The Detroit Lions are coming off a fantastic season that saw them nearly make the Super Bowl, losing a nailbiter to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship. Better years are clearly ahead for this team and they’ve added some pieces already in free agency.
When it comes to their secondary, they traded for cornerback Carlton Davis and signed Amik Robertson. However, the Lions haven’t brought in another safety since before the 2023 campaign and that’s an area head coach Dan Campbell is hoping to strengthen before the 2024 season begins, as he revealed at league meetings last week.
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press:
“We’re still going to look for safety help,” Campbell said. “That’s not over, either. We know we need some, there again, to bring in some competition in that room. So our eyes are there.”
There is a bit of uncertainty at the safety position right now. Kerby Joseph and Ifeatu Melifonwu are the likely starters, but Joseph had off-season surgery. Melifonwu has barely stayed healthy during his NFL career and will be playing in the final year of his rookie deal.
Lions have options
Since CJ Gardner-Johnson suffered a season-ending pectoral injury, it left the Lions thin at safety. He was a huge piece and the veteran just re-signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, which means his short time in Detroit has come to a close. However, Campbell sees Brian Branch as a possible player who could play safety in 24′ after his impressive campaign at slot cornerback:
“Certainty Branch has got flexibility to be able to play the safety position, we believe, here in time,” Campbell said. “And we already feel very confident about the nickel. He’ll only get better and better. And I think really — it’s really and we do believe he’ll be able to get there, it’s how fast do you get him there? Cause what you don’t want to do is, he can play nickel and safety, but it takes away from his nickel play. How good he is as a nickel or how good he can become? And so it’s finding that fine balance between the two.”
After the Gardner-Johnson injury, Branch also played safety for a short period but he thrived most as slot:
“We tried to cross over some and we felt like it took away from — we split his focus too soon,” Campbell said. “And he’ll get it. It just, man, let’s spoon-feed it instead of just you try to throw him out there and so let him continue to grow at the nickel position and then he’ll be able to tell us where we can go with him.”
The Lions’ defense is not elite by any means and could absolutely be improved. After all, they allowed 22.1 points per game. And unfortunately, the secondary was a major weak spot.
Notable free agent safeties on the open market include Quandre Diggs, Marcus Maye, and Justin Simmons. The Lions could also strengthen their secondary through the draft by bringing in a rookie. This current draft class appears to be pretty deep when it comes to cornerbacks and safeties, which is good news for Detroit.
More must-reads: