For a second straight offseason, a singular question poisoned the well of any watering cooler talk about the Detroit Lions: “When will they give Aidan Hutchinson some help?”
First it was Maxx Crosby, and
then it was Myles Garrett. Shortly thereafter, it was Trey Hendrickson—guessing we’ll double back on this after we see what the Cincinnati Bengals look like a month from now. Even all that, it could have still been T.J. Watt or Micah Parsons… Matthew Judon visited? Kash Doll means a Za’Darius Smith reunion is happening any minute now…
But while fans scrolled through every rumor and reach, the real answer, much like your loose change or TV remote, came from an unexpected source.
Despite being drafted in the 2017 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints—who put together what is arguably one of the single greatest draft hauls in the history of drafts—Al-Quadin Muhammad is in just his eighth season after not playing an NFL snap during the 2023 season.
And on Monday night, Al-Quadin Muhammad reminded everyone that “help” doesn’t always arrive via splashy trades or big names. In front of the entire football-watching world, right there on ESPN’s latest installment of “Monday Night Football,” Muhammad made the most of his opportunity: six pressures, 2.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, and three QB hits stuffed the stat sheet.
“You know what, I want to thank every player, every coach, everybody that’s in this organization,” Muhammad started his post-game speech upon earning a game ball from Dan Campbell. “Because about a year ago, I was home, I was on the couch. So when you get an opportunity, you make sure you take advantage of it.”
It wasn’t just Muhammad who flipped the script. The defense as a whole delivered a statement performance. We’ll see if Dave from Roseville can peel himself off the couch in time to punch the clock after staying up late to catch the same Lions’ defense he had seen “fail this team for the past two years” hold the best rushing offense from a season ago (18.9% in offensive rushing DVOA) to 19 carries and 85 yards. Baltimore gained over half those yards (48) on four carries on the offense’s first drive.
That’s right, after Detroit took that first round on the chin, they held the Ravens to 37 rushing yards on 15 carries (2.4 yards per carry) across their final nine (9) drives of the game. They sacked Lamar Jackson seven (7) times, backing up the Ravens’ offense 55 yards. They were drive killers. Zach Cunningham stuffed Henry on third-and-goal, and then Jack Campbell forced a strip-sack to keep the Lions up 14-7 in the first half.
“I want to also thank the guys in my room for helping me out this week. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did,” Muhammad acknowledged.
And right alongside Muhammad, Hutchinson had his own say in silencing lingering questions. After a quieter first half on Monday evening, he punched a football free from the clutches of Derrick Henry for a turnover and recorded a sack on back-to-back defensive snaps in the fourth quarter. Prior to that sack, the Ravens were still only down 31-24 with 6:35 left in the game, but two impact plays from Hutchinson made a difference. Muhammad corralling a scrambling Jackson on third-and-12 to force a punt made a difference. And yet, offseason discussions always came back to the toothless pass rush that was hapless and hobbled by the end of last season.
“The thing about the old days, they the old days.”
Skeptics worried about more than the pass rush. Losing both coordinators felt like a potential unraveling point after Week 1. If you wanted to be skeptical about the Lions prior to this season because you were worried about them losing both of their coordinators, you might find your skepticism waning. It’s totally normal after stacking two impressive wins and see the coordinators make some incredible adjustments in the span of just a couple of weeks. Maybe none more so than defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, after his first-half plan in Week 1 included dropping his most talented pass rushers into coverage on more than a couple occasions. Since then, Sheppard has settled into his new role with more talent than Aaron Glenn could have shaken a stick at back in January.
Think about how far this team a year ago went without Hutchinson, Barnes, and Anzalone for a good chunk of last season. They beat the Minnesota Vikings, 31-9, without most of those guys, plus Alim McNeill and Carlton Davis sidelined, leading to them becoming “so goddamn hateable” according to a Seattle Seahawks fan. Holmes was criticized to no end for putting all his chips on Marcus Davenport, but in reality, he’s heavily invested in the defense the past two years: just not particularly at the one position that nearly everyone has decided would make all the difference in Detroit’s chances at a Super Bowl.
So how close will the San Francisco 49ers be now that Nick Bosa is sidelined for the season? Losing all those draft picks after trading up for Trey Lance or spending a second, third, fourth, and fifth round pick on Christian McCaffrey couldn’t possibly be coming back to bite them. Anyway, they’ve got their Super Bowl cha… oh, right, ran into the Kansas City Chiefs twice.
In the meantime, the Lions will eventually add players like Josh Paschal and Alim McNeill back to the roster later in the season. They’ll get Malcolm Rodriguez back, too, and it sounds like Davenport’s injury isn’t going to keep him on the shelf for too long. And in the meantime, Holmes can be patient and watch the ball play out of the field. People have mistaken his lack of heavy investment at the edge position as negligence. If the Lions need to make a move to improve a position of need, Holmes proved he was willing to do that at last year’s deadline. The Nov. 4 trade deadline is still six weeks away, and there will be nine weeks of football to help make GM’s vision of their respective teams a little clearer.
So sure, in the meantime, if you’d like to distract yourself from a team that’s absolutely humming on offense to the tune of 224 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 38 carries (5.9 YPC), or you’d like to bury your head in the sand that the Lions generated 31 pressures on 34 dropbacks by Lamar Jackson, be my guest.
But maybe the real takeaway is this: the question that haunted the offseason—whether or not Hutchinson would get the help he needed—had an answer on Monday night. It just didn’t look like the one fans were refreshing their feeds for during the summer months.
