Now that every team has two games in the books, there’s something of a baseline established for who teams are and what their identity might be. For the Detroit Lions, one of the hallmarks of the first two weeks is bad pass coverage.
According to Pro Football Focus grading of every player on every snap, the Lions have recorded the worst cumulative pass coverage grade of all 32 NFL teams. Detroit has earned a score of just 40.1, well below the No. 31 team on the list, the Indianapolis Colts (43.5).
Interestingly, the linebackers are more responsible for the low grade than the cornerbacks, though that doesn’t absolve the DBs from their poor grades either. Amani Oruwariye has the second-lowest mark of any CB who has played at least 50% of his team’s snaps with a 32.1. The next two worst Lions are LBs Alex Anzalone (33.4) and Jamie Collins (37.4).
One player who stands out positively: AJ Parker. The undrafted rookie CB has a score of 71.1, second-best on the team behind OLB Trey Flowers, who has an elite score of 92.3 on his 11 coverage reps through two weeks.
The more standard NFL statistics reinforce the terrible PFF grade. Detroit has surrendered a QB Rating of 147.8 to the 49ers and Packers. That figure is handily the worst in the NFL, well below the Colts at 132.0.
Believe it or not, the score of 40.1 represents a significant improvement over the 2020 season. The Lions finished dead last with a PFF coverage score of just 28.7 for the entire 2020 campaign.
