Warning: What you are about to see is deeply disturbing evidence of just how bad the Detroit Lions pass rush has been lately. It’s a graphic representation of ineptitude that may cause despondent and triggering behavior for some Lions fans.
The Lions’ pass rush, or lack thereof, has been a major issue for several years now. All Lions fans know that. Heck, the players and the team itself acknowledge it. Even so, seeing them atop the graph of the team with the most games since 2019 with less than three sacks from the defense is still disturbing.
No team has more games where the defense failed to record at least three sacks than Detroit. The Lions failed that litmus test in 26 of the 49 regular season games since the start of the 2019 campaign, per NFL Inside Edge.
The Lions posted just five of those 26 last season. Detroit managed 30 sacks in 17 games a year ago, the third-fewest in the league. While that was an improvement over the 24 sacks in the 2020 season, it’s still not nearly enough.
It helps explain why the Lions used the No. 2 overall pick on Aidan Hutchinson and a second-rounder on Josh Paschal, as well as bringing back the one effective pass rusher from last year in Charles Harris. The goal should be for Detroit to notch at least three sacks in 12 of the 17 games to get off ugly graphics like this next offseason.
