Befitting the worst scoring defense in franchise history, the Detroit Lions defense in 2020 did not fare well in Pro Football focus grading. In fact, the Lions finished dead last in the entire NFL in three very critical components: overall, tackling and coverage.
PFF season grades reflect what Lions fans saw on an almost weekly basis. The “multiple” defensive scheme designed by Matt Patricia and as executed by the players he and Bob Quinn brought in specifically to run it failed spectacularly.
The Lions could not tackle. They earned the lowest PFF tackling grade at just 32.3. It was the worst team tacking grade since the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017. Detroit missed 144 tackles in PFF’s tracking. Among the Lions with terrible tackling grades:
- Justin Coleman, 28.0
- Romeo Okwara, 28.7
- Amani Oruwariye, 29.2
Not being able to tackle is even worse when the team also can’t cover. Yet Detroit’s coverage was even worse than the tackling. The Lions earned a putrid 28.8 season grade in coverage, dead last with emphasis; Jacksonville, which won just one game, was next-worse with a 33.0 mark. Only Washington in 2014 graded worse in the last decade than these Lions, who wound up playing the highest percentage of man coverage in the league.
Some choice Lions who graded out terribly in coverage:
- Jeff Okudah, 30.1
- Reggie Ragland and Jahlani Tavai, 35.7
- Desmond Trufant, 36.7
Those terrible grades helped weigh down Detroit’s overall score to 42.9, the lowest. The Houston Texans, who ran the same basic defensive scheme, were next-worst at 46.6. Houston’s abysmal run defense spared the Lions from also having the worst in that metric, too.
