After surprisingly resting the majority of their frontline players a week earlier, it sounds as though the Lions are primed to treat their upcoming game in Pittsburgh as a dress rehearsal for the regular season.
That's good news for the Steelers.
Dan Campbell’s team came to Pittsburgh last year and fought the Steelers to a tie, but Detroit still won only three games in 2021. Only the Falcons and Giants finished the season with a worse point differential in the NFC. But Campbell had his rookies play by far the most snaps of any rookie class, and he just brought in an excellent rookie class to build around.
This is a team trending in the right direction, one that could provide a very stiff test for the Steelers, who also are expected to play their top guys deep into the first half.
The Detroit offense, in particular, should tell a lot about where the Steelers are on the defensive side.
The Lions ran the ball the second-highest percentage of the time in the first half of games last year. They also had six or more offensive linemen on the field the second-highest percentage of the time. Their identity as a power offense was clear, but the Lions then signed DJ Chark in free agency and traded up in the first round for another wide receiver, Jameson Williams, to enhance their passing game.
Williams is recovering from injury and won’t make his professional debut until midseason, but Chark teams with DeAndre Swift, Jamaal Williams, TJ Hockenson and Amon-Ra St. Brown to give Jared Goff a high-quality group of young weapons.
Swift is one of the NFL’s best receiving backs and is the lightning to Williams’ thunder in Detroit’s run game. Keep an eye on how Myles Jack, and especially Devin Bush, match up to Swift in the passing game.
Hockenson was the eighth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft and has outstanding traits for the tight end position. He should give Terrell Edmunds all he can handle in coverage, and it will be interesting to see if the Steelers isolate Minkah Fitzpatrick on Hockenson at times.
Chark is a pure speed option with good height who works almost entirely outside the numbers. Keep an eye on whether Chark is able to run by the Steelers' cornerbacks on deep routes such as gos and posts.
St. Brown finished his rookie season as hot as any wide receiver in football, averaging 8.5 receptions and 93.3 yards per game during that six-game stretch. St. Brown also caught five touchdowns in those six games, as well as carrying the ball seven times. St. Brown is the prototypical slot receiver who should often draw coverage from Cameron Sutton or Arthur Maulet. The Steelers' slot corners will have a difficult time matching up with St. Brown’s route running ability and it will be of paramount importance to get him on the ground quickly after the catch.
You might not think, so considering the Lions' record last year, but this is a group of skill position players who can attack a defense in a wide variety of ways.
But it's the Lions' offensive line that will really be the barometer of where the Steelers' defensive front is. The Lions have put a lot of resources into their offensive line and have one of the best front fives in all of football. From left to right, the Lions' starting offensive line is as follows: Tyler Decker, Jonah Jackson, Frank Ragnow, Halapouilvaati Vaitai and Penei Sewell. The Lions used first-round picks on Decker, Ragnow, and Sewell and are very happy with those three draft decisions.
Vaitai is a huge human being who is making big money after the Lions signed him away from the Eagles. Jackson, a third-round pick in 2020, is one of the most obvious breakout candidates in the NFL at the guard position.
Now, that's how you build an offensive line --an approach the Steelers might want to examine next offseason, by the way.
This unit will give the Steelers' defensive front all they can handle in protection, but especially paving the way for their running game. Remember, the Lions rushed for 229 yards and averaged 5.9 yards per carry back in Week 10 last year in Pittsburgh. The Steelers' defensive front needs to bring their A-game early, or the Lions will embarrass them once again in the trenches.
As for the Detroit defense, the Ravens were the NFL's only team to allow more yards per play in 2021, and the Jets were the only one to give up more points. The Falcons and Eagles were the only defenses that finished the season with fewer sacks than the Lions. The Lions then used three of their first four draft picks on defense, including the second overall player selected, Aidan Hutchinson.
This side of the ball is very much a work in progress and won’t present nearly the same challenges as they do when they possess the football. However, the Steelers' offensive line isn’t in any position to take any opponent for granted right now, and this upcoming opponent does have some young defensive linemen who are quickly ascending.
Hutchinson is the obvious name here, and he was terrific in his first preseason game. The Lions will align him on the edge as well as on the interior. His length, technique, get-off and hustle give him the advantage over any single member of the Steelers' offensive line, which, collectively, should once again play deep into this game.
The Lions also have Charles Harris, a former first-round pick who resurrected his career in Detroit last year, as well as the Okwara brothers, Julian and Romeo, who is currently on the PUP list. But the combination of Julian Okwara and Harris is a very solid complement on the edge to Hutchinson.
The Lions also drafted two big men, Levi Onwuzurike and Alim McNeal, in the second and third round, respectively, last year after taking Sewell in the first frame. Those two along with Michael Brockers give the Lions a very stout interior with Onwuzurike and McNeal primed to take big steps forward in 2022.
The Lions earned the second overall pick by winning just three games last year, but don’t think for one second that they are an easy matchup for the Steelers to finish up the preseason. In fact, the Lions, with their blend of youth and tenacity, could be exactly what the doctor ordered to really get a solid evaluation of where the Steelers are heading into the games that count.
