFL’s best offenses, a defense teeming with exciting young pieces, and a supposed-upset win over the 10-win Vikings that — by Vegas’ odds — was never actually an upset, the Lions have proven what they needed to prove. The juice that needed to come out of this season has been squeezed.
So the time is now, 65 years after their last NFL championship appearance, an NFL merger and just one playoff win later, for the Lions to take a swing. Never mind Young’s small frame, Stroud’s lack of playmaking ability or Levis’ lack of polish. All three have it, a superstar trait to build around, that Goff never will.
As for Holmes and Campbell, they finally have the proof. The high-flying offense, the stingy and improving defense and the wins to safely take that swing at a young quarterback while moving on from a perfectly solid passer.
Since his hiring almost two years ago, Holmes has done everything right. Now, no matter how much he will want to talk himself out of it, he must move past his love for Goff, and let himself fall in love with one of the potentially elite quarterbacks that are now in his scope.
For so long, the Lions were a bad team with an excellent quarterback. When this new regime was hired, they traded away that excellent quarterback to turn that bad team into a good one.
The Lions can finally say they have a good football team. Now the quarterback, the final push, is needed.