It will be a little strange not seeing No. 99 anchoring the middle of the Rams’ defensive front. The future Hall of Famer retired this offseason after a stellar career. That’s obviously a big loss for the Rams’ defense, but they still feel really good about some of the young talent they’ve amassed upfront, including Kobie Turner, who had nine sacks last season along the interior, and the addition of rookies Jared Verse and Braden Fiske.
“I expect them to be better than they were last year,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said this week. “The influx of youth that they got this year, those were all players that we really liked too in the draft and so I think they’re going to be a better team.”
Campbell thinks the Lions are a better team too, which should make this a heck of a matchup tonight.
If there was an MVP award given out for training camp performance, third-year defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson would have won for the Lions hands-down. He was a beast all throughout camp.
“Hutch has had a tremendous offseason,” Glenn said this week. “He had a tremendous training camp, and now he’s at that point that he needs to set his sights at being, if not being the best player, defensively, in this league, to one of the best players – which he is, but now it’s time to look at himself as the best player.”
With a more talented secondary behind him and some new running mates alongside him upfront (most notably DJ Reader and Marcus Davenport), things are in place for Hutchinson to have a monster season. His 101 total pressures last season trailed only Micah Parsons (103), but his 11.5 sacks were tied for 12th most. Increasing his sack numbers could have a big impact on the defense. Last season across the league, offenses scored (TD or FG) when taking a sack on the drive only 22.9 percent of the time. They scored a touchdown when taking a sack on the drive just 7.6 percent of the time.
