Detroit Lions fans demand answers after the team fell to 2-2 on Sunday night. The Lions defense looked terrible again against the Carolina Panthers and the office remains disjointed and inconsistent.
This week, coach Dan Campbell tried to provide some answers in a pair of media sessions. On Monday, he noted that while the defense has a lot of issues—and they are digging to find solutions, inculding threatening more personnel changes—the offense needs to do a better job helping them out. Then, on Tuesday,
a passionate Campbell offered more details about their search for answers, although he made sure he wasn’t going to give up everything to the public.
We here at Pride of Detroit, are not shackled by the same restrictions. We can assess the Lions’ issues on both sides of the ball, and offer our solutions publicly. There is no danger in us giving away gameplans, nor do we have to worry about throwing specific players, coaches, or front office members under the bus. We can speak freely, where Campbell has to tread lightly.
At the top of every month, we offer a MEGA mailbag just for our Pride of Detroit Direct subscribers. Our promise each month is that if you submit a question at the top of the month, we will answer it. As a result, these episode are extremely long-lasting. This month, we answered over 60 questions, stretching our podcast to over 4.5 hours long.
Here are the kind of very thoughtful questions we answered for October’s edition of the Midweek Mailbag:
- If the whole idea behind press man is to disrupt timing and make the quarterback hold the ball longer, shouldn’t it pair really well with Detroit’s strong pass rush?
- The Lions’ linebackers seem to be struggling in pass coverage despite being a talented and expensive group. Do you think that’s because they’re built more for stopping the run, or is it a scheme or speed issue?
- If you had to divide the blame for the defense between personnel, scheme/play-calling, and player development/execution, how would you split it?
- Why is Nick Whiteside not getting a chance in all this shuffling?
- Would someone like Donte Jackson for the Chargers be a good trade candidate to look at?
- Was Kelvin Sheppard simply promoted too quickly?
- Do you think Dan Campbell’s loyalty to Sheppard is landing him in the hot seat job-wise?
- Could you see the Lions potentially letting go of defensive backs caoch Deshea Townsend instead, similar to Aubrey Pleasant in 2022?
- What are your thoughts on the offense? It feels much improved, but still not quite as explosive as it was under Ben Johnson.
- Is there any chance that once we get into some division games, there’s more urgency and familiarity with scheme/ personnel?
- Could the Detroit Lions realistically trade Sam LaPorta? And could they net a defensive starter for him?
- Should the Lions adopt a trade-all strategy to restart and reload?
- Could the 2022 Lions’ midseason turnaround be replicated in 2026?
- How was Detroit’s offense not torching this defense in training camp?
- What makes good NFL centers so hard to find?
That is quite literally just about 25 percent of the questions we got this week.
If you want access to this month’s episode—plus weekly post-game videos, First Byte podcasts with a Lions opponent writer, and columns from Ty Schlater—you can sign up right here.
